|
Event
A Series of Led Retreat Days with Bristol Insight Meditation for 2024
Bristol Mindfulness Led Day Retreats
These led day retreats take place in person mostly at Glenfrome School, in Bristol. This is a setting of companionable silence, including during the lunch period. Silence offers an opportunity to attend to ones own experience without the need to be anyone for other people.
There will be a chance for a chat with a cup tea at the start and end of the day and during the day there will usually be time for questions and discussion with the teacher.
You will be asked to sit quietly for periods of up to 30 minutes, with varying amounts of guidance. These sittings are interspersed with periods of walking and movement.
We recognise that this level of silence may be challenging for newcomers and is not always suitable for everyone at every time. If you have any concerns or wonder whether a retreat is the right thing for you at this time, you are welcome to get in touch with us.
Some retreats do require attendees to have some prior meditation experience. If this is the case it will be stated in the retreat description.
We welcome volunteers to help on the day, if you would like to help in this way please contact us.
Fees
We ask for a retreat fee to cover costs of venues, teachers expenses, ongoing administrative costs. We offer an Early Bird (closes 1 month before the event) and Tier 1 rate. A freely given rate is also available so that no-one is excluded.
Dana
Dana can be translated as cultivating generosity or giving. The teachers who lead our retreats receive their travel costs and out-of-pocket expenses but do not receive any payment for their teaching. However they are happy to receive voluntary contributions from participants in the events they lead. These offerings are traditionally called dana. Most of our teachers depend on dana for most or all of their livelihood.
Our teachers are following an ancient tradition, offering teachings freely just as they received them freely from a previous generation of teachers. In this way the dharma (the teachings of the Buddhist tradition) is not made an object of commerce, and the relationship between teacher and student is based upon trust, freedom, and mutual generosity.
If you attend one of our events and appreciate what the teacher has offered, we warmly invite you to make whatever contribution you feel appropriate. If you do so, you will be making a vital contribution to their livelihood and helping them to continue teaching on this generous basis, particularly in situations where people cannot afford to pay anything.
Saturday 17th Feb 24 - ONLINE Retreat Day - Mindfulness of Feeling Tone (vedana)
During this online daylong Martine would like to explore mindfulness of the feeling tones, which is the second foundation of the practice of mindfulness. First Martine will present the different aspects of mindfulness. Secondly she will define feeling tones and thirdly how to be mindful of them. The Pali term vedana refers to the affective tone of experience. When we come into contact through one of our six senses with the environment, we experience a pleasant, unpleasant or neither pleasant nor unpleasant feeling tone. It is important to see that feeling tones are constructed, they are not a given, they do not reside in the object we come in contact with. It is vital to be aware of feeling tones as they arise extremely fast and have a profound impact on our behaviour.
Martine Bachelor: lived in Korea as a seon nun under the guidance of Master Kusan for ten years. She is the author of Meditation for Life, The Path of Compassion, Women in Korean Zen and Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits. She teaches meditation retreats worldwide and lives in France. Her latest works are the The Spirit of the Buddha, What is this? and The Definition, Practice and Psychology of Vedana.
Saturday 18th May - In Person Retreat Day - Liberating Perspectives on Death & Dying with Venerable Canda (in person)
Perhaps you are witness to someone who is dying, have lost a loved one or have received a diagnosis you are grappling with? Or perhaps you are healthy and imagine death is far away - and that is the way you would like it to stay!
The Buddha recommended meditation on death for everyone, as a way of bringing a sense of immediacy to practice. Although it may initially sound unappealing, by gently turning toward the universal reality of death, we can learn tools for living a fuller life - a life of gratitude and love.
This retreat will invite us to contemplate and discuss the universal experience of death and dying, taking inspiration from Buddhist ideas as well as modern scientific research on near-death experiences, to find a greater acceptance and peace within.
The retreat is suitable for everyone and will include Dhamma reflections, guided meditations and an opportunity for sharing questions and responses.
Venerable Canda: met the Dhamma in 1996 in India and practiced intensive meditation, sitting and serving scores of Vipassana retreats, before ordaining in Burma in 2006. She took full 'bhikkhuni' ordination with her teacher Ajahn Brahm in Australia in 2014 and for the last eight years she and Ajahn Brahm have been developing the UK charity Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project, which will support Britain's first Forest Monastery for women wishing to train toward full bhikkhuni ordination.
