The silent retreat helped attendees embrace emotions, focusing on the Buddhist virtues of compassion and equanimity. Daily routines of meditation, silent walks, and vegetarian meals cultivated mindfulness and inner peace during the retreat. The Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California offers an immersive, week-long silent retreat with serene natural surroundings. As I sat cross-legged on a red cushion, tears ran down my cheeks. The afternoon sun poured through large picture windows, warming the right side of my body. The rise and fall of my chest was heavy with the dull ache of a broken heart. “This is what grief feels like,” I thought. My decade-long marriage to a man I deeply love had dissolved, and I had come to the Spirit Rock Meditation Center, in the secluded hills of Marin County, north of San Francisco, to steady myself.…