BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:Europe/London X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/London BEGIN:VEVENT UID:1780@anukampaproject.org DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260613T000000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260620T000000 DTSTAMP:20260314T090830Z URL:https://anukampaproject.org/events/ajahn-brahmalis-8-day-residential-r etreat-turning-your-life-into-a-true-blessing/ SUMMARY:Ajahn Brahmali's 8-Day Residential Retreat: "Turning Your Life Into a True Blessing" DESCRIPTION:\nWhat is the theme of the retreat?\nMahāmaṅgala Sutta (The Discourse on the Highest Blessings) is among the most cherished teachings of the Theravāda tradition - a gentle yet profound guide to living well. Uniquely grounded in the realities of lay life\, it offers clear\, practical reflections that nourish the heart and quietly transform the way we live\, relate\, and practice.\n\nStep by step\, this sutta elucidates the entire spiritual path: from cultivating harmony and wise conduct in daily life\, through deepening inner clarity and ultimately pointing toward liberation itself. During this retreat\, we will slow down and explore its verses with care\, drawing on the wider wisdom of the Pāli Canon to illuminate each blessing and bring it alive in our own experience.\n\nJoin us for a contemplative journey into simplicity\, meaning\, and awakening - a space to listen\, reflect\, and let the teachings gently lead you to freedom and liberation.\n\nBe there or be square! 🙂\;\n\n \;\nWhy choose an Ajahn Brahmali retreat?\nAjahn Brahmali\, a senior disciple of Ajahn Brahm\, is an exemplary practicing monk\, Buddhist scholar and much sought-after teacher of early Buddhism. Ajahn Brahmali brings the depth and scope of the Buddha's teachings to life\, in a way that inspires our everyday practice and our path towards Enlightenment. Rarely are the Buddha’s teachings elucidated with so much clarity and contagious joy.\n\nThrough your own direct experience of meditation informed by the Buddha's teachings\, your relationship with the historical Buddha will deepen\, bringing renewed confidence that you are practicing correctly and inspiring your journey on the Noble Eightfold Path ~ as though the Buddha were right by your side!\n\nThe retreat will be held in silence\, and to support this we have exclusive usage of the centre for a total of 32 retreatants and three monastics. Furthermore\, Ladywell’s friendly staff will look after all our needs\, preparing and serving our meals as well as doing all the washing up! The retreat is suitable for both beginners and experienced meditators alike. Be sure to register early and secure your place!\nWhere will the retreat be held?\n\n\nWe are delighted to have found a very peaceful venue in idyllic surroundings. Set in the heart of beautiful Surrey\, The Franciscan Centre Ladywell is spiritual home to Franciscan Sisters and the FMDM (Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood)\, who have created a space of peace\, beauty and reflection. The buildings and extensive grounds lend themselves perfectly to a silent meditation retreat. We feel confident that the atmosphere alone will support you in quietening the mind!\n\nLadywell grounds offer many different spaces for quiet reflection and the enjoyment of nature. These include:\n\nThe Carceri Garden:\nA spacious\, private and quiet landscaped garden with a water feature\, summer house and pergola – a place to sit or walk and contemplate the beauty around you.\n\nThe Shrine Field:\nA short walk outside the back gate brings you to this Shrine in honour of Our Lady. Built by the FMDM in the 1950s the Shrine sits on the site of an ancient chapel.  This place has been a place of prayer since the 7th Century.  The woodland adjacent to the Shrine was planted by the FMDM as part of the Millennium Project in 2000\, in partnership with The Woodland Trust.\n\nThe centre has good transport links from London to Godalming train station in Surrey.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTentative Retreat Schedule \nIn the same spirit as Ajahn Brahm\, Ajahn Brahmali has a relaxed approach to meditation that allows you to find your own pace and joy in practice. It also offers plenty of space and time to unwind in the beautiful grounds. Below is a rough schedule that includes talks\, guided meditations\, sutta classes\, Q&\;A and (unlisted) group interviews with Ajahn Brahmali. Ample time will be available for relaxing and walking in the countryside as you please – and\, if the weather is nice you can meditate in the beautiful walled rose garden\, or the surrounding forests and fields.