Each weekend costs £60 to book, plus a recommended donation of £30-50
(this can be paid at the booking checkout).
Please note:
1. That the automated booking confirmation that you will receive will contain information that relates to a residential retreat, so please ignore that. It would cost money that we don't currently have to change our systems to reflect the circumstances of these special online events.
2. You will receive a joining email from us close to the start of each event (ideally the day before), with a Zoom link that will work for the whole of that particular retreat online event.
3. Zoom is a simple online communications platform that is very easy to use. If you have not used it before, we suggest that you download this programme and install for free before your retreat is due to take place. You can find the programme at this link: https://zoom.us/download. If you have any questions about using Zoom, please contact us at bookings@rivendellretreatcentre.com
Retreat details:
One teaching session each day 13.00 - 17.00 UK time, (with a break!).
Please feel free to attend either weekend or both.
Join Bodhipaksa in the second of two online weekend workshops exploring the four divine abidings (brahma-viharas) as a path to awakening. (You do not need to have participated in the first workshop to benefit from this one.)
Over two days we’ll practice mudita and upekkha. Bodhipaksa teaches mudita not as "sympathetic joy" or "empathetic joy," but as joyful appreciation. Based on ancient commentaries he sees the essence of mudita not as “being happy because others are happy,” but as a joyful recognition of beings' skillful qualities, because those qualities bring peace and joy to their bearers. For Bodhipaksa, upekkha is not simply equanimity, or coolly standing back from emotional engagement with others. The word upekkha comes from a verb meaning to look closely or even intimately.” Upekkha is the close looking we do when love fails — when our attempts to practice kindness and compassion hit a wall. We can look closely in two ways — either at our own inner processes, including the way we react to feelings, or at beings themselves, seeing them as impermanent and as karmic processes. The point of such looking is not to detach emotionally, but to be able to return to a state of love and compassion, having more deeply understood ourselves and others. In its fullest form, upekkha, which is the culmination of the divine abidings, is a synonym for awakening itself. In cultivating upekkha we are therefore cultivating enlightenment, 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.
Both of these online weekends are ideal for people who find metta bhavana to be a difficult practice!
Bodhipaksa was ordained in 1993 and has spent most of his time since then writing and teaching. He formerly ran Dhanakosa retreat centre in the Highlands of Scotland and has taught meditation in universities and in prisons. He’s the author of several books on meditation and on Buddhist practice, including “This Difficult Thing of Being Human” — a book on self-compassion which was published by Parallax in November, 2019. He is also the founder of the online meditation center, www.wildmind.org.
Prices for this event are: £60