Embodied Presence, Wise and Steady Heart – Week 1

Week 1 option

  • Mar 06

    Saturday Mar 6, 2027 - Saturday Mar 13, 2027

    (Start time Sat 16:00 CET - End time Sat 14:00 CET) Jaya Rudgard, Yuka Nakamura, Denis Bićanić Bratski (Assistant)
    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
Description

To book for the whole 2 weeks retreat, please click here

Price Options

Single Room: €890

Shared Room: €790

Early Bird Offer: As a special offer for anyone signing up to this course before 1 November 2026 we include a talk with Jaya Rudgard and Yuka Nakamura: A Fleeting World - Reflections on Impermanence.

Theme

Among the trees of Naarden, easily accessible from Amsterdam, an opportunity to give oneself over more fully to the practices of calm, insight and metta (loving-kindness) on a longer than usual silent retreat. 

Enjoy a chance to deepen your practice with the support of experienced teachers and a quiet community of fellow practitioners. 

The retreat will have a spacious structure, with time to reflect and integrate dispersed with scheduled practices and dharma talks. 

Mornings dedicated to sitting and walking meditations with practice instructions, and there will be optional qigong sessions (taking advantage of the beautiful gardens to practice outside where weather allows). 

The days will include time to meet in groups or individually with the teachers to speak in private about your practice. 

Evenings will feature dharma talks from the teachings, offering us a chance to reflect and contemplate key themes from the Buddha’s early teachings. The retreat will take place in silence, apart from the dedicated question times, allowing us the space to settle into our practice and quieten the mind. 

All food is lovingly prepared onsite and delicious vegetarian meals provided throughout the retreat. 

Who is it for?

For this retreat you’ll need experience of one previous 5 day silent retreat as a minimum.

Graduates of the CPP and other Bodhi College programmes as well as newcomers to Bodhi College are warmly welcome.

Accommodation

Single rooms are available for everyone who would like one, although there is also the option to share a room for a lower cost. 

Provisional sample daily schedule (subject to change):

6.00 Wake up

6.30 Sitting meditation

7.15 Breakfast

8.15 Working meditation

9.15 Instructions and sitting meditation

10.15 Walking meditation

11.00 Sitting meditation

11.45 Further sitting/walking/ meetings with teachers

12.30 Lunch

14.30 Walking meditation

15.00 Guided meditation

15.45 Open practice schedule, meetings with teachers

17.00 Optional qigong or individual practice

17.45 Supper

19.00 Evening practice: sitting, dharma talk, walking, chanting

21.30 Rest or further practice

Praise for our teachers 

I can’t sing Jaya’s praises highly enough. For me personally I learn well from her and gravitate towards her. She’s very personable, humble, and explains things really well. I love her as a teacher.” – Stillness Flowing retreat participant, with Jaya

Jaya is such a lovely teacher. Sometimes on retreat it can take me a couple of days to settle, but with her it was almost straight away. She’s very warm, and very gentle. She shares her vulnerability and shows us she’s a human being too. She’s very much part of the group and this helped the group to gel.” – Stillness Flowing retreat participant with Jaya 

This is the best course on Buddhism I have done. Excellent content but above all Christina and Jaya were inspirational. The way they explained ideas and related them to everyday life was wonderful.” – The Seven Factors of Awakening online course participant with Jaya Rudgard and Christina Feldman

"This was a wonderful retreat with excellent teachers. It was a delight to be taught by teachers with such a depth of knowledge and experience and although I had been on retreats on this subject a few times previously, the way it was taught really landed with me in a deeper way." - from the Liberating the mind through the five spiritual powers in person retreat participant with Yuka Nakamura and Christina Feldman

"This course gave me both the mindfulness practice of a silent retreat in a beautiful atmosphere and the wonderful and very worthwhile and profound teachings from Yuka and other teachers." — Previous course participant

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:

  • Participants are asked to contribute 1 hour of work a day, in order to help with the running of the retreat
  • All meals included – vegetarian food with the possibility of catering for special diets
  • For experienced students

Teachers: 

JAYA RUDGARD began meditating in the 1980s and practised for eight years as a nun in the Thai Forest traditionJayain England with Ven. Ajahn Sumedho as her teacher.  She later trained to teach at Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock in the US and continues to teach Insight Meditation at these centres, at home in the UK and internationally. She is a member of the Gaia House Teacher Council. Jaya also teaches qigong. 

YUKA NAKAMURA has practised Buddhist meditation in different traditions since 1993, has a PhD in Developmental Psychology and is a certified MBSR-teacher. Trained as a Buddhist meditation teacher by Fred von Allmen she teaches meditation at Beatenberg (Switzerland), Gaia House (UK), Insight Meditation Society (Barre, MA) and other places. Yuka offers MBSR-courses and MBI-trainings at the CFM Zentrum für Achtsamkeit (CH).

Assistant:

DENIS BIĆANIĆ BRATSKI is a cultural sociologist and philosopher (Diploma/MA) with many years’ experience in the humanitarian and social sectors. He is a qualified teacher of ‘Mindful Self-Compassion’ (MSC). Between 2018 and 2022, he completed the ‘Committed Practitioners Programme’ and the ‘Teacher Training Programme’ at Bodhi College. Most recently, he completed the continuing professional development course ‘Palliative Care for Care and Psychosocial Professions’ (2023–24).

 

Venue: