What’s your 2027 adventure?
Launching our 2027 bookings is always an exciting time for us. Not only because we love a new calendar (we do), but also because it means laying out our offer for new adventures for those returning and those yet to come. Here, we’ve highlight the retreats that will really push you to change, push you to look more closely at the world, and bring you into deeper connection with what a life worth living is all about.
Newcomers
We have our usual suite of inspiring Introductory weekends for those looking for their first ever retreat, including the Mother’s Weekend Which typically books up early. You can also go much deeper, however, by joining an Open Level Retreat or longer weekend which also welcome newcomers or those with any level of experience.
One yearly highlight is Surfing the Winds of Change. We all want to stay calm when facing challenges, but when desire and practice are misaligned, and when loss or difficulty comes, equanimity is rarely in easy reach. Instead, on this retreat, learn confidence, composure, and steadiness through an adventure into the depths of impermanence. Then, return to the world knowing the path to a more satisfying and meaningful life.
Do you connect more to the world through sound and music? If you are curious about the use of voice and silence, song and play, join Sounding the Inner Voice. In the Summer, air full of birds and their song, join the long weekend Breathing in Birdsong. On this retreat, a newcomer highlight, we weave meditation and birdsong to bring the natural world into our practice on the cushion and beyond. Sit and deeply engage with the wildlife around you.
Regulars
For those who have been with us before, we have exciting offerings into the mythic alongside meditation, music, movement and dharma.
First, we invite you to The Cool Cave and the Cremation Ground; one a sanctuary for reflection and another a place for dead- a symbol not only of literal death but also the death of old ideas and habits which no longer serve us. Use myth and magic in your practice by exploring both these spaces, discovering how loving-kindness and the tantric teachings of the Guru Padmasambhava show us the way to transformation.
In Spring, enter into another realm entirely and join us in the mandala of Tara, our centre’s namesake. We call on her to call on something greater in ourselves and through ritual, meditation and silence, we will seek to connect more securely with what that is. In order to receive support or truly ask for it, we must loosen our sense of self and have faith that there’s something of value beyond us. In difficult everyday circumstances, we become tightly bound to our own experience at the same time as not truly experiencing it. Tara’s fearlessness and wisdom guides us away from such mental states and leads us to a more fulfilling sense of loving-kindness.
Mitras
For those who have committed to practicing within Triratna contexts, we have a busy 2027 programme. In particular, we our highlights present an adventure into the possibilities of friendship. The ever-popular Dakini: Dancing with Life starts in early Spring on 12th March. Parami leads us into spiritual friendship with Pilgrimage of the Heart in May. Together, they form a real focus on sangha in its internal and external aspects. The latter which draw on the Gandavyuha Sutra, a profound and imaginative text in which the trainee Sudhana goes on an epic journey from teacher to teacher. See what you can learn doing just that.
We also think that Buddhist psychology doesn’t have to be arcane and obscure. This November, put aside your preconceptions, and adventure into the dharma of the mind. We offer the Mind in Harmony for those who want to learn and practice in line with some of the Buddha’s earliest, most insightful teachings. Sometimes we know what our mental states are – but how do we work with them? Mind in Harmony gives us a spiritual map of the contents of the heart and mind – a practical toolkit to bring clarity, awareness and kindness to our experience. This is a study retreat on Subhuti’s book of the same name which is required reading. This promises to be a popular retreat this year so book early.
Think you can’t afford it? Think again.
Our retreat centre runs on the basis of dana or generosity. All you pay is the booking fee and, at the end of the retreat, anything you pay above that is a suggested donation and is act of generosity to future retreatants at our centre. If you want to challenge yourself in 2027, there should be no barriers to where you can go.
