Dhyana Through the Body - at Rivendell
2025-12-05 17:00 - 2025-12-12 10:30 (Europe/London) | Rivendell, Chillies Lane, High Hurstwood, East Sussex, TN22 4AB, United Kingdom
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 people have found to be helpful and effective for getting an experience of dhyana, especially cultivating body awareness. This may well involve holding lightly to both our own views and some of what the tradition has to say about dhyana. We’ll proceed on the basis of asking ‘What, in our experience, is and is not actually helpful’? We will also explore, in experience, the relationship between dhyana and insight.
To attend this retreat you will need to have been regularly meditating for at least two years and regularly attend retreats, a centre or a group within the context of the Triratna Buddhist Community. You must also be comfortable with extended periods of sitting meditation, Buddhist devotional practice and spending most of the retreat in silence.

Satipatthana: the Buddha’s teaching on mindfulness - co-leading with Prajnapriya - Vajraloka
2026-01-09 16:30 - 2026-01-18 10:00 | Vajraloka, Tyn Y Ddol, Corwen, Denbighshire, LL21 0EN, United Kingdom
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 disembodiment which characterise life today, it can restore a deep integrity of body, heart, mind and being.
In this retreat, we’ll explore a number of practice approaches inspired by the original mindfulness teachings attributed to the Buddha that take awareness, insight and compassion ever deeper. As such, it will be helpful for all those wishing to deepen their mindfulness practice as well as for those qualified or training as teachers of mindfulness–based approaches such as MBSR, MBCT and Breathworks.
This retreat is suitable for people who have been meditating for at least 3 years

Dhyāna and Insight - Online, with The Buddhist Centre [Live]
2026-01-23 08:00 - 2026-01-29 18:30 | ONLINE
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 dhyāna 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.
NOW AVAILABLE FOR BOOKING – Click on Website link below

Emptiness and the Heart Sutra - at Rivendell
2026-02-06 16:30 - 2026-02-13 10:00 | Rivendell, Chillies Lane, High Hurstwood, East Sussex, TN22 4AB, United Kingdom
The Heart Sutra is one of the most well-known and loved of all Buddhist texts.
Inevitably, there are innumerable takes on what it ‘means’. Early western
commentators treated it as philosophy or even poetry. But what if it actually points us
towards our own immediate experience as the way to “sunder the bonds that cause
us suffering”?
Whatever could practising this involve?
First, there are questions that need to be addressed. What is ‘emptiness’? What
does it mean to say that our psycho-physical constituents – the skandhas – are
‘empty’? And how can it be that ‘in emptiness’ there are no skandhas, no senses,
even no conditioned arising?
Going deeper, we’ll open to our direct experience of the body, senses and skandhas.
We’ll explore whether an intrinsic, substantial, separate ‘me’ can be found in “form,
feeling, thought, choice and consciousness”, Does this “me” have any basis in
experience? Or is experience ‘empty’ of such an entity?
In this way, we’ll begin to discover how the emptiness teaching of the Heart Sutra
can compassionately awaken us to our deepest nature, Prajñāpāramitā, from which
we are never truly apart.

This retreat is now available for booking on the Rivendell Website – link below

Dhyana Through The Body - Re-evaluating Dhyana
2026-02-20 16:00 - 2026-03-01 09:30 | Vajraloka, Tyn Y Ddol, Corwen, Denbighshire, LL21 0EN, 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 dhyāna (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 dhyāna.
Dhyāna is far more than samatha, or mental calm. Recognising the liberative potential of the first dhyāna was the key to the Buddhas own awakening and he taught dhyana as inseparable from insight. Only later tradition came to regard the dhyānas as ‘just’ highly concentrated states.
The dhyānas are, rather, states of deep, embodied mental unity, integrated with awareness of the foundations of mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna) and the factors of awakening (bojjhaṅgā).
In practice, the most useful 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.

Wisdom Energy - co-leading with Padmadrishti - Vajraloka
2026-07-10 16:30 - 2026-07-19 10:00 | Vajraloka, Tyn Y Ddol, Corwen, Denbighshire, LL21 0EN, United Kingdom
Our ‘precious human body’ is the first and most important foundation not just of mindfulness, but of meditation and Dharma practice as a whole. The teaching of the Buddha’s ‘Three Bodies’ (trikaya) suggests that there is far, far more to the body than meets the eye. These could be summarised as the bodies of truth (dharmakaya), of living energy (sambhogakaya) and of manifestation (nirmanakaya). While they are fully realised with awakening, we can attune and open to them right now through meditation and Dharma practice, especially body and heart-based practice.
Tejananda and Padmadrishti will guide explorations into the extraordinary nature of our ‘ordinary’ body experience, including the energy aspect and the value of bringing awareness into the ‘core’ or central channel, and the three centres of hara (lower abdomen), heart and head. They will offer a mix of complementary approaches including meditative explorations, Qigong practice and somatic practices, to the same embodied insight
This retreat will be an opening to the wisdom energy of our true nature which is here to be discovered.
To book, click on website link below

Dhyana and Insight - Reevaluating Dhyana - At Metta Vihara, Hengstdijk, Netherlands
2026-07-31 16:00 - 2026-08-09 10:00 | 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
