Retreats & Events

This two-week residential retreat for experienced meditators will focus on cultivating the Seven Factors of Awakening, those seven highly skilful qualities of mind that when balanced, support the development of transformative insight.

In his first formal discourse the Buddha introduced the middle way as the central theme of his teaching. How is this to be understood? The middle way is not mere moderation, but the dynamic recognition that there is no fixed position in our experience, no where we can land and cling to. This teaching points to both freedom from clinging and our opening to universal love and compassion. These are the themes we will explore in our retreat.

The focus of this retreat is on realistic and practical understanding of Buddhism and Buddhist meditation with an emphasis on personalising the practice and using it in everyday life.

The practice of loving-kindness (mettā bhāvana) aims at the cultivation of a loving, benevolent attitude towards all living beings. Since the time of the Buddha, this form of meditation has been used as a practice in itself, and as a support for the development and deepening of insight (vipassanā bhāvana) This retreat is ideal for meditators looking to experience the relationship between metta and insight practice with the aim of deepening insight.

Our practice is based on mindfulness, which emerges from the continuity of awareness. How can we maintain continuous awareness? By remembering that we are already aware. We do not need to generate awareness. When we “try” to be aware, our effort is based on our desire to be someone different, to have something different. But if awareness is already available, then what is there to try for? When we stop trying and allow ourselves to recognise what is already here, the continuity of awareness naturally emerges.

This retreat is jointly taught by Malcolm McClintock and Patrick Kearney. It is designed for experienced practitioners who are independent in their practice. We will form a community of practice where shared practice will replace the normal structure of workshops, dharma talks and scheduled interviews. Practising together, we will meet each evening to share our daily experiences, just as the students of the Buddha did in the earliest days of the dharma.

This nine-day retreat will focus on deepening insight into the three universal characteristics of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self, because directly experiencing the truth of these three characteristics is the key to living our lives with more ease, peace, and freedom.

This retreat is for experienced practitioners who want to deepen their practice and understanding. The first two weeks will be co-taught with Robyn Gibson and the second two weeks with Emma Pittaway.

This retreat is an opportunity the to develop an experiential understanding of Insight (Vipassana) and Loving Kindness (Metta) meditation in a supportive environment, and explore how these practices can support you in daily life.

This integrated process is for people interested in the foundations of Buddhism and its relationship to meditation & life. It consists of three events, starting with a three-day weekend, and two subsequent sessions of one day each. Meditation will be central, but explored in its Buddhist context as a foundation for living. The format will allow us to experiment with integrating meditation into our everyday lives, while appreciating the Buddha’s core messages. This process is open to complete beginners and more experienced meditators.

This silent retreat will focus on exploration, guidance and the opportunity to practice meditation as described in the Buddha’s mindfulness of breathing discourse, and will include guidance in the development of the four divine abodes: warm benevolence, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity.

This two-month retreat offers the rare opportunity for sustained, dedicated vipassanā practice with Ayya Vīrāñāṇī and Ariya Baumann. A daily session of mettā meditation, including some mettā chants, will help support the development of insight. 

We are sentient beings, intimately interwoven with the suchness of life, and yet, all too often, we find ourselves living in a world of thought, ideas, and concepts, mistaking them for reality. When the Buddha taught, he did not ask us to believe, but to practice — to cultivate awareness and to know for ourselves. When we choose intimacy with experience, the dharma illuminates itself, not as concept but as something directly lived and recognised. This is what we will explore together during this retreat, weaving our way between stillness and movement, practice workshops and dharma talks. The retreat is…

The focus of this retreat is on realistic and practical understanding of Buddhism and Buddhist meditation with an emphasis on personalising the practice and using it in everyday life.