Dhyana and Insight Meditation Retreat

Sangharakshita talks about ‘the fluidity and flexibility’ of mind in dhyana, and says that:

“Insight meditation is designed to help you experience the truths of the Buddha’s teachings not just as religious or philosophical ideas, but as tangible realities.”

And also, “The distinction between these 2 kinds of meditation is not as clear cut as it is sometimes thought to be…” *

We all have various meditation practices we can engage in, both to calm the mind and promote more deeply positive states, and to become aware directly of mind’s nature: the nature of experience, how the lakshanas manifest in each moment. We need both these aspects of meditation to understand, explore and free ourselves from limiting tendencies and ways of being, allowing for a more radical and long-lasting ease.

On this retreat we will explore these 2 aspects, recognising their flavour and effects in our practice – whether in the context of sadhana, mindfulness, metta, Just Sitting or specific insight practices. Through this we can allow the ‘fluidity and flexibility’ of our minds to deepen and see how this helps insight to become a ‘tangible reality’.*

*These and many more of Bhante’s thoughts, suggestions and wonderings in this area have been collected in chapter 6 of The Purpose and Practice of Buddhist Meditation, and we will be using some of these as starting points for our meditative explorations.

These seminars were given many years ago to a young and evolving movement with not a lot of meditation experience to go on. But many of his comments are as fresh and radical now as they were then. On this retreat, we will revisit this material in a meditative and experiential context. Possibly picking up on subtleties and observations we may have missed at an earlier time. Attuning ourselves to and getting a felt sense for some of what he is pointing to, using it as a basis to explore and deepen our own experience of both shamatha and insight as ‘a tangible reality’.

There will be meditation workshops, with led meditation, silent practice and devotional evenings, as well as the opportunity for meditation reviews.