Inhabiting our Mandala 2024 | Taraloka | Buddhist Retreat Centre For Women

Friday, July 12, 2024 to Friday, July 19, 2024

Retreat Team:

Retreat Type:

It doesn't have to be / the blue iris, it could be weeds

in a vacant lot, or / a few small stones; just

pay attention

- Mary Oliver

Playing with movement, drawing, sculpture and poetry, we will inhabit our outer and inner landscapes more and more fully. We’ll immerse ourselves in the gardens and landscapes of Taraloka, and explore our creative process using materials/resources found on the land. Learn how to live within a ‘greater mandala’ of aesthetic appreciation.

No previous ‘art’ experience or aptitude required – just willingness to explore and play.

This retreat will include creativity with found materials and movement workshops. Releasing a sense of joy and experimentation, the emphasis will be on process rather than product, on unearthing and revealing inner gestures and hidden values. In witnessing these together, and within the context of devotional ritual, we will create our shared collective mandala.

With Sangharakshita' s text "The Greater Mandala" as our guide, we explore how we might move towards the ideal of working and playing within a greater mandala of aesthetic appreciation. Times of silence and of playfulness will help us increase our sensitivity and receptivity to our affinities with each other and the natural world around us. As we engage in a creative dialogue we start to reveal and uncover our own responses, authentic offerings and personal mandalas. Connecting with beauty, with Earth and Sky, we honour the land, our creative mind, and our devotional heart.

It doesn't have to be

the blue iris, it could be weeds

in a vacant lot, or

a few small stones; just

pay attention then patch

a few words together and don't try

to make them elaborate, this isn't

a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in

which another voice may speak.

'Prayer' by Mary Oliver

Suggested donation (in addition to the booking fee): £365.00 waged / £250.00 unwaged

Booking Fee:

£85.00

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. As far as possible, we don't want anyone's financial situation to stop them from coming to Taraloka.

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 person 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 2024-25 are (waged/unwaged)

Weekend retreats (2024: £195 / 135 2025: £200 / £140)
Long Weekend (3 nights) (£225 / 160)
4 night retreats (£255 / 175)
5 night retreats (£285 / 195)
Week retreats: (£365 / 250)
9 night retreats (£410 / 290)
12 night retreats (£465/ 310)

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