Tucked into a forested valley in the Catskills is Menla Mountain Retreat, a home away from home for many traveling seasonal workers. It’s where I spent the summer of 2019, as a community member and cook in the health-conscious kitchen.
Menla is a Buddhist center (though the staff are not usually Buddhist) and a project of Tibet House, meant to preserve Tibetan culture from extinction by Chinese imperialism.
Menla is the second retreat center where I’ve lived. Kalani (now undergoing transformation) was the first. You may also have heard of Omega, Esalen, Pacha Mama, Earthdance, Odiyan, or others.
What is it like to step out of the “real world” and into the protective bubble of a spiritual retreat? It’s like a big sigh. You can float your worries away and live in the here and now, a place where you’re safe and part of a team, where your basic needs are met without stress.
Menla is quiet- *very* quiet- with a more individualistic feel than the highly community-oriented Kalani. It is a nice place to make small groups of friends and have plenty of one-on-one conversations and hikes through the woods and along the stream.
Here is what you can expect if you’re considering joining for the summer season (or longer- they do operate year round):
Housing
Welcoming, comfortable, and spacious. There are cabins of various sizes and layouts sprinkled throughout the campus. You’ll have your own bedroom (some of them with surprising lofts and nooks and crannies) and will have housemates to share a kitchen, bathroom, and living room.
The large, comfortable “Phoenix” house I shared with two other women had a high ceilings, a working wood stove, and velvet couch. It also came with the funniest, most social house cat I’ve ever met, Mavin. She used to wake me in the morning by jumping onto my narrow windowsill from the outside and squishing herself between the glass and the screen. She’s since been eaten by the wildlife.
The kitchen and baths are nice- it’s all nice- but it’s up to you and your roommates to keep it clean. Phoenix was neat and tidy; the nearby male housing, not so much. Not all houses are separated by gender, either. We’re all adults here.
Managers may get their own cabins.
Wifi is A+.
The cost of rent was $13 per day worked, significantly under “market value”, allowing me to save most of what I earned. However, I started talking to other employees about this, and almost none of them were able to save money at all. I think it depends heavily on whether you own a car (I didn’t) and how much you drink (my drinks per week is zero). Of course expenses like student loans and monthly payments vary, too.
Food
Excellent, healthy, delicious.
I worked in the kitchen and so had a behind-the-scenes perspective.
The meals are buffet-style, healthy and fresh, always tasty, and usually vegaterian. Meals are catered to the needs of the visiting retreat groups and the menu changes literally on a daily basis. You never know what you’re going to get.
Sample Menu:
Breakfast:
Poached Eggs “Chilaquiles”
Tomatillo Salsa Verde
Polenta and Quinoa Grits
Banana Hemp Smooth
All the delicious fixings, including butter and peanut butter, jelly, ketchup, bread for toasting, and more.
Lunch:
Mediterranean Mezze Spread
Quinoa Tabouli
Roasted Eggplant Baba Ganoush
Sprouted Chickpea Hummus
Toasted Pita Wedges and Fresh Vegetables
Bulgarian Feta Cheese
Salad Bar
Dinner:
Sprouted Mung Bean and Green Lentil Dal
Ginger Basmati Rice
Garlic Naan
Curry-roasted Cauliflower with Chilis
Menla Organic Salad Bar
Cinnamon and Cardamom Kir
Salad Bar
I loved the salad bar. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Staff could take one free meal per shift. Otherwise, the staff price for breakfast was $3, lunch and dinner were $5, even with heaping second helpings. There was also a well-stocked staff leftover fridge which I raided regularly, taking home full meals to reheat. (I’m told this fridge was empty for months before I arrived, though).
Some people (especially voracious carnivores and junk food addicts) prefer to buy their own food and cook it at home.
Campus & Facilities
Staff have free access to the lovely grounds and facilities.
The campus is 325 acres in a wooded valley. There are multiple hiking trails on property, including easy nature walks along the stream (my favorite is Waterfall Medicine) and a more challenging climb to an overlook via Metta trail.
I sometimes used the gorgeous, sunny meditation sanctuary with its vaulted blue ceiling and floor-to-ceiling windows. There’s a swimming pool, open lawns for lounging, outdoor and indoor spaces for ceremonies and spiritual reflection. Nowhere is very loud except on rare occasions.