\n\nSaturday 13th June:\n16:00 - 17:00 Arrival &\; settling in\n18:00 - 19:30 Soup or own snacks\n19:30 - 20:00 Orientation talk (silence begins!)\n20:00 - 21:00 Dhamma talk &\; Guided meditation (Ajahn Brahmali)\n\nSunday 14th - Friday 19th June:\n06:00 - 07:00 Meditation\n07:30 - 08:15 Breakfast\n09:00 - 10:30 Teaching &\; guided meditation (Ajahn Brahmali)\n10:30 - 12:00 Personal practice / 1 hour group interviews (Tues\, Wed\, Thurs)\n12:00 - 13:00 Lunch\n13:00 - 14:00 Rest\n14:00 - 15:00 Personal practice\n15:00 - 15:45 Guided meditation (Ajahn Canda or Ajahn Brahmali\, alternately)\n16:00 - 17:00 Teachings (Ajahn Brahmali or Ajahn Canda alternately)\n17:00 - 18:00 Personal practice\n18:00 - 19:00 Tea break/snacks\n19:00 - 19:45 Group Meditation\n20:00 - 21:00 Q&\;A\n\nSaturday 20th June:\n06:00 - 07:00 Meditation\n07:00 - 08:30 Breakfast &\; pack up personal belongings\n08:30 - 10:00 Closing talk &\; metta meditation\n10:00 - 11:00 Discussion &\; Mingling\n12:00 Lunch\n12:00 - 13:00 Departures\nDepartures by 1:00pm\n\nRetreatants must pack up on the last day of the retreat at 8:30am and leave promptly by 1:00pm.\nAccommodation and facilities\nAll the rooms are comfortable and tastefully decorated\, most are with their own en-suite bathroom. Each room offers a sense of space and calm for guests seeking to spend time away from the hustle of daily life. There are rooms sharing with one or two other people\, as well as a smaller number of single rooms. There are also kitchenettes through the building and close to most rooms.\n\n \n \n\nDisabled access\nPlease let us know if you require disabled facilities or a ground floor room and we will do our best to meet your needs.\nMeeting rooms\nThe largest hall will be used as our main meditation hall and there will be another medium sized room available for walking meditation in case it is raining. Breakfast\, lunch and drinks will be provided in a separate dining room. Group interviews will be held in an allocated place to be decided at the time. Each person will be invited to join one group interview with Ajahn Brahmali during their retreat.\nFood and drinks\nFood will be simple vegetarian with a vegan option. Tea and coffee is available around the clock. During this retreat we will abstain from eating in the evening\, to support the deepening of meditation practice. Please therefore note that only breakfast and lunch will be provided. \n\nIf you require food in the evening for medical purposes\, please ensure that you bring along simple snacks such as flapjacks\, that can be kept in the shared kitchenettes.\nWhat will I need to bring?\n- Meditation cushion(s)\n- Flask (for hot water/tea) and water bottle\n- Torch/flashlight\n- Comfortable modest clothing (no short or sleeveless tops)\, kindly avoid noisy jackets or trousers.\n- Shawls or thin blankets for meditation.\n- Raincoat/umbrella (just in case!)\n- Outdoor shoes &\; indoor slippers\n- Any food/snacks that you may need for medical reasons\nCosts\nThe total cost of the retreat\, per person\, is as follows:\n£790 based on staying in a comfortable en-suite shared room with one or two others of the same gender\n£890 based on staying in a single room.\n\nPlease note that the retreat cost is for the venue hire only\, which includes accommodation\, use of two large halls and meals. Ajahn Brahmali is kindly coming all the way from Perth to England to support Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project’s charitable aims - of spreading the Dhamma and developing Anukampa Grove. As the first residence for bhikkhunis in the UK\, Anukampa Grove gives women an opportunity to practice as bhikkhunis and provides a place for our warm-hearted and diverse community to practice. The volunteers who organise these retreats give their time freely\, helping us keep costs as low as possible.  At the end of the retreat\, there will be an opportunity to donate towards the running costs of Anukampa Grove and requisites for the resident nuns.\n\nWe are extremely fortunate to have three monastics attending this retreat: Ajahn Brahmali\, Ajahn Canda and Samaneri Upacala! However\, this means we need some extra financial help. If you would like to contribute to the costs for accommodating the Sangha (monastics) you can donate here\, reference 'monastic costs.'\n\nWe may be able to offer some financial assistance to those of limited means through our bursary fund. You are welcome to donate to our bursary fund here.