10 Day Insight Retreats during COVID
Sunyata Ten Day Retreats
Residential with social distancing and on-line.
Kilcuan Retreat Centre, in Clarinbridge, is a modern and very spacious facility, set alone in woodland. By limiting attendance to one person in each double or triple en-suite room and keeping to a very strict COVID protocol we can run residential retreats there which are safe. Residential numbers are limited to 16, including the resident teacher(s) and cook. We can also take 10 people attending on-line who are treated the same as residents, using two screens so they can be seen and heard by everyone else in discussions, and providing them with the same teacher interviews.
Because numbers are so limited, we will be increasing the number of 10 day retreats run for Sunyata Retreat Centre this year. Dates are below. These dates are flexible to fit with any future government restrictions. Anyone booked on a cancelled retreat, or one which moves to a date which does not suit them, will be offered a place on a future retreat.
All retreats run 7.30pm Friday to 2.00pm Sunday
April 30th to May 9th. Nick Scott & Jackie Carrol
May 21st to May 30th. Nick Scott & Padraig Cotter
July 24th to Aug 1st. Nick Scott & Heike Grajek-Griffin
These retreats count as residential educational courses with appropriate social distancing and as such have been allowed under all Irish government restrictions imposed so far, except level 5, including being an acceptable reason for inter-county travel.
We will not be accepting residential bookings from anyone outside the island of Ireland and as part of the COVID protocol you will be expected to limit your contacts for the week prior to attending. Our 10 day retreats work well on-line for anyone living in a house or flat alone, particularly if they have done a long silent retreat before. We are regularly told that they prove more rewarding. If you are able to, then please do the retreat on-line so that those with unsuitable home situations can have the places at Kilcoan.
The Retreat
A ten day retreat is an opportunity to deepen one’s meditation practice and leads to an understanding of what meditation and the spiritual journey is really about. The period is long enough that we can leave behind the stress caused by our daily interactions while having no need to plan the future. It thus becomes possible to explore the present, and in the space and silence that opens up, to process our buried memories, traits and other conditioning so that we can learn how to be at peace and content, whatever is happening. This retreat is suitable for those new to meditation as well as experienced meditators. The instruction will be cumulative, starting with posture and how to establish mindfulness (sati) and a caring open attitude (metta) and through that find concentration (samadhi). With this we can then explore the Buddha’s teachings that are designed to lead to insight (vipassana) so to develop wisdom (panna). Throughout the retreat we will refer to his actual teachings in the Buddhist Pali suttas. The teaching will consist of instruction each morning and some afternoons, evening talks on the theory behind what we are doing and regular one-to-one guidance. The retreat will be held in silence. There will be optional taught yoga sessions each day to help free up the body for sitting comfortably.
Start and End Times:
Registration for each retreat will be from 6pm on the first Friday, with soup served to residents at 6.30pm. On line registration is from 7.00pm. For both those attending and on-line, the retreat will begin at 7.30pm with a short orientation talk and will end at approx. 2.00p.m. on the Sunday, after lunch. You have to attend the whole retreat (on line orvresident), unless you have the prior agreement of the teachers.
Coming on Retreat
The retreat will be held in Noble Silence and participants will be keeping the Eight Precepts. To find out more about coming on retreat please see here: http://www.sunyatacentre.org/coming-on-retreat-at-sunyata/. Those attending on-line will be expected to also keep these standards and in addition to follow our Best practice for online retreats.
To book a place, or to make enquiries, please write to teachnat@gmail.com. We will send you a link to the registration form and more information by return.
Cost of Retreat
This retreat is offered on a donation (dana) basis. At the end of the retreat there will be an opportunity to give a donation towards hiring the facilities and our other costs. Any excess will go to a fund to pay for future retreats and Sunyata Retreat Centre to help with their running costs. The teachings are free. The donation can be made at the retreat, or on-line using this link for paypal: Donation. It is also possible to donate by bank transfer, which avoids a payment to Paypal. We can provide our bank details if required.