The colorful gardens with vegetables, berries, herbs, and flowers provide the kitchen with produce and ingredients for homemade teas. Among the giant poppies is a great place to have your own herbaly-aided Alice in Wonderland experience.
I frequented the spacious, well-equipped gym and was almost always the only person in it.
Employees used the staff dining room during meals and could hang out or get work done in the main dining room during off hours. Basically, staff could use most facilities when they weren’t reserved for guests. It was a trusting, honor-system type environment. Permission wasn’t really required as long as you cleaned up after yourself.
Across the campus at any moment you might meet wild turkeys, deer, or black bears, along with plenty of smaller critters.
There are many perfectly spaced trees to hang a hammock and places to dip your toes in the stream, sometimes at the same time.
Staff Events & Recreation at Menla
In addition to hiking & using the facilities, staff were often welcome to attend some of the guest retreat events for free. It would depend on the paying hosts, but many welcomed the curiosity and eagerness to learn and participate.
Retreat groups might spend a week on campus practicing yoga or massage, attending sound healing cermeonies or meditations, taking communication or detoxing courses, or any number of things in the spiritual growth realm.
I once was asked to volunteer to be the “model” for a one-on-one massage class, which meant I was treated to a free three-hour long massage from two people. What a rough day.
My biggest hope for Menla in the future is that they implement more staff-wide bonding events. That was something that was really missing from the experience. I myself hosted a black light dance party on the summer solstice, but there was little else to draw most of the staff into a room at the same time.
I think it would be especially helpful to have staff meals. All together, sitting around one or two tables. The current system is set up in a way that makes you feel more like Oliver begging for more at the orphanage than a valued member of a hardworking team.
I did enjoy the deep dark blackness and penetrating heat of a staff sweat lodge ceremony by the steam. It was a nice start to the season and fairly well-attended by staff and volunteers, but I would have liked to see more thought put into making us feel like a family throughout the season.
Around the area there’s plenty of hiking and charming towns. If you’re into Buddhism, there is an array of residential monastaries and group meditations to choose from. It’s tough to do much off of campus without a car, but you can reserve the staff van for short trips if you need to.
The closest town is Phoenicia, which has a few notable foodie spots: the delicious and classy Phoeneica Diner and Brio’s, which is The Best Pizza I’ve Ever Eaten. I am from Long Island, New York, and if you’ve met a New Yorker, you know that this is the greatest honor that can be bestowed upon a pizzeria.
Without a car, it’s extremely difficult to make friends who are not also staff members.
Jobs
The kitchen crew was like a family. A fun, kind, goofy, loving family. There are few jobs I prefer to working in a retreat center kitchen, turning on music, and singing and joking the day away.
Kitchen staff was older and calmer (for the most part) than other departments. Housekeeping is generally youngest and most immature (no, not all of them). This is true for most seasonal companies with live-in staff.
These two departments made up the bulk of the work, though it’s possible some other jobs may be available at any given time. Pay isn’t great, but nobody is there for the money.
You may also volunteer and forgo pay for a work-exchange arrangement. Internationals are welcome too, as was my friend Osama from Jordan. He completed a certain number of work hours per week in exchange for free meals and housing.
Management
This is where things become contentious with incredible speed. Some managers are great. There are multiple managers here who I say “I love you,” to, no sarcasm intended. There’s some I’ve developed best-friendships with, who I call on the phone and share my deepest thoughts. There are some I send letters to when I think of them throughout the year. Menla does attract some beautiful people.
However, some of the people who get “stuck” at Menla seem to give up on themselves and their own visions, to become curmudgeons or pushovers or downright rude, if they were ever any other way.
And *one* person in particular throws anchors from the moving vessel. This person not only keeps Menla from being a truly beautiful place for healing, love, and community, but actively works against this higher goal by withholding support, ignoring good advice, and being too afraid in their own skin. Ask the staff to name the rusted Lynchpin, and you’ll have twenty fingers pointed in the same direction.
How Does it Feel?
For a better feel of life here, watch my video of my time as a live-in staff member at Menla:
Do I recommend working at Menla Mountain Retreat?
It depends. I had a fun, memorable time and made close friends. It’s a relaxing place to live, where nobody is too worried about rules and appearances, and we all sort of leave the real world behind for a while. However, it’s a place of transition. You will spend a lot of time alone with your thoughts, which can either amplify your personal growth or cause it to screech to a halt. Not everyone benefits from that sort of intensely introspective energy.
