Silent Meditation and Yoga Retreats
Silent Meditation and Yoga Retreats are periodically offered for dana.
Next Dates
TBC
Insight Meditation: Ways of Taking in the World
with Victor von der Heyde and NeLi Martin
In this retreat you’ll have the opportunity to experiment with different approaches to meditation. You’ll have the freedom to use an approach you’re familiar with, or try something new; to develop trust and confidence in your own unfolding practice.
Approaches will include ways of settling the discursive mind, embodied awareness, energy body and metta practices, and meditations that help us notice the way we take in the world.
We will follow the common silent Insight Meditation format of periods of sitting, walking, movement/yoga practice, dharma talks and interviews. The retreat is suitable for both new and experienced meditators. More experienced meditators have the option of a largely solitary retreat with little teacher contact while having the support of a retreat environment.
Victor von der Heyde
Victor von der Heyde has been practising meditation for thirty-five years. His main teachers have been Rob Burbea from Gaia House in the UK, and Toni Packer in the US. He has also practised with Joseph Goldstein, Aitken Roshi, Joko Beck, Stephen and Martine Batchelor, Tsoknyi Rinpoche and others. He has spent over two years in silent retreats and has taken dharma teaching roles since the mid 1990s.
Victor has an interest helping people understand the varieties of meditation so that they’re in a position to choose what works for them. He has had a long-term focus on environmental ethics, he spent two decades helping manage a small overseas aid organisation, trained in Gestalt Therapy, completed graduate studies in counselling and worked for many years as a counsellor.
A SILENT RETREAT IS AN INVITATION TO LET SILENCE PERMEATE YOUR BEING
NeLi has spent collectively more than one year in silent meditation practice on retreat, Victor, well over two years. We know the terrain of the inner life intimately. We’re honoured to facilitate this exploration for you…
Silence is an opportunity to listen, open, come home to yourself, and find yourself intimately connected to everything!!
With a warm heart, NeLi and Victor will offer teachings and practices from the Buddhist Western Insight tradition.
In this retreat you’ll have the opportunity to experiment with different approaches to meditation. You’ll have the freedom to use an approach you’re familiar with, or try something new; to develop trust and confidence in your own unfolding practice.
Silence will support our deep rest and self-nurturing.
This retreat is an invitation to explore the ways we view the world.
Venue: the Theosophical Society Retreat Centre at Springbrook, Gold Coast hinterland. Everyone gets a small room to themselves. There are walking tracks through the rainforest at the centre and the lounge and dining area has a big wood heater.
Exercise / movement / yoga: There will be periods scheduled for movement and yoga, both guided and unguided.
Food: Vegetarian food will be provided and a number of special dietary needs can be catered for.
Work period: There will be a work period of 30 to 45 minutes to help with keeping costs down and also to help with keeping the venue clean.
Cost:
Dana: In keeping with an Insight Meditation and Theravada tradition, teachers offer the teachings as a gift and receive no payment for this. At the end of the retreat there’ll be a box for offerings to the teachers and this dana will be gratefully received. Dana not only supports the teachers for the time they spend but makes future events of this kind possible. More on Dana.