Given Rockaways popularity with young professionals from Manhattan and Brooklyn, one might write off a new meditation center as the latest trendy offering to cater to day-trippers seeking a quickie yoga class between their surf tutorial and cocktails.

But its location is a working-class residential neighborhood apart from the newer food and drink spots. And while many participants do tend to be under 40, they do not seem to be pleasure-seekers coming to for a day at the beach, but rather people seeking spiritual relief from the daily grind of the city.

Retreats are extended, disciplined experiences that range from a weekend to more than 10 days, and are offered year-round. Participants are expected to remain silent throughout no cellphones permitted and eat only during meals, which are provided by the center.

Sometimes people have a hard time putting down their phones, but its rejuvenating, said one attendee, Charity Burns, a college English teacher from Forest Hills, Queens.

The retreats are not completely ascetic. For one, the cooking is done by the Italian-born Ms. Maselli, who said she uses produce grown in the houses expansive yard, as well as products donated by organic companies that support the retreat house. One company donated 2,000 boxes of pasta, which goes nicely with the gardens bounty of tomatoes.

So spaghetti night is pretty much every night, Mr. Suddhaso said. Actually, he added, the offerings are varied, with an emphasis on healthy, ethical food, that is vegetarian and made from organic ingredients.

On a recent day, Ms. Maselli was cooking a huge bowl of mung bean stew, preparing focaccia and roasting yellow peppers for dinner. Several retreatgoers chopped vegetables, fulfilling the daily work assignments expected of each participant.

In the adjacent meditation room, participants waited for lunch while reading or sitting silently. Stan, the resident black cat, lolled in front of a Buddhist altar.

Ms. Maselli, a former fashion magazine editor and writer, moved to New York City about nine years ago and eventually settled in Rockaway. She began taking classes at various locations with Mr. Suddhaso, who grew up in Colorado and began practicing meditation as a teenager and trained in monasteries in California and Canada. He moved to New York City two years ago to lead classes on Buddhist concepts and their practical applicability to everyday life.

The pair formed Buddhist Insights, a group offering meditation classes and retreats throughout the city, and then moved to the large Rockaway house when it came up for rent.

They renovated the house, leaving the first floor as a spacious meditation hall and kitchen, with the two upper floors as sleeping space. The center can sleep 20, and can accommodate 40 for meditation classes.

In the kitchen, Ms. Maselli finished preparing lunch and leaned over the food and said softly, I offer this to the sangha, using the Sanskrit word for community.

Participants lined up to help themselves, with Mr. Suddhaso first. They brought their food into the meditation room and sat cross-legged and silent on small cushions, with Mr. Suddhaso seated in front of the altar.

This food is not for fun or pleasure, but for the health of the body, so we can continue our spiritual practice, Mr. Suddhaso said, urging attendees to maintain mindfulness and contentment while eating and remain fully present with the experience, without either desire or attachment.

He urged them to resist the natural inclination to think forward to the next bite, and to put down their forks between bites.

The desire for that next bite actually prevents us from enjoying the bite we are currently eating, he said, and then rang a bell known as a singing bowl, to formally begin lunch. Everyone began eating in silence, as the ocean breeze wafted in through the fully open windows, as did neighborhood noise.

Attendees were not distracted by cars blasting loud music, and the commercial airliners overhead, ascending from Kennedy International Airport just across Jamaica Bay.

As the participants finished their lunches, the cat walked around inspecting the finished dishes until a laughing Ms. Maselli picked him up.

There is no fee for sessions at the center, which relies on contributions. Donations are not even formally requested of the attendees.

I wouldnt use the term request, Mr. Suddhaso said. We say the opportunity to donate is available.

The policy opens the retreats to people of lesser means, and lets guests practice generosity by donating out of gratitude, instead of obligation, in accordance with Buddhist principles, Mr. Suddhaso said.

Securing a slot for a retreat involves exchanging emails with Ms. Maselli, to ensure that our program is a good fit for the applicant, he said.

There was the participant who balked at the centers obligatory one-hour-a-day of light work and expected her meals to be served to her.

She wanted to be waited on, Ms. Maselli said. She left in the middle of the night.

Mr. Suddhaso said: You dont come here for a four-star hotel if we were a hotel, wed be 1.5 stars.

Ms. Maselli gave him a look.

Except for the food, he quickly added. Which is five stars.

Read more:

Surf's Up in the Rockaways? Let's Meditate on That - New York Times