The practice of the Brahmaviharas – the best way of living in this world

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  • Sep 24

    Sunday Sep 24, 2023 - Friday Sep 29, 2023

     (Start time Sun 16:00 CEST - End time Fri 14:00 CEST)
    ITC, Naarden, The Netherlands
    Christina Feldman, John Peacock
    • Please click on Register to select any options available.
    The fee does not contribute towards the livelihood of our teachers. You will be invited to offer teacher dana at the end of the course.
    Register5 places remaining
Description

Price Options:

Single: €690 (SOLD OUT)

Double: €620

In the ancient text known as the Metta Sutta, the Buddha refers to the practice of friendliness, kindness and goodwill as the 'best' and most 'sublime' way of living in this world. 

Rather than putting the emphasis on intense meditative experience, he places it on four fundamental relational qualities that begin with friendliness, and mature and develop through the practice of compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity. Through cultivating the ground of friendliness (metta) we create the conditions for the other qualities to manifest in our lives and to develop skilful relationships with other people, as well as the circumstances we find ourselves in. 

The Buddha offers a unique pathway to liberation based on these sublimely human qualities, that unfortunately are all too often absent in our lives. In this retreat we will examine these four qualities and learn to cultivate them in our difficult contemporary lives. 

The retreat includes meditation sessions, talks and small groups.

Event Details

Cost:

  • This retreat is offered on a dana basis – you will be asked to make an additional monetary donation at the end of the course to support the livelihood of the teacher.
  • If paying a deposit – balance to be paid no later than 4 weeks before the module start
  • A limited number of Bursary places are available for this course.

Additional Information: 

  • Open to all – new and experienced practitioners alike
  • Participants are asked to contribute 1 hour of work a day, in order to help with the running of the retreat
  • Periods of silent meditation practice, as well as teachings and study
  • All meals included – vegetarian food with the possibility of catering for special diets

Teachers:

CHRISTINA FELDMAN is a co-founder of Gaia House and a guiding teacher at Insight Meditation Society, Barre, Massachussetts. The author of a number of books, she has been teaching insight meditation retreats internationally since 1976. She is one of the teaching faculty of the CPP programme, dedicated to the study and application of the early teachings of the Buddha and is engaged in teaching the Buddhist psychological foundations of mindfulness to those training to teach mindfulness-based applications in England, Belgium and the Netherlands. Her most recent book Mindfulness: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Psychology, written with Willem Kuyken, was published in the summer of 2019. 


JOHN PEACOCK is both an academic and a Buddhist practitioner of nearly fifty years. Trained initially in the Tibetan Gelugpa tradition in India, he subsequently spent time in Sri Lanka studying Theravada. After doing a doctorate in philosophy, he taught Buddhist and Western philosophy and then Buddhist Studies at the University of Bristol. He went on to be Associate Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, co-direct the Master of Studies programme in MBCT(Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy) at Oxford University, and teach Buddhist psychology on the same course.  John is now retired from academia and continues to teach meditation, as he has done for more than thirty-five years.

Venue: