Tuesday 11th (evening) to Sunday 16th October (noon) with Di Robertson and Russell Walker
Online registration is now closed
Cost: $50, Plus dana for teachers.
Awakening Heartfulness in Daily life
This online retreat is a chance to cultivate a heartful presence moment to moment in the midst of daily life. Through silent sitting and walking practices calmness and clarity are strengthened, and we connect more intimately with who we are and the world we inhabit. Patterns of thinking that are limiting can be seen clearly and lose their power. Insight and compassion emerge resourcing us for challenging times and enabling a more heartful engagement in life in its fullness.
There will be full instructions and guided meditations, evening talks, small group and individual meetings with the teachers. There will also be instructions on how to make the most of the retreat in this online format, from your homes or chosen locations. Suitable for those new to the practice and more experienced.
What to expect with online retreats?
An online retreat provides a unique opportunity to bring some of the commitment, intention and fruits of a residential retreat into our home environment. Some of the practice becomes how to fit that into our own living arrangements and other responsibilities. We may have others in the household, people to care for and some other commitments we can’t put aside. While this may seem daunting, the simple structure of the retreat itself offers support for this and a chance to explore all of these aspects of our daily life with fresh eyes.
Signing up to the retreat includes committing to attending daily teachings, a small group with Russell or Di on alternate days and a daily group sitting (There will also be an opportunity for some one-on-one teacher meetings). The teaching times that everyone is asked to attend (subject to finalising the schedule) will be:
- 9 – 10 am, 2:30 – 3:15 pm and 7:30 – 8:15 pm.
- Your group is likely to be 10:15 – 11 or 11:45 am – 12:30 on alternate days.
- The all-group sitting is most likely to be 6:30 am.
Outside of those offerings, there will be a full schedule of group sitting periods and times for walking practice, but you’re encouraged to adapt to suit your particular circumstances. So for example if you have caregiving duties or other commitments you can incorporate those into your retreat experience.
More Details and Wonderings
Once registrations close, we will send more details and instructions on how to set up for a home retreat, including Zoom and a web-based communication platform.
Russell and Di are enthusiastic about enabling Southern Insight to again offer this online retreat format; Di has taught two online retreats and was inspired and impressed by the nature of everyone’s practice and like most people on that retreat, delighted to hear how much participants got from the experience and pleasantly surprised by how much they got out of it, which is partly expressed in the following testimonials:
The Southern Insight online spring retreat was my first online retreat experience. I had no idea an online retreat could have such community and connection, warmth and joy – or that this practice could be so transformative of my daily life – and continue to do so a year on from the retreat. I had long been looking for better understanding of how to integrate the cultivation of insight and presence into the ordinary and every day and this was a game changer! Meg
I attended the Spring retreat (rapidly pivoted online due to Covid restrictions) … I had felt quite disappointed to not be doing a “Proper” retreat, and I now see I had developed an attitude of online retreats to be a “Lite” version of a meditation retreat. So it was a pretty happy surprise for me to discover that this is a very valuable and worthy retreat model on many levels.
Here are some of my discoveries:
Learning that I can let go of many my rituals and behaviours and create a peaceful and meditative space myself at home. This experience also gave me lots of ideas and strategies to broaden and deepen my own home practice.
Realising that meditating in a group by Zoom works just as well as meditating in a hall. It’s both similar and different, and both models are equally valuable.
Seeing and hearing from others present that they would not have been able to come to the In Person retreat for many and varied reasons, and they were very pleased to have this online version to attend and to have the opportunity to engage with Sangha.
I found myself to be less distracted and I experienced higher levels of spaciousness and quietness, with this retreating at home by Zoom.
I slept well in my own cosy bed.
My virtuous feelings as I didn’t need to use any fossil fuels getting to the retreat. Marion B.
Enquiries
- Email: Southern.insight.meditation@gmail.com, or
- Phone: Sarah, 027 6693 824
**A note on Dana: The registration fees cover accommodation, meals and administration costs of the retreat. They do not cover any payment to teachers for their teaching. Teachers will receive only what you offer as dana. Dana is a gift by each person in the spirit of generosity to reciprocate the teachers’ sharing of their depth of knowledge and expertise. The amount given is up to the giver