Envisioned as a “monastery for the 21st Century,” the Garrison Institute is a safe, sacred (and secular) space for everyone from every walk of life to discover and practice the transformative power of contemplation. In fact, “contemplation” comes from the Latin contemplio, which means to survey the land for a temple site or sacred space.

The Setting

The Institute offers a contemplative setting on the Hudson River and a hospitable, restful environment for guests, with comfortable accommodations and tranquil, park-like grounds with gardens, fields and forest.

Located in Garrison, New York in a former Capuchin monastery overlooking the Hudson River, the Garrison Institute is situated on the 95-acre Glenclyffe property, formerly the estate of Hamilton Fish, Governor of New York and later Secretary of State under President Grant. The property is connected to the Hudson River trail system and the Appalachian Trail.

Our Facilities

The Garrison Institute main building has 77,000 square feet of meeting and accommodation space, including an inspiring, non-denominational meditation hall that seats 300 people, several conference and break-out rooms, a wood-paneled dining hall that seats 175, a library, a theater, high speed internet, and state-of-the-art audio and visual resources.

We use geothermal heating and cooling and sustainable management practices. We currently offer accommodations for 165 overnight guests, in single, double, and dorm-style rooms. Accommodations are simple, quiet, and comfortable, with enough space to breathe, rest and meditate.

Our Famous Kitchen

Our food is provided by Fresh Company, a catering service led by Executive Chef Shelley Boris. We serve food that is nourishing, usually vegetarian, and always delicious.

Most of our ingredients come from farms and producers in the Hudson Valley, supporting our commitment to sustainable practices. You can get a good sense of our meal program from Shelley’s cookbook, Fresh Cooking: A Year of Recipes from the Garrison Institute Kitchen.

Being on the Hudson

The Hudson River is a special place, and the Institute has a deep relationship with it.  In different cultures and contexts, it has long been known as something precious and powerful, and what happens here has often been inspiring and consequential in the wider world.

The Hudson River and Hudson Valley have always been a place where rich, disparate elements met and mixed. To the Indigenous Lenape people who formerly inhabited both banks of the lower portion of the River, it was known as Muhheakantuck or the “river that flows both ways.”  It’s actually not a river but a fjord – a biodiverse estuarine system of global ecological importance where saltwater and freshwater riverine ecosystems meet. It’s also the birthplace of the modern environmental movement, and the landscape of the American sublime, made famous in 19th century Hudson River School paintings.

Perched on the east bank of the Hudson across from West Point, the Garrison Institute serves as meeting place at the confluence ancient wisdom and cutting-edge science, contemplative practice and engaged action in the world.

We are guided by a grounded, place-based awareness that our work happens in a context. It can’t be taken out of that context, or divorced from our surroundings or neighbors and how we impact them.  Our mutually dependent relationship with our environment and community, with one another and the Earth, is of paramount importance.  This awareness is embedded in Indigenous and Buddhist wisdom alike and is part of the Institute’s DNA.

Our programming reflects this grounded sense of place, for example by collaborating with local partners on regional programming like the Hudson Valley Bioregional Health and Resilience project of our Pathways to Planetary Health initiative.