New Year (online) retreat: the heart of awareness
Join me on for a New Year online retreat
Before becoming a dad I used to do a 4 week meditation retreat every January. It was a great way to start the year. Since having children 10 years ago I’d not done retreats of anywhere near that length. Last year I did a 4 week daily life retreat with a group of around 20 people who wanted to have their own New Year retreat experience. We worked together online with meditation and awareness practices in normal, everyday life, in a disciplined and committed way. We had a wonderful and inspiring time.
I am planning another New Year online retreat this January and warmly invite you to join me.
How does it work?
We will do this at home, amidst daily life, and our normal activities – work, family life, weekends, tax returns etc. A number of prototypes and personal experiments over recent years tell me that this is not only possible to do this but can be very powerful. It is very much within the view of the Buddhist tradition I follow* that with the right intention, conditions and support, one can practice fruitfully in any and every situation. This represents the model of the household Yogin – practising a genuine meditation tradition within everyday life rather than in a monastic or secluded situation.
*(I’ve been practising and teaching within www.longchenfoundation.org for over 20 years)
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The retreat will combine:
I will share some of my own learning about retreat, meditation and how to apply it all amidst the chaos and challenge of daily life. The intention is to inform, support and inspire you on your own New Year domestic retreat experience.
The 4 weeks will be divided into 3 main phases: entering / preparing; immersion / going deeper; re-entry / leaving retreat. Each phase is really important and offers its own learning and inspiration. Understanding these different phases also supports us to carry on some kind of practice after the retreat – if you would like to.
The heart of awareness
For so many of us life is frantic, busy and hectic. We face challenges in our lives, around relationships, work, money as well as our search for meaning, ease and fulfillment. Increasingly our personal questions can not be separated from pressures in the wider world. We live at a time of immense ecological, social and economic upheaval and this too is hard to navigate.
It is easy to think that one answer is to ‘get away from it all’. Perhaps in a retreat. But where would we go? How can we get away from ourselves, our experience and the world we are part of? It’s a tempting idea, but is often about turning away from our actual experience, wishing it to be something different.
On this retreat I will introduce simple but profound teachings that encourage us to turn directly towards our immediate experience – whatever that happens to be. This simple but powerful approach is what makes it possible to practice awareness and wisdom in any situation, wherever we find ourselves. Gradually as we do this, we discover deeply meaningful and inspiring things about the nature of who and what we are and what may be possible in the world.
Would you like to find out more?
You can also download more detailed information about how the retreat works here.
Or leave your details in the contact box to the right to sign up or with any questions.