The Brahma Viharas - Living in the Mandala: Intensive Meditation Retreat 2024 | Taraloka | Buddhist Retreat Centre For Women

Wednesday, August 28, 2024 to Friday, September 6, 2024

Retreat Team:

Retreat Type:

The Brahma Viharas are a path to Bodhicitta. They transform our negative tendencies into Love, Compassion, Gladness and Equanimity. We will practise these wondrous meditations within a specially created Mandala of the Five Jinas and also come to see how, in our everyday lives, we can dwell much more in these loving states of mind.

There are no single rooms left for this retreat, if you'd like to be on the waiting list please email admin@taraloka.org.uk

The Dalai Lama has called the Brahma Viharas our ‘spiritual birthright’. These practices are our heart’s natural state experienced when the ‘clouds of illusion’ lift. We will explore the transforming power of these beautiful practices as we find the energy to shift the clouds and reveal our true heart. Together we will deepen our experience of the four meditation practices - metta bhavana, karuna bhavana, mudita bhavana and upekkha bhavana – through meditation, reflection, presentations, related activities, devotion and through silence.

Our spiritual experience will be held within the mandala of the Five Jinas whose transcendental wisdoms radiate with the highest emotion. The Shrine Room will be a beautiful mandala of dedicated shrines, while the Taraloka gardens and land become a sacred space for standing, sitting, walking, devotion and reflection. All this brings us closer to the truths of experience, to our heart’s response and to a glimpse of Bhante’s vision of what lies beyond:

‘the cultivated emotions of the Brahma Viharas pass through the fires of sunnata, or emptiness – that is non-self or non-duality – thus giving rise to the bodhicitta, or wisdom heart.’

Sangharakshita, Living with Kindness

Suggested donation (in addition to the booking fee): £410 waged / £290 unwaged

Booking Fee:

£95.00

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