Cultivating & Appreciating the Brahmaviharas

open to Triratna mitras and Order members or by invite

ripples of the mind

This week long retreat will explore the Buddha's teachings on the cultivation of positive emotions. It will build on our shared appreciation and personal practise of mindfulness and metta as taught at the Auckland Buddhist Centre and within the Triratna Buddhist community more generally. So in order to benefit from this retreat and participate fully, it is essential that everyone attending already have an experiential appreciation of the metta bhavana meditation.

While all Triratna mitras and Order members are assumed to have this familiarity and previous experience, and are therefore welcome to book, we'd like to check other people's previous experience with the metta bhavana before accepting their booking. Since the teachings on the retreat will assume and build from our working knowledge of the metta bhavana meditation and ethical practices based around loving-kindness, it is important that retreatants have that prior experience.

"Positive emotion" is a broad term referring to all the 'skilful' and 'spiritually helpful' intentions which incline us towards Truth, Beauty and Goodness. In Buddhism, we'd talk about Enlightenment and Awakening. Within the constellation of emotions labelled as positive, we would include gratitude, devotion, care, good-will, appreciation, compassion, rejoicing, contentment, tranquility, peacefulness, loving-kindness, and perhaps a few more. The Buddha's teaching of the four Brahmaviharas will be our main exploration, but we will also look at his teachings on sraddha (sometimes translated as confidence-trust or Buddhist faith, with connotations of a positive imaginal faculty which points beyond the known). We'll also be actively exploring the devotional and imaginal aspects of meditation.

The retreat will be limited to 10 people (not including a team of 2) so we will all have ample space. No more than two people to a room (unless you want to share with more). The mornings will be spent in meditation and silence, with some led meditations. There will also be free time, discussion, and teachings on the Four Brahmaviharas and Sraddha.

When

Start: 28 September 2019 at 6:00pm
Finish: 06 October 2019 at 11:00am

Cost

$590 waged/$540 low or unwaged
retreat is limited to 10 people

please don't let money be a barrier - contact us for options

Caring for each other's health

Before attending, please read our current Covid Guidelines. This is part of how we practice together.

Location

Image of Sudarshanaloka
Sudarshanaloka

Tararu Valley, Thames

Led by

Portrait of Ratnavyuha
Ratnavyuha

I've been actively involved with the Triratna Buddhist community since 1992. As with many other people, my personal journey has it's sign posts of…

Bookings for this event are now closed