The courses and retreats listed here are led by the teachers on the Teachers page. The page is current - listings appear in date order and are taken down one day after the start date. Buttons take you to the relevant websites with all information and application processes. To view past retreats and courses in order to get a sense of the range of offerings over time, please click the button below.
Past Retreats and Courses
Die buddhistischen Lehren laden uns ein, herauszufinden, was uns bewegt, bindet und befreit. Wir konnen einschrankende, oft schmerzhafter Gewohnheitsmuster erkennen, hinterfragen and mindern. Und unsere Fahigkeit zu Fursorge, Mitgefuhl, Freude and Offenheit kann sich zeigen, entwickeln und festigen.
Auf der Grundlage dieser shonen and nahrenden Aspekte des Herz-Geistes wollen wir insbesondere die befreienden Qualitaten von Offenheit und Weite erforschen und kultivieren. Unser Herz-Geist kann bewusst als unermesslich weit, radikal akzeptierend, underschutterlichund klar wahrgenommen werden. Diese kraftvolle Wahrnehmung unterstutzt eine empfangliche und gelassene Haltung gegenuber all unseren Erfahrungen. Wir konnen beginnen, die leere Natur alle Phanomene und die Freiheit, die dieses Verstandnis mit sich bringt, zu spuren.
Relating to our practice as the fashioning and tuning of an instrument of perception, we will explore our seeing and sensing not as ‘revealers of truth’ but as ‘arts’ – engaging the materials of our lives with more freedom and exploring an infinite field of richness and meaningfulness. Inquiring into the emotional, ideological, and practical barriers that can prevent this opening, constrain its range, or render it ineffectual for our lives, we will trace a path towards more sacredness and beauty. Drawing our hearts onward in devotion, the beauties we encounter in these practices have the power to orient and inspire us during better times and during troubled times too — and can give to everything, including our sufferings, a necessary place.
During this Soulmaking Dharma retreat we will have time to learn and deepen the sensitivities, skills and flexibility with working with images, imaginal perception and sensing with soul. We will make a home base in practices of kindness throughout this retreat and we will also give time to work on deepening skills with our emotions and mind states (as taught by Rob Burbea in the Boundless Heart retreat). These practices with and for the heart provide a rich and steady platform for Soulmaking Dharma, letting us become more available and attuned to mystical perceptions.
This retreat is for those already familiar with Rob Burbea’s ‘Ways of Looking’ approaches to the Dharma — please see the specific criteria.
Thus have I heard. The Venerable Ānanda went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him: “Sir, good friends, companions, and associates are half the spiritual life.” “Not so, Ānanda! Not so! Good friends, companions, and associates are the whole of the spiritual life.”
Upaḍḍhasutta (Samyutta nikāya)
How might we understand what it could be to see friends, companions and associates as the whole of the spiritual life? What could this mean to you and to us? How can we use different ways of looking and Buddhist cultivation to expand our ideas around participation in friendship and community?
This five-day residential experience will offer us a dedicated container to explore these questions together. Through meditation, dialogue, deep reading, inquiry, short periods of silence, ritual, dance, and collective joy, we will investigate for ourselves and with each other what it might mean for ‘spiritual life’ and ‘ saṅgha’ to be created and discovered in ways that reach and touch every aspect of our lives.
Created and peer-facilitated by Nicole Marie and Wah Isaacs in their roles as HAF community members. Both are longtime students of Rob Burbea and Catherine McGee.
Mettā means loving-kindness, loving intention, or friendliness. Such friendliness is an essential quality for a sincere and persistent deepening of Dharma practice. Mettā realises the potential for freedom of our hearts.
We will practice Mettā as it has been practised for thousands of years: turning toward and holding the experience of body, heart, and mind with kindness. From there, we will expand that kindness to those who are close to us, those who are distant, and in every direction.
Gradually, we will integrate additional directions into the practice - gathering the heart and mind in Samadhi, working with emotions, integrating compassion, joy, and equanimity, and exploring liberating ways of looking.
The teachings will be informed by Rob Burbea’s approaches to Mettā, Samadhi, and Insight practices.
All are welcome to explore these practices during this residential retreat. This retreat is appropriate for everyone, whether they have extensive meditation experience or none. However, if you cannot attend the residential retreat, you can alternatively join online for the Dharma teachings, meditation instructions, and guided meditation sessions. For online attendance, you will need some stability in your practice, as you will need to sustain your practice independently between sessions.
Teachings are offered in English and will not be translated. The daily routine consists mainly of sitting and walking meditation, with instructions for meditation, an evening talk, an hour-long work period, and a voluntary mindful movement exercise. The retreat is held in silence except during individual or group interviews with a teacher.
