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Residential retreats for 2008
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This will be run many times over the year. This is Burg's Foundation course in Meditation. It is designed to give a thorough practical induction into the practice of Samatha (Serenity) and Vipassana (Insight) Meditation. The course in built around the Buddha's teachings of Dhamma and meditation and combined with powerful healing practices to rapidly release blocked energy and open up the nerve system. It is often found that the body becomes a major hindrance to overcome in the early stages of meditation and Burgs unique approach has enabled many mediators to swiftly get beyond this difficulty at an early stage whilst developing a powerful technique to heal the body and rid it of negative energy locked within it. This significantly enhances the efficacy of the main purpose of the practice which is to develop the serenity and insight by which to more harmoniously navigate both the daily life and our ongoing spiritual journey. This still remains the most important retreat in Burgs" program and even experience mediators keep coming back year after year.
It is a pre requisite to all other retreats.
It is a silent retreat for the first six days. There will be six or seven sessions daily with two discourses and two Chi Kung or Yoga sessions.
615 -7.00 Morning sit 11.45- 12.30 Meditation / Excersise 2.30 - 3.15 Meditation / Private Interviews 3.30 - 4.15 Meditation 4.30 -5.15 Meditation 6.30- 7.30 Tea/ Rest period. 7.30 - 9.00 Discourse. 9.15 Day ends.
All instructions are given systematically and no previous experience of meditation is necessary. Participants are asked to inform us of any health or mental conditions prior to booking. We ask also about previous experience of meditation and any food allegies that you might have. Please download the pdf below and either print it out and mail it to us or kindly send us an email to: bookings@themetteyyafoundation.com with the questions answered.
Participants Form Download: http://www.themetteyyafoundation.com/Participantform.pdf
Over the upcoming year Burgs will continue to use the seven day silent retreat format for most of the work. The Usada programme shall be run 6 times. Although some of the retreats will nuance different aspects of the practice:
November 7 or 10 day Usada and Metta February 7 Day Usada: Samatha (serenity), Vipassana (insight) and Healing March 7 day Usada: Focusing on the Vipassana (insight) aspect of the practice. April 7 day Usada: Focusiong on the Samatha (serenity) aspect of the practice. May 7 Day usada: Samatha, Vipassana and Healing July 7 Day Usada: Focusaing on the Vipassana aspect of the practice.
Samatha or Vipassana: what is for you?
The goal of the usada retreats focusing on the samatha practice is to develop deep states on peace and calm as an antidote to the frenetic pace of modern life. For centuries yogis have sought to attain states of Samadhi and a release and liberation form the mind. This practice emphasises the role of deep concentration in establishing these states. Within this context Burgs shall be discussing how serenity and concentration can be employed as powerful healing states to improve physical energetic and mental wellbeing.
The Vipassana oriented retreats will focus on the insight and wisdom aspect of meditation. Learning to develop our mindfulness and the key to the investigation of states so that we might come to a direct and clearer understanding of our life process and the situations we find ourselves in. through wise attention and right understanding we are able to let go dysfunctional mental states and habits as well s past trauma. This is the most direct way to heal all conditions that have a consciousness aspect to them. Further to this we will investigate how to use this technique to heal deep seated physical problems and illness. So while the Serenity session focuses on stilling and calming the mind this retreat is the counterpoise to that where we sharpen and hone the mind making it clear incisive and bright so that we can overcome our confusion and achieve clarity and right view regarding our life.
Prices There are 3 different pricing structures for our Usada retreats.
Metta (Loving Kindness) Retreat (18th-22nd June)
Loving Kindness or Metta as it is known is a powerfully healing state and one of the most rewarding and enjoyable of all mediation practices. On the Foundation retreat we only get to practice in a very brief way at the end as a way of winding down before going home. On this four day retreat Burgs will expand the practice of Loving kindness considerably giving detailed instructions in how to use it as both serenity practice and a purification and healing practice. He will also introduce the practice of Meditation on Compassion and Appreciative Joy. This retreat was extremely popular last year and you are advised to book early. The programme will run from 6am till 9 pm daily and the course is residential in Woking. Numbers are limited to 20.
