The Buddha taught the divine abodes – unconditional love, compassion, joy and equanimity – not just as states of calm, but as ways to liberate the mind. The Brahmavihara practices enable us to cultivate these qualities and to engage with our afflictive emotions – craving, hatred and ‘ignoring’ – in relation to them. In doing […]
'Simply being’ points to the aliveness and awakeness that we can recognise at any moment. It’s an openness to full presence, our full being - in body, senses and awareness. It points to being what we really are, beyond conceptual fabrication. In recognising and opening to the steady and spacious aspects of experience here and […]
Mind, Body and the Three Marks Distinguishing our mental activities ('mind') from immediate sense experience ('body') is vital to all kinds of meditation. If we can develop clarity about this, we can become increasingly embodied and no longer try to 'think' ourselves into meditation. This clarity is essential to mindfulness of breathing, metta bhavana, and […]
Co-led with Prakasha This retreat is for members of the Triratna Buddhist Order only This retreat will introduce the four principal stages of the spiritual path. Firstly, the contemplation of the three lakshanas. Secondly, entry into the three liberations. Thirdly, the exploration of the perceptual situation. Fourthly, entry into the Mandala of Awakening. Through this […]
Co-led with Rijumitra Bodhicitta – the awakening heart – is both the heart–response of wisdom to the suffering of living beings everywhere and the urge to realise full awakening for the benefit of all. This retreat will focus on love, compassion, joy and equanimity – the four ‘divine abodes’ or brahmaviharas – in the context […]
Accessing dhyana (jhana), or absorption, seems to be very natural for some people, and a complete mystery to others. Dhyana is well worth cultivating as a way of deepening shamatha (mental tranquillity) as well as for the sheer psycho-somatic pleasure that some of these states afford. On this retreat, we’ll be suggesting approaches that […]
The Satipatthana Sutta, one of the most influential of the Buddha’s discourses, shows how wakeful, insightful attention to body, feelings and mind can enable us to wake up to our true nature. This radically transformative teaching is described as a ‘direct path’ to the cessation of suffering. Offering effective approaches that address the alienation and […]
Body, heart and mind are essential facets of our being. Mind is usually taken to mean all kinds of mental activity, but what we’re interested in here is ‘mind itself’ – the awake, aware quality of mind. Awakeness is here even when we feel sleepy and dull. How do we know that we’re sleepy and […]
‘Simply being’ points to the aliveness and awakeness that we can recognise at any moment. It’s an openness to full presence, our full being - in body, senses and awareness. It points to being what we really are, beyond conceptual fabrication. In recognising and opening to the steady and spacious aspects of experience here […]
Body, heart and mind are essential facets of our being. Mind is usually taken to mean all kinds of mental activity, but what we’re interested in here is ‘mind itself’ – the awake, aware quality of mind. Awakeness is here even when we feel sleepy and dull. How do we know that we’re sleepy and […]
