‘To celebrate the BRC’s 40th birthday, we will do nothing special and we will do it together.’

This was the beginning of the pre-lockdown write-up for the BRC August 2020 Stoep Zen retreat.

Since then our world has changed and our practice is to change with it. We will still do nothing special together but now we will do so in our kitchens, lounges, and bedrooms, in our robes, pyjamas, long-johns and slippers.

This is still Zen as the practice of friendship, but now we can broaden our idea of what this means to us. So, we will explore the intimacy of being geographically remote, the intimacy of meeting on screen, the intimacy of just listening, and the intimacy of turning off our screens and finding our seat. We will look at how to sit upright in an upside-down world.

All of the talks will take place via Zoom – some of this will be audio-visual while some may be audio only. The talks may also include chanting and guided meditation instruction.

Meditations outside the Zoom sessions are done by yourself individually, should you choose to participate, but they still form part of the group’s shared activity (and Antony and Margie will be sitting in the Poplar Grove zendo at those times).

Saturday 8 August 2020 | Register

09:00 – 10:30 Zoom talk and meditation
11:00 – 11:30 Meditation (offline)
12:00 – 12:30 Meditation (offline)

Sunday 9 August 2020 | Register

08:00 – 08:30 Meditation (offline)
09:00 – 09:45 Zoom Talk
10:00 – 10:30 Meditation (offline)
11:00 – 11:30 Meditation (offline)
12:00 – 12:30 Meditation (offline)

Monday 10 August 2020 | Register

08:00 – 08:30 Meditation (offline)
09:00 – 09:45 Zoom Talk
10:00 – 10:30 Meditation (offline)
11:00 – 11:30 Meditation (offline)
12:00 – 12:30 Meditation (offline)

When interacting with others, we often find ourselves triggered and then communicate in ways that hurt or harm - ourselves, the other, or the relationship between us. We have not learnt how to use mindful and authentic communication.

“When you are busy judging people, you have no time to love them.” Marshall Rosenberg

We will practice both intra-personal and inter-personal mindfulness in order to cultivate skills of empathy, compassion and a better understanding of self and other. Contemplative dyads are a way to promote social connectedness, something that we are often lacking in daily life where our time is dominated by digital devices. We will practice deep listening in this safe online setting, in order to learn skills that can increase feelings of closeness and strengthen relationships with our friends and partners.

Together, these practices will help us communicate more consciously so that we learn to be aware of our feelings and needs, make requests and stay open to the feelings and needs of others.  

Time: 3:00-5:30 pm

More details: Payment and Zoom registration

Join Elizabeth for a weekend of kindness, not only for ourselves, but also for the wonderful staff at the BRC who are keen to have friends ‘return’ to Ixopo after months of lockdown and isolation. Help to kindle the spirit of generosity and friendship which the BRC has demonstrated for 40 years since it opened.

The weekend will be adjusted to suit everyone; if you want to go hiking - that is an option - if you want to be silent, catch up with your reading and breathe in the restorative air - that’s OK too. Meditation sessions will be available (either guided or silent). We are sure many of you need a break and this is an ideal opportunity to be kind to yourself, for friends to reconnect and enjoy the peace and healing energy that the BRC offers…. It will be lovely to see you (in person)

August 15;22;29 | 9:30-11:30am Register

“If you bring forth, that which is within you, what you bring forth, will save you....If you do not bring forth that which is within you....What you do not bring forth, will destroy you”

Are you feeling lost, blocked or stuck? We are thrilled to bring you Transition Online to resolve these and related issues,

For many people, this period has been a roller coaster of emotions and for some this has included unexpected changes in circumstance. Perhaps you sometimes feel that you are coping well, but at other times not so much. You may be feeling a bit shell-shocked, lost or in need of finding a new meaning in life? Maybe it's just an urge to re-centre and align with your core, or a need for a different perspective, or even a desire for an entirely new direction?

To have what you want but do not yet have, you have to go where you haven’t yet been. There is no other way!

Monique will guide you beyond what is and has been, to a place of divine peace, joy and direction as you reconnect with your own all powerful inner compass. Transition Online is designed to support you through the effects of the emotional and mental challenges you have experienced during the past few months in a way that resolves even age-old trauma and transforms your present and future. By liberating the current of your inner being and thus allowing it a clear path to lead and guide you into your present and future, you will find a new openness and ease to follow the powerful calling of your all-knowing guide within.

Within this intimate group: We will find ourselves moving through inner obstacles together, by using an approach that resolves their origins. We heal and integrate parts of ourselves that have been isolated in pain for far too long and heal our recently troubled selves. We experience a new peace as they reunite in wholeness.

From this foundation of oneness, everything flows into place as we move beyond where we were, through where we are going, into where we have always wanted to be. This is a time of immense potential power and global momentum for those who know how to use it. As a group, we tap into this unprecedented surge of energy to transcend together into a life of greater abundance on all levels.

Transition Online is a process designed for an intimate group of 10, who get together for Part 1: that is 3 consecutive Saturday mornings for 90-120 minutes. Thereafter, the group can choose to continue privately with Monique for Part 2 & 3, also 3 sessions each, and on a donation basis to Monique.

Food and eating can be a source of great joy, but it can also be a source of suffering. Lockdown has brought up challenges and many people have been turning to food for comfort.