Burgs on our need for Metta (Loving Kindness)
Many people are asking why I have decided to start offering retreats teaching exclusively the meditations on Loving Kindness and Appreciative joy, when before it had only been incorporated into the main body of the meditation retreats. We are living now in a time of great challenge and many of us are finding it hard to find peace and serenity in our daily lives. The process of purification that helps us to get to the state where we are un perturbed by such challenges and at peace with our lives as they are is a gradual one that we work towards over time. While we work to this end we need immediate antidotes to the difficulties we face. We are in an age now where anger frustration and ill will are every bit as prevalent as greed and attachment. In fact we might even say that it is the aversion that appears in us that is causing more immediate suffering than the greed that we need to let go over time. The natural instinct of human kindness and affection is being suffocated in so many of us simply because we feel over whelmed by life. It has become hard enough to have to secure our own survival let alone have time for love and good will towards others. And so we are driven into ever more selfish patterns with less and less regard for others. At this time we are facing such a rapid degeneration in the quality of human consciousness despite all the bold claims that we are heading into a spiritual age. Both of these things are true and we need to stop and reflect on how we will make real spiritual progress towards meaningful peace and happiness. We are intelligent beings who swiftly grasp high spiritual principles but we have forgotten how to love unconditionally and remain unjudgemental. We rate our progress towards liberation in terms of how much we have come to understand and not by the emerging qualities we express. Never is any quality more important than the ability to feel and express pure unconditional love, for it IS the very remedy to the agitation and aversion that plagues us and keeps our minds from resting peacefully. We are coming toward the end of our Buddha Gotama's dispensation. Genuine teachers who can expound the complete path out of suffering a rare indeed and hard to find. Soon they will all be gone. Our next Buddha will be the last in this world system and he will teach the path to liberation through Loving Kindness , Compassion and Appreciative Joy. We are lay people seeking peace here and now and not yet fully engaged in the quest for enlightenment. This means that we will have to endure the degeneration of our world system and its re emergence. As Wisdom was the signature of the past Buddha's dispensation, Loving kindness is the very signature of the way to enlightenment that we will follow in the coming age. We will need to deeply establish ourselves in Loving kindness and come to understand what love truly is. It is for this reason that I feel the time has come to make the meditations on Loving Kindness, Compassion, Appreciative Joy and Gratitude a significant part of the practice I teach from now on , for these very practices will open the door to our higher attainments and enlightenment over time. Never has there been a greater need for many of us to become established in a powerful feelings of goodwill and loving kindness. It is our group efforts that will help to roll back the fear and aggression that are driving so many of us. I invite all of you to consider seriously taking the time out to learn the foundation practices of Loving kindness and Appreciative Joy and make them a genuine part of your life as soon as you can. Location: TBC Cost: TBC Teachings on donation
At the end of the Summer I will be holding a Long retreat for 21 days. A number of you have said that you feel the desire to sit a long retreat and I am very happy that now we are able to facilitate one.I would like to say a few words about how this retreat will be set up and how the approach differs slightly from the seven day format that your are used to.Most of you who will come are at the stage of working to develop your Samadhi as preparation for higher Vipassana work. The discipline of Samatha requires a different approach than the one we usally use. We need to begin to sit for longer periods and rest for longer between each sit. So on this retreat there will be five sits of one and a half hours a day with a further private sit early morning. The programme will be as follows. 5.00 -6.30 Morning sit As you can see there is also house work designated on the timetable. We will be running our own retreat and doing our own cooking and cleaning and so each participant will be tasked with a specific job to perform at designated times. Anyone who wishes to help with the cooking and preparation side please contact us prior to the retreat.The retreat will be in Silence but during the afternoon tea period yogi's will be permitted to chat amongst themselves in a discreet way. I have found this level of interaction can be constructive on longer retreats and helps to keep everyone grounded without providing to much by way of distraction. Of course maintaining noble silence in these periods remains an option.So far there are ten people who have contacted us about this retreat and that is most encouraging. We will limit numbers to sixteen of practical reasons. Those of you who are comfortable with your practice and are ready to make efforts towards deeper concentration. The continuity that this longer period offers gives the opportunity to break through to higher levels and the small group means that I will be interviewing everyone individually and giving one on one instructions in accordance with progress.It will be assumed that you are all mature students able to work independently while under the guidance of your teacher. There will only be one formal exercise period but there is plenty of rest time during the day to get further exercise.Over the three weeks I will give a series of discources on further aspects of the Dhamma to suppliment the meditation work you will be doing.
