10-day silent meditation retreat in the beautiful Southern Highlands of NSW
Update: The 10-day retreat is expected to run again in April 2024, check back for updates or sign up to the mailing list.
Description
Dates: Friday 21 Sunday 30 April 2023, arrive 4-6pm Thursday, depart after 2pm Sunday
This 10-day meditation retreat allows practitioners to experience a greater depth of practice through seclusion. The retreat becomes a supportive environment to go deeper into meditation than is typically possible with the busyness and complexities of daily life. The beautiful, serene environment allows space for cultivating awareness and equanimity and for exploring the mind. The 10-day retreat format has become popular as a way to maximise practice time while minimising taking time off from other commitments.
This is a student-centred retreat, which means that there is no set curriculum to follow but rather each student will continue their own meditation practice and all talks and interviews will be responsive to students’ needs and interests. Instructions on meditation techniques will be provided as required. If you haven’t had much experience meditating on retreat before, we will organise a call with the teacher prior to the retreat to provide you with support and answer any questions.
Retreat Schedule
The schedule will mostly alternate between seated and walking meditation. Each day there will be a dharma talk, a one-on-one interview with the teacher, three meals, and time for exercise or walking outside. We will observe noble silence from Friday night until Sunday lunchtime.
FAQ
Here’s a short FAQ about going on retreat: https://kynanmeditation.net/vejjasala-retreat-faq/
About the Teacher
Kynan Tan is a meditation teacher who takes a collaborative approach to helping students achieve their meditation goals. He came to meditation after struggles with stress, anxiety, and depression and found the practice to be transformative. He believes that meditation has enormous potential for creating positive change and opening up new ways of relating to our experience.
Kynan draws upon a number of different modern and traditional techniques of contemplative and introspective practice. He is a longtime practitioner of the stages of śamatha-vipassanā (as presented in the book The Mind Illuminated), Rob Burbea’s insight meditation techniques, nondual awareness, and brahmavihārā practices (mettā, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity).
Kynan studies meditation with Dr. Tucker Peck. He teaches the Pragmatic Dharma Club at the San Francisco Dharma Collective, leads retreats, and teaches one-on-one instruction and online meditation courses. Kynan has sat a number of retreats, including a month-long solo retreat in 2021.
Venue and Cost
Vejjasala, located just outside the village of Wingello in the Southern Highlands of NSW, is the retreat centre of the Association of Engaged Buddhists (AEB). The name, Vejjasala, means a place for healing.
The cost for the retreat includes food, with three vegan/vegetarian meals per day. Please indicate if you have any allergies or dietary requirements. We will do our best to facilitate any medical requirements (e.g. celiac) but may not be able to accommodate all requests.
For this retreat, we are limiting the number of places and keeping costs as low as possible. We will have an on-site cook for part of the retreat. Participants will be required to help prepare food as a mindful task.
There are a limited number of places and all accommodation will be private rooms – either a single room in the main house or a kuti.
The cost for the retreat is $850. This covers food and accommodation. There is an early bird special of $780 available until 31 Jan.
Scholarships are available via Open Dharma Foundation.
Payment to the teacher is made by donation (dāna) after the retreat.
Full details about Vejjasala, accommodation options, directions, and information about what to bring can be found on the website: https://engagedbuddhists.org.au/vejjasala-retreat-centre/
There is a train station in Wingello, however trains do not frequently stop there. We will attempt to organise carpooling. Please indicate on the signup form if you require a lift or are able to offer lifts to others.
Vejjasala is a safe and inclusive space for LGBTQIA+ people.
COVID
- We are requiring that all attendees conduct a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) within 24 hours of attending the retreat. Take a photo of your result and email to office@engagedbuddhists.org.au in order to be able to attend the retreat.
- All attendees must be fully vaccinated and send a screenshot of vaccination status along with RAT test results per the above. This is to ensure the safety of all members attending the retreat.
Adequate social distancing, hand-washing and other sensible measure should be followed by all attendees.
It should be noted that participants attend these retreats entirely at their own discretion and should consider their own risks and responsibilities in regard to COVID. While reasonable efforts will be taken in regard to providing a safe environment, the Association takes no responsibility for individuals’ behaviour or health consequences arising from attending a retreat. If you are experiencing any symptoms, please do not attend the retreat and notify the organisers at office@engagedbuddhists.org.au.
Refund Policy
PLEASE NOTE: Bookings may be cancelled at no charge 14 days prior to the event however as catering materials need to be purchased in advance by the Association, bookings cancelled less than 14 days prior to the event will incur a 50% fee, unless the space is able to be filled by another retreatant, in which case a full refund (minus booking fees) will be issued.
Enquiries
If you have any questions about the retreat, please contact Kynan on kynantctan@gmail.com
Location
Vejjasala, 219 Forest Road Wingello, NSW 2579