'It is only through intensity of commitment and practice that you achieve any results. For commitment to be strong is has, in a sense, to be narrow.'  

What does it mean to commit your life to a specific spiritual community? We’ll explore kalyana mitrata and the significance of the private and public ordinations to find our own answers. 

'It is only through intensity of commitment and practice that you achieve any results. For commitment to be strong is has, in a sense, to be narrow.'  

What does it mean to commit your life to a specific spiritual community? We’ll explore kalyana mitrata and the significance of the private and public ordinations to find our own answers.

There will be a group for German speakers on this retreat.

'As a committed Buddhist one goes for refuge - or tries to - all the time. As one’s appreciation of the three jewels grows, one’s going for refuge becomes correspondingly more profound.'  

Sangharakshita has said that the act of going for refuge is what makes one a Buddhist. What does this actually mean? And what are the possible results of this act for us?

'As a committed Buddhist one goes for refuge - or tries to - all the time. As one’s appreciation of the three jewels grows, one’s going for refuge becomes correspondingly more profound.'  

Sangharakshita has said that the act of going for refuge is what makes one a Buddhist. What does this actually mean? And what are the possible results of this act for us?

'When our life is inspired by a mythic dimension, we are working out on the historical plane something that is of archetypal significance. And the Bodhicitta is the myth that inspires the Buddhist spiritual community.'

This retreat will explore the mythic dimension, our need for spiritual receptivity, and how we can develop this, especially in relation to the refuge tree. This will be supported by the going for refuge and prostration practice, pujas and meditation. 

'The trend of withdrawal may be said to embody the wisdom aspect of the spiritual life, while the trend of involvement embodies the compassion aspect. Although these trends are contradictory, both must be developed in the course of the spiritual life.' 

How do we bring these two trends into our going for refuge? Is it possible to walk the Bodhisattva path in our busy lives? We’ll be exploring its relevance to us as current and future Order members.
 

'It is true that transcendent insight itself is independent of conceptual thought, but it doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. It arises on the basis of the conceptual expression of the dharma.' 

Studying chapter one of A Survey of Buddhism takes our understanding deeper and clarifies some of the most important teachings in Buddhism; the lakshanas, pratitya-samutpada and the middle way. This is a three week option, offering an opportunity for sustained living, confession and study together.

'It is true that transcendent insight itself is independent of conceptual thought, but it doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. It arises on the basis of the conceptual expression of the dharma.' 

Studying chapter one of A Survey of Buddhism takes our understanding deeper and clarifies some of the most important teachings in Buddhism; the lakshanas, pratitya-samutpada and the middle way. 

'When we plant the seed and set the right conditions, up comes the plant. It is just the same with our dharmic lives.'

Come and explore the five aspects of Sangharakshita’s system of spiritual life; integration, positive emotion, spiritual death and rebirth, and receptivity, and how to put them into practice.

'We don’t want an ethics of guilt, an ethics of fear; we want an ethics of growth and development'. 

On this retreat we’ll be exploring the ten precepts and how they impact our daily lives. And we’ll learn how to do confession as a way of deepening insight and positivity.