It is a wonderful thing to provide service to those practicing Dhamma. On this retreat there will be opportunities to serve for those who wish. Please remember though that I would always encourage you to do your meditation primarily and not consider it to be selfish not to serve. We will all have jobs to do that will contribute to the smooth running of our retreat.However the kitchen work will require time to be taken out of formal practice periods and so constitutes Dhamma service.We will need cook to oversee the menus and meal and the sourcing of provisions and this obviously is a big job. Further to this we will also need two kitchen assistants to help prep and serve food. Cleaning the kitchen will be one of the jobs that all yogis will share during the after meal periods.If anyone is keen to serve in these roles on the retreat please contact us in advance . Location: Elmore Court, Gloucester,GL2 3NT
In August this year Burgs will run an all Male retreat. He will combine meditation and energy work with the focus on how we as men might re connect with and cultivate our Masculine energy. The work will hinge on the idea of the heroic quest and the part it plays in our empowerment as Men. We will be based on the West cost of snowdonia and much of the work will be done outside in local forrests. The retreat will include a group night out and a further night of vision questing where all participants will spend the night in solitude connected to the group energetically and through fire. This is a rare chance to investigate a more Shamanic approach to cultivation and promises to be a powerful experience not to be missed. The meditation work focus reconnecting to our physicality and the masculine qualities of our spiritual being. The retreat is seven days and six nights. Numbers limited to 16. Dates, Location and Prices to be confirmed, donation not expected. Please cheque back soon and get in touch if interested.
Longevity Practice and Dream Yoga Reteat
This retreat is designed to bring a deeper opening into the body’s healing intelligence and the mind"s more hidden aspects. In this capacity we will work with deep and sustained Asanas (postures) each of which will be developed to the point of profound stillness similar to that which we seek in our normal sitting meditation. The physical yoga itself being a preparation for deeper opening of the subtle energy structures of the body. For most of us the contents of our unconscious remain hidden from us, impacting upon us in ways that we find hard to fathom and often hard to live with. By stilling the subtle winds of the body, and withdrawing our energies from our normal daily rhythms and activities, our awareness is able to reach more deeply into these hidden recesses of our mind and make more known to us (conscious) that which is un known (unconscious). Until now our work in meditation has been to develop an insight and wisdom which brings about a letting go at a quantum level, transforming our being without necessarily knowing what has been transformed. Ultimately if we keep going with this we will in time release all the dysfunctional complexes and habits that are clung to in our psyche resulting in a deep and lasting sense of contentment and peace. However we are by nature curious beings and our personality (persona or the mask we wear) makes up a huge part of how we experience life at a subjective level. An understanding of how and why we developed the pantomime we did (and why we choose to play the roles we do) can be extremely helpful in gaining freedom from its structures and the habits that form us. It is helpful to come to a greater understanding of how our mind is working unconsciously to influence our waking lives at every level. This retreat is aimed at helping us to come to such greater understanding. Through a subtler insight into the unconscious components and sub-personalities that make us who we are, a great deal of confusion is overcome and as we untangle the different layers of our being an easier acceptance of who and what we are comes about. This brings us a greater understanding of our own and other peoples situations, allowing us to honor all aspects of our being and enabling us to bring ourselves into a greater balance and wholeness. While we are awake we busy ourselves with the job of playing our various personas. Often so fixed upon the hopes ideas and desires contained therein that we fail to stop and think why we came to adopt them. In truth most of what we think we long for consciously is a compensation for what really has gone on and is still going on at an unconscious level deep within the recesses of our minds unknown to us: but these reactions are often no longer appropriate and do not