Ven Canda now has a little Vihara in the beautiful city of Oxford, close the River Thames. Besides running the charity and monastery, she teaches extensively and spends 3-4 months a year in solitary retreat. Ven Canda loves the Buddha's teachings and her offerings are richly informed by the compassion and pragmatism of the Early Buddhist texts. She emphasises kindness and letting go as a way to deepen stillness and wisdom.
Saturday 21st September - In Person Retreat Day - The Breath Reimagined with Mark Ovland (in person)
Every breath that we take invigorates the body and mind, energising us and keeping us alive. It is an intimate and wondrous phenomenon and potentially a very deep resource for our meditation. Yet the simple instruction to watch the breath can sometimes feel a bit stale to us, if we dont have an engaging way to relate to this process.
On this retreat we will imagine, observe, and play with the breath energy in ways that may take us beyond our usual sense of it. These meditative techniques include the whole of the body and can lead towards a profound harmonizing of the being, bringing more spaciousness, lightness, and ease into our experience.
Everyone is welcome, no matter if youre new to meditation or an old hand.
Mark Ovland: Mark began practising meditation in 2008 and spent a number of years living and working in retreat centres and monasteries around the UK and Asia. Wanting to make the teachings hed picked up more widely accessible to those in need, in 2013 he co-founded Freely Given Retreats, a charity that offers weeklong and daylong retreats on a donation basis, and soon afterwards pioneered taking mindfulness courses into UK prisons. In more recent years Mark has been especially engaged with environmental and social justice issues. He was a close student of Rob Burbea and is a director of the Hermes Amara Foundation, an organisation set up to preserve Robs teaching legacy.
Saturday 16th November - In Person Retreat Day - Investigation on Spiritual Friendship for your community with Jane Cutler (in person)
I should love to offer an investigation on Spiritual Friendship for your community.
I am an Insight Dialogue teacher and will give a simple flavour of relational meditation throughout the day, drawing on the basic Insight Dialogue guidelines to support a relational practice investigating the power and joys of relational practice.
We are used to meditating side by side with eyes closed.
With this model of meditation we sit facing each other with eyes open.
This gives intimate support and a strong lens for awakening.
Rooted in the three jewels,Insight Dialogue is rooted in silent solo meditation, the wisdom teachings and the ethical and relational field of Sanga.
We will be using a number of elements to investigate our place in the community of all things.
Through out this day maybe we discover together some simple ways to strengthen and refresh our everyday practice.
I look forward to being with you all.
Jane Cutler: lives in Bristol and has had a meditation practice since 1972.
Additionally Jane is a psychosynthesis psychotherapist and trauma consultant of 28 years.
The last 25 years have been mainly influenced through zen practice
Retreat Day Venue: Glenfrome Primary School, Bristol, BS5 6TY
These days are run by Bristol Insight Meditation group from 10-4 with a shared lunch. You can arive as from 9.30 to havea bit of time for a drink and to settle in before we start at 10am.
So please bring the following items with you on the day:
a vegetarian dish to share (or your own pack lunch if you prefer),
a yoga mat,
cushions and blankets so you can be comfortable for the day.
Outdoor gear for mindful walking
Cash/cheque for the teacher's dana
Chairs and gym mats are provided.
Booking:
We have suggested donations for our retreat days which are as follows:
Early Bird Booking is £20 waged and £20 unwaged (plus booking fee).
Tier 1 Booking is £25 waged and £12.50 unwaged.
Suggested T icket cost:
The fee that you pay covers the running costs for the retreat the hire of the venue, teachers travelling and accommodation expenses, publicity, insurance, etc. Fees are charged on a sliding scale chosen by you according to your means.
P lease pay the standard or sponsor rate if you are able to - this helps us to cover our costs and keeps our events open and accessible to all.
Please come on the day and simply pay a donation if the above fee is beyond you financial means. We can also offer freely given entrance if needs be.
Gift Aid:
If you are a UK tax payer and happy to sign up for Gift Aid then we would be really grateful for this as Bristol Insight then receives the Gift Aid on each ticket. You con find out more information about gift aid here: https://www.gov.uk/donating-to-charity/gift-aid
Our freely given tickets are available for anyone with limited or no means to pay. We warmly welcome and encourage anyone who wishes to attend. No one will be excluded for lack of funds.
Dana:
We ask for dana (donation) to be given on the day to cover the cost of the teacher so please bring cash/cheque if you wish to donate towards the cost of the teaching itself.
|
|
 |
LocationGlenfrome Primary School (View)
Cottisford Road, Eastville
Bristol BS5 6TY
United Kingdom
Categories
| Minimum Age: 18 |
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
|
Contact
|
