Sonia Marcus
Toulouse, FR
Asheville, NC
About Me
Sonia Marcus is a teacher with Deep Ecology Meditation who splits her time between the Pyrenees region of France and Spain and Western North Carolina. She leads both day-long and multi-day wilderness programs designed to allow participants to explore their relationship with the not-just-human world as something more than just an aesthetic backdrop or convenient metaphor. She believes that experiences in nature, paired with contemplative exercises, can help to reveal important dynamics and patterns within the natural systems themselves, deepening our appreciation of their “imperfect perfection”, thereby making us more aware of our own. Over time, Sonia has come to realize that her two great unending loves — for the forest and for the Dharma — are, in fact, one great unending love, inseparable and interdependent. Sonia’s programs tend to move through the landscape, promote enjoyment of nature in all seasons and all conditions, and expose participants to a wide variety of meditation practices. She often integrates her knowledge of local ecosystems into her teaching and encourages participants to do the same through group sharing activities. In her time off from meditation, Sonia has worked as the director of sustainability at the University of North Carolina Asheville and Ohio University, as a member of several contemplative pedagogy learning communities. Since 2018, she has also served on the board member of Southern Dharma Retreat Center near Hot Springs NC. Sonia is a certified Wilderness First Responder.