reflect a mature response to the present situations that we find ourselves in. For instance often we can be confusing a reaction that may have been appropriate as a child (when we had a very simple capacity for logic, and in a situation where we were necessarily very dependant on our parents), and still playing it out with our present partners as adult where we fail to see that we no longer have such needs and confuse past for present due to lack of insight. Dreams can help us to bring clarity to such entanglements which we can otherwise remain wholly unaware of, and thus help us make sense of our lives. Having done so we can re-approach our meditation with fewer hindrances, and navigate through the world with greater skill and ease. Sadly many of us come to identify so completely with these roles we adopt that we often lose all sight or sense of the hearts deeper yearnings beyond the more personal aspects of our being. Out of this discrepancy comes discontent: and this is the very reason why so many of us, who appear to have everything we could want, remain dissatisfied and feel lacking in our lives. Whilst it is not my aim to explain fully this process here I wish only to give a hint as to the work we begin with this retreat which will be to bring into our awareness the hidden aspects of our consciousness so that they may be more fully integrated into our sense of who we are. From this process of integration comes acceptance and out of that a deeper sense of knowledge and fulfillment. Our meditation practice will revolve around our nightly dream activities as well as our waking consciousness. The hidden aspects of our psyche reveal themselves more freely in the unhindered state of dreaming when we are freed of our self consciousness and the bounds of temporal and spatial reality. In this state we are not restricted by what we may think is acceptable, correct or possible: nor do we cling to the views that we often arbitrarily cling to or internalize from society. In the poetic and symbolic landscape of dreams our being reveals itself in an spontaneous and unrepressed way. Whilst this may be unsettling to begin with it affords us tremendous insight into what may lay hidden and unexpressed within us, giving an exceptional opportunity to process things which we may not consciously choose to. Processing this information takes a certain courage and willingness to go beyond our previously held view of ourselves and so takes maturity: a willingness to embrace, integrate and work with the dark and the light aspects of our being: and reconect with deeper intelligence beyond our ego. Different aspects of the mind reveal themselves at different stages of the night, therefore we will be keeping dreaming journals and waking regularly in the night to recall our dreams and enter directly into meditation from them. We will also take rest in the day to sleep and continue this process. The first aspect of dream yoga is to investigate the contents of our dreams with more awareness. Following this we will learn to consciously enter sleep and guide the subtle energies of our body in ways that bring specific and healing responses. The final goal to remain conscious during sleeping so that we might in time come to recognize the pure state of clear consciousness that the mind rests in whilst sleeping. This is a very profound practice which gives us direct access to the highest of meditative states. Whist this is a lot of ground to cover in a week my hope is to introduce you to these new disciplines and instill in you a deeper understanding of the processes involved in the hope that you might explore them further for yourselves. If you are intending to join this retreat I would like you to start to keep a journal of your dreams right away so that you might develop the habit of remembering them. In this journal please also keep a note of the quality of your sleep, the ease with which you entered it and how you felt on waking, both in the night and in the morning. Whilst this retreat is open to everyone I do strongly recommend that you sit the Foundation course first. I also do not recommend this retreat of those of you who are insomniacs or find it difficult to get quality sleep. It is better we address this issue before beginning this work. I hope this brief explanation will give you a better understanding of the work being offered and encourage many of you to join. I have no doubt that you will find it both insightful and rewarding, as well as fun and I look forward to seeing you there in June.
Please note that all the prices listed for retreats are for accomodation costs only. All teachings are done on a purely donation basis. |
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