\nGetting There\nArriving By Air \nThe nearest airports are London Heathrow (LHR)\, approximately 45 minutes by taxi\, and London Gatwick (LGW)\, approximately 1 hour by taxi. If you are travelling from the airport by train\, get a tube to London Waterloo and then a direct train to Godalming (see below). From Godalming\, the venue is a 6-minute taxi ride or approximately a 30-minute walk.\n\nBy Train\nTake a direct South Western Railway service from London Waterloo to Godalming (Surrey). From Godalming\, the venue is a 6-minute taxi ride or approximately a 30-minute walk. Train tickets can be booked in advance via South Western Railway or The Trainline.\n\nLocal Taxis\nClocktower Cars – 01483 422222\nSpeedwell Taxis – 01483 423333\nA3 taxis Godalming – 07871 818 267\nGodalming Taxis – 01483 666 999\n\nBy Car\nLadywell is served well by the A3 road from London to Portsmouth. The nearest main exit point from the A3 to Ladywell is Milford Junction\, which is 2.8 miles from Ladywell. On taking this exit\, please use the A3100 to reach Ladywell\, Ashstead Lane\, GU7 1ST.\n\nBy Bus\nThe nearest bus stop at Tuesley Lane\, Godalming is 0.4 miles from Ladywell\, served by Compass bus number 42\, which travels from Guildford to Cranleigh.\nThree further buses (numbers 70/71/72) travel from Guildford to Godalming central\, stopping at Eashing Lane\, Godalming\, 1.1 miles from Ladywell.\nFor bus timetables\, please use this link:\nGuildford\, Godalming and Haslemere bus timetables – Surrey County Council website: https://surreycc.gov.uk\n\nBus service number and timetable Operator Route location\; O30: National Express: London\, Guildford\, Hindhead\, Portsmouth and Southsea and Fareham. Please visit https://nationalexpress.com.\n\nYou can also plan your journey with Google Maps.\n\nPlease note that they may be changes within the https://google.com/maps public transport timetable e.g.\, a road closed\, delay etc.  Download First Bus App. and Trainline App. to access real time information.\n\nDisclaimer: We are not affiliates nor endorsing those companies.\n\nAs the retreat approaches\, you can coordinate with other participants via a lift share spreadsheet\, for example to arrange to share taxis or lifts.\nApplication Procedure\n1. Please ensure you read all the above information carefully first\, and then fill in the application form below. At this stage you will not be required to make a payment.\n\n2. After submitting your application\, you should receive an acknowledgement email immediately. If you do not see it\, please check your junk or spam folder. We recommend adding our email address (bookings@anukampaproject.org) to your contacts to ensure our emails are not filtered as junk. If you do not receive the email\, please contact us.\n\n3. We aim to approve your application within two weeks. If you are applying for waiting list\, we will only contact you if there is space available.\n\n4. Once your application is approved\, your registration fee is needed to secure your place. Upon receipt\, your ticket will be automatically emailed to you.\n\n\nWe will allocate your room based on the room type you selected in this application form. When it comes to payment you must stick to the room type you originally chose in this application form\, because we have organised the room chart on the basis of your choice and cannot change it at the time of payment!\n\nIf the room type is no longer visible to you below\, it means the room is currently taken and you can apply to be on the waiting list. If you specifically need a single room\, please state your reason. If a single room becomes available in the future\, we will contact you to let you know.\nCancellation Policy\nIf your plans change and you are no longer able to attend\, we will ONLY be able to refund you (minus £150 registration fee)\, IF there is someone on the waiting list who is able to take your place. This is because we still have to pay the venue\, even if we cannot fill your place. Whilst we will make every effort to offer your ticket on\, this cannot be guaranteed. \n\n \; ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://anukampaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2 026/01/Franciscan-Ladywell-cropped.jpg CATEGORIES:2026 LOCATION:The Franciscan Centre Ladywell\, Ladywell Convent\, Franciscan Centre Ladywell\, Ashstead Lane\, Godalming\, Surrey\, GU7 1ST\, United Kingdom X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Ladywell Convent\, Franciscan Centre Ladywell\, Ashstead Lane\, Godalming\, Surrey\, GU7 1ST\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=The Franciscan Centre Ladywell:geo:0,0 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20260329T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR