Heart Sutra: Thunderclaps of Reality - February 2022 | Taraloka | Buddhist Retreat Centre For Women

Friday, February 11, 2022 to Friday, February 18, 2022

Retreat Team:

and Team

Retreat Type:

Open up to the mystery at the heart of reality! The Heart Sutra is a series of thunderclaps communicating the real nature of things, but not to the thinking mind. We recite it “by heart”. Can we really take it to heart? How might our lives be different, if we were able to live from the freedom and openness described by this Perfection of Wisdom text?

*Please read and ensure you are able to comply with Taraloka's COVID 19 precautions incuding around travel BEFORE booking your retreat. *

The Heart Sutra is so called because it is the pith, essence, essential heart-teaching of how things truly are. Simply attempting to understand it intellectually can make our minds boggle – and expand beyond what we might think possible. Yet the ‘heart’ aspect also brings out that it is with our hearts, with love, warmth and the whole of our being, that we can know reality – and that to know also means to love. Both the love and the clarity are essential and we’ll explore both aspects during the week.

“The Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra or Heart Sutra is the heart or essence of the Perfection of Wisdom … It represents, it constitutes the heart or the essence of the Prajnaparamita or the Perfection of Wisdom teaching, and it gives us in a concentrated, a highly condensed and concentrated form, the essential meaning of all the Perfection of Wisdom sutras. No wonder therefore … it is recited and chanted so often. If we really know this, if we really know the Heart Sutra, in a sense we know everything.”

Sangharakshita (1967) Lecture 73: The Heart Sutra.

We recite the Heart Sutra at the core of each puja and yet do we even begin to understand the depth of its meaning? The retreat will include: meditations leading us deeper into direct experience and towards the wisdom mind; talks and discussion groups to explore the Heart Sutra and what it might mean for us; some days of silence; and devotion, ritual and chanting.

We can only know the deeper meanings of this sutra by immersing ourselves in it and becoming receptive and open to the teaching. As a practice in heart-opening, we will learn to chant the Heart Sutra in the original language of Sanskrit. This is a centuries-old tradition, and a practice which happened on a daily basis in the early days of the Movement. Come and approach the heart of ourselves, and the heart of reality!

The content of this sutra – six great statements or six great thunderclaps which shatter and destroy knowledge and reveal true wisdom (prajna) – is available to us. Can we hear it? Can we allow ourselves to feel those six great thunderclaps throughout our being?

Suggested donation (in addition to the booking fee): £360 waged / £245 unwaged

Booking Fee:

£80.00

Paying for your retreat

Taraloka runs on generosity.

To book a retreat you pay a booking fee. This is the only charge made for coming on retreat. We want Taraloka retreats to be available to any woman, whatever her financial situation.

At the end of your retreat, you have the opportunity to give money towards Taraloka. If you are able to donate, you are giving to another woman who otherwise could not afford to come on retreat. And you are helping to give the gift of Taraloka to the women of the future.

Suggested donations

Our suggested donations (in addition to the booking fee) for 2021 are (waged/unwaged)

Weekend retreats (£195 / 135)
Long Weekend (3 nights) (£220 / 155)
4 night retreats (£250 / 170)
5 night retreats (£280 / 190)
Week retreats: (£360 / 245)
9 night retreats (£405 / 285)
12 night retreats (£460 / 305)

There will be an opportunity to make your donation at the end of the retreat. Donations can be made by credit/debit card, cheque or cash.

Those who cannot afford our suggested donations are free to contribute what they can.

Running on generosity is radical – thank you for being part of that.

For more information see what does it cost and a flow of generosity