Festivals & Retreats
Coming up:
SUMMER SANGHAS RETREAT: THE DAWNING MOON OF THE MIND
7th – 14th July
Book here
RAINS RETREAT WITH DHIVAN: DEPENDENT ARISING AND THE PATH TO LIBERATION
1st – 8th Nov 2024
Pratītya-samutpāda or ‘dependent arising’ is the Buddha’s teaching about how everything we experience arises on causes and conditions, and ends with the ending of those same conditions. So dependent arising gives us a framework both for thinking about the ways in which suffering and unsatisfactoriness arises in life, but also about how we can give rise to the conditions for deepening wellbeing and liberating insight. In this retreat, Dhivan will share his years of study and practice with this teaching in a practical way, combining study and discussion with meditation and reflection.
Dhivan is the author of This Being, That Becomes: The Buddha’s teaching on conditionality, published by Windhorse Publications (2011), and this book would make good preparatory reading for the retreat. You can get a taste of Dhivan’s more scholarly work on dependent arising at https://www.saet.ac.uk/Buddhism/DependentArising. This retreat however will be much more down to earth and practical in its approach.
Our popular annual 7-day non-residential retreat at the Bristol Buddhist Centre is open to all Mitras and Order members in the region. Although the hope is you will book time to participate in the whole event, you are invited to attend as much or as little as you can fit into your life. All meals are provided and there will be space in the programme to simply hang out in the Centre with Sangha.
Detailed programme will be posted nearer the time.
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Our three major festivals celebrate the Three Jewels and are opportunities for the whole Sangha to practise together. Buddha Day on the full moon of May/June celebrates the awakening of the Buddha.
Dharma Day on the full moon of July marks his first communication of his awakened experience.
Sangha Day on the full moon of November celebrates the community of followers of the Buddha.
We hold various other celebrations and festivals such as Padmasambhava Day and Triratna Day.
We also go away for weekend retreats in the countryside – info here.
