There’s only two weeks to go now till the start of Triratna’s third International Urban Retreat, which will start on Saturday November 9th. Many Triratna Buddhist Centres and groups across the world will be taking part, running meditations and events to encourage people to "go on retreat" for a week, but whilst staying at home and living their usual lives of work or family. The idea is to help create conditions to support people wanting to intensify their Buddhist practice for a week, and for us all to support each other in that.

Vajragupta, one of the coordinators of the event says: 'I've been in touch with groups and centres in Auckland, Dublin, Moscow, Seattle, Sheffield, and loads more places where they are preparing for the event. In Ghent, Belgium, they are planning "Metta in the Park". They want to make the image of someone sitting in meditation more visible and familiar to people, so they are planning to meditate four or five times that week in the local park. At the Ipswich Buddhist Centre, amongst many other activities, they will be showing the film "Dhamma Brothers" – an inspirational film about meditation in a high-security prison in the deep south of the USA.'

The event is also running online at: www.thebuddhistcentre.com/urbanretreat. If you register for this event then, each day, you'll be able to access a concise teaching about metta (loving-kindness), a 30-min guided meditation, a "daily practice reflection" on how to take the practice of loving-kindness into your daily life, and also a 10-min talk on metta from Vessantara, one of Triratna's well-known retreat leaders and authors. There’ll also be the opportunity to let others know how your practice is going, and to hear from people around the world putting the same teachings into practice.

We’ve been inviting everyone who’ll be taking part to send us their photos, which have been uploaded to an interactive map. This is taking shape very nicely, the latest additions coming from Beijing, Hong Kong, Barcelona and Portsmouth NH! You can see it anytime here, and contribute your photo or your Sangha’s photo by emailing us at pictures@thebuddhistcentre.com.

The retreat itself starts on November 9th and runs for a week.