Slate Branch Retreat Ashram

The Jones Educational Foundation, Inc. operates Slate Branch Retreat Ashram, an ecumenical facility located south of Somerset within easy walking distance of Lake Cumberland. Slate Branch Retreat Ashram is situated on a 90 plus acre farm that once belonged to Dr. Jones’ paternal grandparents, Helen (Cundiff) and Sherman Girdler. Dr. Jones spent many splendid hours here as a child roaming the countryside. Slate Branch House was designed by Mrs. Elva Jones, working with Kentucky builders, as a surprise gift for her daughter. Dr. Jones decided that the cedar house and rolling hills were too special not to share with others.

The programs at Slate Branch Ashram are aimed at awakening and deepening the heart’s natural peace, compassion, and stillness. Meditation is one of the ways through which retreat participants are guided to experience interior stillness, and guidance in learning to work with the senses rather than against them helps to enhance internal peace as well as dynamic energy

Dr. Jones holds a Ph.D. in religion, culture, and literature from Emory University (1983). She serves as Retreat Master ar Slate Branch Ashram. A member of First United Methodist Church of Somerset, Dr. Jones has practiced contemplative prayer since 1978 and worked with Master Teachers in affirmative or scientific mind treatment, meditation, and yoga since 1978. She is a strong friend of Buddhism, and her anchor path is Siddha Yoga.

Guided retreats for individuals at Slate Branch Ashram are available at the modest price of $50 per day and self-directed retreats for $30 per day. Discounts are available for groups. Interested parties should contact Dr. Jones at drjones@jonesfoundation.net Adhishraddha or Sacred Feet Yoga is taught at Slate Branch, and Sacred Feet Retreats are held quarterly.

Dr. Jones teaches that maintaining a vegetarian diet is important to the process of spiritual growth and development. In summer, many of the vegetables used for cooking at Slate Branch are grown in a chemical free garden on the farm. Long-range plans call for making Slate Branch a sustainable community with a line of healthy food products. Those interested in offering organic garden or food service in exchange for lodging and/or spiritual guidance should contact Dr. Jones at drjones@jonesfoundation.net

Dr. Jones has presented at meetings of the American Academy of Religion, the American Culture Association, the Asian American Association, and the Modern Language Association. She has lectured at prestigious universities in Africa, Asia, Canada, and Europe as well as the United States. She has traveled around the world as part of the Faculty of Semester at Sea, and she believes, with British novelist and feminist Virginia Woolf, that her purpose as an educator is to help create "world citizens" who are capable of seeing beyond the polarities of us and them. Dr. Jones has traveled and studied widely in India and welcomes each opportunity to return to the country that has, in her words, "given the world so much wisdom." In December 2011-January 2012, she plans to lead a group of Honors students from the University of Kentucky to India. The group intends to travel from Varanasi to Bhagavan Nithyananda's first ashram in Kanhangad.

Slate Branch Retreat House integrates regional with international art. Books from virtually all cultures and spiritual traditions may be found on the shelves at Slate Branch. Some of the shelves themselves came from Garner School, a two-room school in Pulaski Co. where Mrs. Jones taught early in her career and where Dr. Jones began primer and first grade at age five. The cedar house is all pine inside, and a vaulted ceiling graces the common room in which a stone fireplace and wainscotting invite weary travelers to rest.

Visitors to Slate Branch House have commented on the "interesting" furnishings; family heirlooms combine with chairs from the 1960s to create an eclectic elegance. One visitor from Pennsylvania said she loves Slate Branch, because the house "smells so good." A retired professor from Kentucky called Slate Branch a "laughing house," because the energy here is welcoming. A couple who winters in Florida emailed Dr. Jones to say they miss the silence of the house as well as their teacher.

Dr. Jane Gentry Vance,
Kentucky's Poet Laureate,
Visited Slate Branch .

Retreats for individuals or groups wishing instruction in meditation and writing are available at Slate Branch. Writers may also make solo retreats to Slate Branch for modest donations to The Jones Foundation. Occasionally, The Jones Foundation may elect to offer scholarships to writers and other creative artists, journalists, and scholars who need time and space to launch or complete a work in process. Writers working in interdisdiplinary areas are especially encouraged to apply for residence at Slate Branch.

For more information about Slate Branch Ashram, or to make reservations, please phone Dr. Jones at 606-678-0880 or email her at drjones@jonesfoundation.net

With the exception of hosting Sacred Feet Retreats, Slate Branch Ashram is closed for the winter.