This retreat is suitable for those who have a regular meditation practice and who regularly attend retreats, a centre or a group within the context of the Triratna Buddhist Community. You will also need to be familiar with, and happy to participate in, Triratna Buddhist devotional practice and ritual (puja), be comfortable with extended periods of sitting meditation and the possibility on some retreats of periods spent in silence.
Join Bodhipaksa in an exploration of the four divine abidings (or brahma-viharas) as a path to awakening. They are: loving kindness (metta), compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy or gladness (mudita) and equanimity or reverence (upekkha).The divine abidings can be regarded as a steadily deepening appreciation of what it is to be human. In its fullest form, upekkha, the culmination of the divine abidings, is a synonym for awakening itself. In cultivating upekkha we are therefore cultivating enlightenment itself. We do this not just for ourselves, but for all, without regard to the distinction of self and other. The brahma-viharas are, in essence, the bodhisattva path. This retreat is a week-long workshop in which we’ll seek to understand the divine abidings through talks, reflection, and discussion, surrender to them in the practice of ritual, cultivate them in meditation, and embody them in our daily interactions with each other.
Bodhipaksa was ordained in 1993 and has spent most of his time since then teaching meditation and writing. He’s the author several books on meditation and on Buddhist practice, including “This Difficult Thing of Being Human” — to be published by Parallax in November, 2019. He is also the founder of www.wildmind.org
Prices for this event are: £360 - £330 (Conc)