There is an aliveness and awakeness that we can recognise at any moment. It’s an openness to our full being - in body, senses and awareness. It points to what we really are, outside of conceptual fabrications. In recognising and opening to a spacious yet embodied presence, here and now, we may discover a timeless awareness-emptiness that is inseparable from loving, compassionate energy.
We’ll explore all this through sitting meditation, experiential ‘lookings’ and by discovering our own direct experience as awareness, simplicity, intimacy and aliveness. These qualities are gateways to the five ‘undivided knowings’ (jnanas) which are the essence of the mandala of the five Buddhas. This mandala offers a very practical ‘map’ of our immediate experience, pointing to what has been here all along, unnoticed.
The retreat will be led by Tejananda. He been practising Buddhism and meditation for over 40 years and a member of Triratna since 1980. Since becoming an Order member, he has worked in a vegetarian café in Croydon, helped establish the Bristol Buddhist Centre, worked for the Karuna Trust, written a book introducing the fundamentals of Buddhism 'The Buddhist Path to Awakening ' and taught meditation and Dharma in many parts of the UK, Europe and the USA. He has been part of the resident / teaching team at Vajraloka retreat centre in Wales since 1995 and became chairman of the centre in 2001.
This is the longer annual meditation retreat for the Oslo Buddhist centre. Retreat is an important part of practice. In particular meditation retreats offers an opportunity to experience other dimensions of ourselves and consciousness. Most of the retreat will be in silence. It is suitable for people who have been practising meditation regularly for at least 6 months and are familiar with mindfulness of breathing, Metta Bhavana and rituals as done in the Triratna Buddhist community. If you haven’t been meditating for that long, but are keen to come on the retreat and have attended at least one course in Buddhism and/or meditation, get in touch with us. The participants has to stay for the whole retreat.
Place: Lillomarkskapellet in Nittedal, just outside of Oslo. Travel – look at Facebook or our website.
Money and generosity or "dana": We don’t charge for activities at the Oslo Buddhist Centre. Our aim is to inspire a culture of generosity in the way we share Buddhist teachings. Generosity is of fundamental importance in Buddhism and the finances of the Centre are run on the basis of “dana”, which means generosity in the old Indian language, Pali. It is also important to us that no-one is excluded from taking part in any of our activities for financial reasons. Instead we invite you to contribute what you can to enable us to run these and other events.
However, if we do not receive enough donations to cover the costs of the retreat, we will simply not be able to run these kinds of events in the future. The anticipated cost of running the retreat is NOK 44 200 (€4600). With 15 participants that would mean we would need an average donation of NOK 3000 (€318) per person to break even. We also need to cover some of the running costs of the centre over and above the direct costs of the retreat. We would encourage you to give whatever you would like to and can afford.
Payment to Oslo Buddhistsenter, account: 1254.05.10421. If you are not based in Norway, pay by PayPal to post [at] oslobuddhistsenter.no (written as email address without spaces). Mark the payment “Easter retreat + your name”.
Booking by "Tickets" Latest by 2.3. Please also tick that you will come on Facebook - to let others know :-) First come first served.
The booking is binding. As we are not asking for a deposit or booking fee, we would ask participants to bear in mind that if they book a place and do not turn up, that may mean that someone else who wanted a place misses out on the opportunity to attend, so please do let us know if you need to cancel your booking.
