How Much Does it Cost to Come on Retreat?
We don't ask you to pay to come on retreat
It's a long-standing tradition in Buddhism that, as far as possible,
anyone passing on the Buddha's teaching does not charge for it.
Another long-standing tradition in Buddhism is to give 'dana'. Dana
actually means generosity. A couple of years ago was our twentieth
anniversary of buying Taraloka and we decided then to see if we could
run the place on the basis of dana. The treasurer was a little
apprehensive ~ after all, can you do cash-flow projections if
you don't give people a definite rate to pay for a retreat?
It turns out that the answer is yes. It has worked out very
successfully for us. We do ask you to send a non-returnable deposit of
£30 for a weekend (£50 for longer retreats). But apart
from that we don't ask you to pay anything.
What we do is make a dana appeal at the end of the retreat. We'll give
you some suggestions about what we need to cover our running costs but
whatever you can give is fine with us. If you can give more, that
enables us to share your donation with others who can't pay very much.
That way everyone can come which is what we want!
We are a registered UK charity so if you are a taxpayer you can fill
in a Gift Aid Form for your donation. This increases the value of your
donation at no extra cost to yourself.
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