To attend this retreat you will need to have been regularly meditating for at least two years and regularly attend retreats, a centre or a group within the context of the Triratna Buddhist Community. You must also be comfortable with extended periods of sitting meditation, Buddhist devotional practice and spending most of the retreat in silence.
Sangharakshita has said that to practise we need to be aware of our minds at all times – but how do we do this? And what are the benefits to our practice? How do we really engage with mindfulness in a way that doesn’t feel contrived and ‘added on’, leaving us feeling stiff and unnatural? How can we connect with awareness that is completely natural, unfabricated and uncontrived?
During the retreat we will explore mindfulness as a path to wisdom. We will work with awareness and right view to 'watch the mind' in all its guises. The focus will be on how we use mindfulness as a support to 'vipassana', or clear seeing, and the end of suffering.
We will look at the role of receptivity in mindfulness and the 'wise' or 'unwise' attention we bring to every aspect of our experience. We will be looking at how continuity of mindfulness can touch and transform our experience through simple presence and intelligent awareness, developing both steadiness of mind and heart and insight into the nature of all things.
The retreat will mostly be in silence with input and meditation reviews.
Vajradevi has been meditating for over 30 years and was ordained in 1995. She regularly leads meditation workshops and retreats based around the Satipatthana Sutta and has explored approaches to awareness with the Burmese teacher, Sayadaw U Tejaniya and with Joseph Goldstein.
Check out Vajradevi's blog for more info: uncontrivedmindfulness.net and her new book https://bit.ly/UncontrivedMindfulness
Covid-secure requirements
We still have some Covid related requirements that we believe helps to ensure that Rivendell is a safer environment (such as asking each retreatant to take a lateral flow test and letting the office know the result before travelling to Rivendell), and we will only accept bookings on the basis that those who attend our retreats abide by the requirements of our Covid risk assessment.
We want those that come to Rivendell to be confident that we are making their stay here as safe as possible.
Concession information
Rivendell has reintroduced its concessionary rate for all retreats, however we are still in a very difficult financial situation so please can we ask that you only use this rate if essential. Please do also consider writing to our office team via bookings@rivendellretreatcentre.com if you really are in need of further financial assistance to help enable you to come on retreat here.
Cancellation policy
All deposits are non-refundable and non-transferable in all circumstances. If you wish to cancel your place on a retreat, we require a minimum notice of 4 calendar weeks before a retreat is due to take place, in order that a refund (not deposit) will be possible. If you cancel and we can't replace you, you will be required to pay half the total cost of the retreat. Please let us know as soon as possible if you need to cancel, as there may be other people waiting for a place on the retreat to become available. Any refund will still be on the basis that we can the fill your space.
Prices for this event are: £389 - £366 (Conc)