This mini-retreat is based on a combination of the principles of Mindful Eating and Intuitive Eating.

What exactly is Mindful Eating? How could you benefit from it?

Mindful Eating increases our awareness around why, what, when and how we eat in a curious and non-judgemental way.

The mini-retreat will combine Mindful Eating tools, Mindful Eating practices with foods and meditation. The intention is to use a non-judgemental and compassionate approach to re-learning internal physical and emotional cues to guide us with when, what and how much to eat, also examining our rules around food and whether they serve us creating a peaceful relationship with food.

Join us on on Zoom for a mini introduction to Mindful Eating and gently explore your relationship with food and eating.

16 August | 3 hours 45 minutes | 9:00-12:45pm Register

Here I am once again, disguised as myself - from About Death and Other Things - Alexander Ristovic

Life writing is not only about developing technical skills. It is also a way to reflect and grow awareness. The tools we need to write about what we know best are tools we need to live more creatively, less anxiously. Whether you are writing fiction or poetry, life writing skills can help to deepen observation. We each have life motifs or themes that are more or less unconscious. Yet an evolving pattern binds our journey from birth to death into a whole coherent piece. Getting to know more about the story we are living helps us to ride our stories, rather than our stories riding us. We will reclaim memory and imagination as a means to release ourselves into awe and creativity, connectedness and purpose, awareness and pleasure. Through identifying and engaging with the images that shape our time on earth, we will find refreshing approaches to put our personal stories down on the page. Bring a notebook and pen, two objects from the period you want to write about - one that represents something you loved about it, and one that represents something you disliked about that time. Beginners are welcome.

Join Astrologer Cor as she explores the Basics of the Ancient Art of Astrology, on the Buddhist Retreat Centre’s online platform from 24 August until 29 September 2020. We are part of the greater cycles of nature, bound to the ever-changing seasons of life. 

As within, so without. As above, so below.

This workshop will focus on celebrating and understanding the meaning of your birth chart. By learning the innate meaning and archetypal representation of the planets, you will explore your divine uniqueness and gain the gifts of self-compassion, self-tolerance, and inner equilibrium. Beginners are most welcome and encouraged.

1) Monday 24 August 5.30-7.30pm - Welcome Introduction Circle, History of Astrology Introduction to chart layout
2) Monday 31 August 5.30pm-7.30pm - 10 Planets and their astrological symbolism and meanings
3) Monday 7 September 5.30-7.30pm - 12 Zodiac Signs and their astrological symbols and meanings
4) Monday 14 September 5.30-7.30pm - 12 Houses and their astrological meanings
5) Monday 21 September 5.30-7.30pm - Polarity, Elements, Modalities, Hemispheres
6) Tuesday 29 September 5.30pm-7.30pm - Aspects

Participants will be working with their own charts. To receive a copy of your own birth chart, along with a copy of the workshop workbook, please send me your birth details (date, time, place) no later than the 22nd of August 2020. Please do not leave this to the last minute, as we will start working with your own charts right from the get-go. Should you not know your exact birth-time, a rectification is required before your correct chart can be emailed to you. Please What’s app me on 0827757423 after you have mailed your details to cor@corastology.co.za. I will confirm receipt by sending you the above-mentioned chart and workbook. 

24;31 August; 7;14;21;29 September | 5:30-7:30pm

Register

I want to share an approach to poetry
that’s taught me how to play
with rhythm and meaning, following words
and traces of feeling to make new tracks.
Acts of poetry link the tides of my body
and the world with new ways of thinking, moving
across from life to the page, and back

This course will help you to connect with themes and images that need expression and exploration. Learning to condense or distil your inquiry can help with insight and clarity. Working with rhythm and rhyme, off-and-half-rhymes, and with antonyms and synonyms, can break open meaning in new and unexpected ways. Please bring a thesaurus and a rhyming dictionary if you have one. I will bring mine to share.

Mindfulness is the fundamental component of all forms of mind-training, and can be mastered by anyone who is prepared to put in a little effort. The main aspect is learning to bring the mind knowingly into the moment, allowing thoughts to appear and pass without interference, and becoming the impartial witness of the tendency to engage, without compulsively following through on it.

We learn to be present, respond with compassion and see deeply into our thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Because the training is quite demanding, beginners find it helpful to have guided sessions until they establish enough confidence to continue by themselves.

4 Sept: 30 minutes | 6:00-6:30pm - Introduction Register
5 and 6 Sept: 1 hour | 11:00-12:00pm Register

Given the current stresses and strains, we will turn to the ancient practice of yoga and use this as a base to journey through our subtle chakra system in the search for release, reassurance and vitality.

Using yin yoga, kundalini yoga, trauma release and vinyasa flow, we will slowly unlock, unblock, re-energise and re-connect to each one of these energy centres in our body. The retreat will begin with a Chakra Check^TM so you can discover where you are currently blocked, locked or limited and you will learn techniques to help you shift back to strength, vitality and serenity.

We will work in sequence to unlock and expand and we will explore postures with a focus on the vegus nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system to assist and support us from the inside-out in these trying times.

This retreat is centred around releasing, relaxing and restoring our bodies, our minds and our energy, and is suitable for everyone.

Please bring a mat, water bottle, long socks and two blankets (not duvets.) Also - if you have - please bring two blocks, bolsters, straps and two tennis balls