Dhyana and Insight - Reevaluating Dhyana - At Metta Vihara, Hengstdijk, Netherlands
2026-07-31 16:00 - 2026-08-09 10:00 (Europe/London) | Metta Vihara, Hengstdijkse Kerkstraat 36, 4585AC Hengstdijk, Netherlands
“Quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states… one suffuses, fills, and permeates one’s entire body with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion, so that there is no part of one’s whole body that is not pervaded by it.” AN 5.28

On this retreat, I’ll be offering embodied approaches to dhyana (jhāna) that people have found to be helpful and effective. This may well involve questioning both our own views and approaches, and a good deal of what the tradition has to say about dhyana.

Dhyana is far more than just samatha, or mental calm. Recognising the liberative potential of the first dhyana was the key to the Buddhas own awakening and he taught dhyana as inseparable from insight. Only later tradition came to regard the dhyanas as ‘just’ states of intense concentration.

The dhyanas are, rather, states of deep, embodied mental unity, integrated with awareness of the foundations of mindfulness (satipatthana) and the factors of awakening (bojjhanga).

In practice, the leading question is ‘what, in our experience, is actually helpful?’ We have found that by becoming alive to the energetic immediacy of body experience, resources for entering dhyana can be discovered as already present – just waiting to be noticed. We’ll explore this in direct experience by delving into the relation between body and breath as well as between body, awareness and insight.

This retreat should be bookable on the Metta Vihara website soon, link below

Simply Being - at Vajraloka
2026-09-04 08:00 - 2026-09-13 17:00 | Vajraloka, Tyn Y Ddol, Corwen, Denbighshire, LL21 0EN, United Kingdom
At any moment we can recognise, directly and viscerally, that we are alive and awake. With a settled and embodied awareness, this may open into an intuitive glimpse of what we truly are, beyond concepts. This might be evoked as a spacious yet embodied presence, a timeless awareness-emptiness, or unconditional love, compassion and pure energy.
We’ll explore this by way of a somatic approach to just sitting meditation together with experiential inquiries – discovering aliveness, sensitivity, simplicity and clarity in our immediate experience. These subtle yet accessible qualities of our ordinary mind and being can act as gateways to the five wisdoms or ‘undivided awarenesses’ (jnanas), which are the essence of the five Buddhas. The mandala of the five Buddhas and their wisdoms offers a very practical map of our immediate experience, pointing to what has simply been here all along, unnoticed.

Dhyana and Insight 2026 - at Dhanakosa
2026-09-25 16:30 - 2026-10-02 10:30 | Dhanakosa, DHANAKOSA Buddhist Retreat Centre, Balquhidder, Lochearnhead, FK19 8PQ, Scotland, Balquhidder, Scotland, FK19 8PQ, United Kingdom
On this retreat, I will be offering embodied approaches to dhyāna (jhāna) that people have found to be helpful and effective. This may well involve questioning both our own views and approaches, as well as some of what the tradition has to say about dhyāna.
Dhyāna is far more than samatha, or mental calm. Recognising the liberative potential of the first dhyana was the key to the Buddha’s own awakening and he taught dhyāna as inseparable from insight. Only later did the tradition come to regard the dhyānas as ‘just’ states of concentration.
The dhyānas are, rather, states of deep, embodied mental unity, integrated with awareness of the foundations of mindfulness (satipatthana) and the factors of awakening (bojjhanga). Dhyāna is where insight takes place.
In practice, we’ll ask, ‘what, in our experience, is actually helpful?’ By becoming alive to the energetic immediacy of body experience, resources for entering dhyāna can be discovered as already present – just waiting to be noticed. We’ll explore this in direct experience and delve into the relationship between body, dhyāna and liberative insight.
This retreat is suitable for people with at least six months regular meditation practice and who have attended at least one full week retreat before.

Dhyāna and the Wings to Awakening
2026-10-09 08:00 - 2026-10-11 20:30 | ONLINE
‘Wings to Awakening’ is a poetic rendering of ‘bojjhaṅgā’ – seven ‘limbs’ or factors that support bodhi – awakening. The bojjhaṅgās are highlighted in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta as crucial to the fourth contemplation, that of dhammas. They are experiential qualities that we cultivate and are integral to entering and deepening into the four dhyānas – and to awakening itself.
In this three day retreat, we’ll explore how the first three – awareness, discrimination and energy – can support the conditions to enter into the dhyānas. And how the other four – wellbeing, serenity, samādhi (full integration) and equanimity – successively come to fulfilment. However far we get with this, the exploration and play with possibilities on this retreat will enrich your meditation practice.
This retreat is a follow-up to ‘Dhyāna and Insight’ earlier in the year, but these explorations stand in their own right and people who were not on the earlier retreat are welcome.
NOW AVAILABLE FOR BOOKING – click on Website link below

The Awakening Heart and the Divine Abodes - co-led with Rijumitra - Vajraloka
2026-11-06 16:30 - 2026-11-15 09:30 | Vajraloka, Tyn Y Ddol, Corwen, Denbighshire, LL21 0EN, United Kingdom
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 of cultivating bodhicitta.
To support this, we’ll also introduce tonglen, the ‘sending and receiving’ practice which opens the heart to universal compassion.
The divine abodes are also known as the ‘boundless states’ because they are inclusive of all living beings without exception. The practices that we’ll explore together on this retreat are all ways of opening our hearts and responding to the joys and sufferings of living beings – opening to the inseparable wisdom and compassion of the awakening heart itself.

Dhyana Through the Body — Reevaluating Dhyana — at Rivendell
2026-11-27 17:00 - 2026-12-04 10:00 | Rivendell, Chillies Lane, High Hurstwood, East Sussex, TN22 4AB, United Kingdom
“Quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states… one suffuses, fills, and permeates one’s entire body with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion, so that there is no part of one’s whole body that is not pervaded by it.” AN 5.28
On this retreat, we’ll be offering embodied approaches to dhyana (jhāna) that people have found to be helpful and effective. This may well involve questioning both our own views and approaches, and a good deal of what the tradition has to say about dhyana.
Dhyana is far more than samatha, or mental calm. Recognising the liberative potential of the first dhyana was the key to the Buddha’s own awakening and he taught dhyana as inseparable from insight. Only later tradition came to regard the dhyanas as ‘just’ states of concentration.
The dhyanas are, rather, states of deep, embodied mental unity, integrated with awareness of the foundations of mindfulness (satipatthana) and the factors of awakening (bojjhanga).
In practice, the leading question is ‘what, in our experience, is actually helpful?’ We have found that by becoming alive to the energetic immediacy of body experience, resources for entering dhyana can be discovered as already present – just waiting to be noticed. We’ll explore this in direct experience by delving into the relation between body and breath as well as between body, awareness and insight.
About the retreat:
Each day, there will be two main input and practice sessions led by Tejananda. These will include opportunities for making observations on your practice and asking questions. There will also be plenty of time for ‘open practice’, where you can use the shrine room, do walking meditation or whatever else feels appropriate. Ten-minute practice reviews will be offered to everyone. From Saturday evening to Thursday after lunch we’ll observe complete silence, excepting reviews and any discussion in the input sessions.
Each day will end with some devotional activity – chanting, recitation or puja – and then open practice.
SUMMARY
This retreat explores embodied approaches to dhyana, encouraging participants to question some traditional interpretations and personal assumptions. Rather than viewing dhyana as merely concentrated calm (samatha), we’ll explore it as a deeply unified, embodied state integrated with mindfulness and the factors of awakening. Through experiential practices involving body, breath, and awareness, participants will discover resources for dhyana already within their experience.
This retreat is now bookable on the Rivendell website, link below
