Date/Time
Date(s) - 29 Dec 2021 - 31 Dec 2021
9:30 am - 5:00 pm
3-day New Year Online Retreat with Ven Canda, for Sheffield Insight:
“Time To Love The Breath”
Do you struggle to keep your mind on the breath and wonder if you should try a different technique?
This retreat will explore the powerful practices of loving kindness (metta) and mindfulness of breathing (anapanasati). Together we will discover how they can work in harmony and synergy to help brighten and calm the mind, leading to insights that relieve suffering.
We will start by establishing an attitude of metta as a way of opening our heart to the present moment, in a non-judgemental way. This will form the basis of practice that can be returned to throughout the retreat.
We will also cultivate metta meditation as a joyful means to develop stillness (samadhi) and overcome restlessness and discontent; hindrances that can make it difficult to stay with a subtler meditation object like the breath. As feelings of contentment and ease develop through metta practice, mindfulness increases and the breath becomes easier and more enjoyable to watch. The stages of breath meditation may then start to unfold naturally. With guidance, we will learn to intuitively sense how loving kindness and breath meditation can be alternated or even combined, to deepen our meditation – through wisdom rather than force.
The schedule will be relaxed and include Dhamma reflections drawing on the Buddha’s teachings, guided meditations and opportunities for Q&A. The retreat starts at 9:30am until 5pm each day with a lunch break from 11.30- 1.30pm. On the closing day we will share the metta phrases we have been practicing with and offer blessings out to the world.
Registration will open in the next week or two, so please check here for updates: