This online retreat provides a wonderful opportunity to practice in a supported and sustained way within community whilst taking practice into the heart of one’s home environment. The retreat structure, teaching process and learning community of fellow participants and teachers provide a scaffold to engage in an individual and collective exploration of human experience, supportive of a deepening understanding of mindfulness as a way of being in the world.

The retreat will be structured around perspectives on the four ways of establishing mindfulness from classical Buddhist teachings, and an exploration of four heart qualities (friendliness, compassion, appreciative joy, equanimity) known as the Brahmaviharas in early Buddhist tradition and as the Four Friends for Life in mainstream mindfulness approaches. Together, these frameworks offer a powerful foundation for cultivating inner stability, emotional resilience, and compassionate presence in everyday life.

These teachings will be offered as a framework to support first-person exploration of experience in formal and informal mindfulness practice – the core curriculum will be the immediacy of personal experience. Whilst having their roots in Buddhist psychology, the themes, teaching, practice guidance and explorations will be presented in terms of their application to mainstream mindfulness programmes such as MBSR and MBCT.

The retreat will include:

periods of both guided and self-directed practice, including periods of mindful movement
short talks
sustained periods of silence to enable participants to connect more fully with their inner experience
time to practice mindfulness informally between the scheduled sessions
opportunities for group inquiries with the teachers.
The teachers will also be available to talk to people individually as needed.