For those who wish to consolidate and deepen their yoga practice, this 5-day intensive retreat is highly recommended. Apart from increased levels of fitness and vitality, you will reap the benefits of being in the tranquil, natural environment of Ixopo. You will leave feeling stretched, relaxed and fit for life.

We have a choice in the way in which we meet the many difficulties with which life inevitably presents us: we can be defensive and erect barriers to pain, or we can choose to approach discomfort and uncertainty with an attitude of friendliness and curiosity. Being open to what is challenging requires courage and practice as it is not in the nature of the human brain to remain calm in the face of difficulty. In relaxing into what is painful, we are making friends with ourselves and with our world, and we develop maitri – the unconditional self-acceptance that is the basis of compassion and well-being. Having faith in God, the teachings of Jesus, the Buddha, Krishna, Lao Tzu, and the great prophets of other spiritual paths can give us courage and provide us with great support in navigating this human life that can be so difficult at times. Faith can do a lot of things in our life if we let it. It will grow us and allow us to do things we never thought ourselves capable of. It will turn us into a dreamer who really believes that with faith, all things are possible. In the Gospel of Matthew, it is written Jesus looked at them said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

In this interfaith weekend retreat, we will have the opportunity to say yes to life in all its forms, delightful and painful. We will embark on a journey into the minds and hearts of the great prophets of our world, a journey that presents the building blocks of world spirituality and helps us find the divinity within ourselves. Drawing on the writings of, among others, the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hahn that provide a Buddhist perspective on the teachings of Jesus, we will begin to discover the affirmation of the sacred in all religions and spiritual paths, and the infinite merits and common humanity they share. We will also draw on the writings of Pema Chodron, Ajahn Brahm, and other wise teachers to inspire us to live fearlessly by giving up control and waking up to everything we experience in and around us. Loving kindness meditations will support us in our journey, as will the exquisitely tranquil and containing environment of the Buddhist Retreat Centre. The weekend will include sessions of sitting and moving mindfulness practice, as well as walking the labyrinth and group discussions.

Parents and children are invited to join a three-day retreat in the rolling hills of the BRC. Anisha will instill an appreciation of simple pleasures, joy and gratitude. The days will be filled with drumming, making art, mandalas and wind-chimes, nature walks, ubuntu story-telling and toasting marshmellows under the stars.

Eshara will be offering yoga and mindfulness sessions over the 3 days. Children of school-going age (8 years and up) must be accompanied by an adult.

They say that 'your life begins the day you start a garden'. If you are looking for some green thumb inspiration and motivation, join Christopher Dalzell for a fun-filled weekend of basic gardening tips where you will learn the practice and art of gardening. The weekend will entail plant identification and plant selection of trees, shrubs, ground covers and bulbs. He will show you how to prepare a flower bed and how to lay out your plants, and how to plant trees and other plants and their maintenance. Chris will advise on plant propagation showing the different forms of cuttings, seed sowing and dividing large plants and the pruning of shrubs and trees. He will also highlight the importance of soil and how to rejuvenate a nutrient-depleted soil and deal with pest and diseases. Growing and maintaining indoor plants will also be covered. Experience all this - and more - and celebrate the BRC's gardens and its green spaces.

Join Duncan for a weekend of reflection, rejuvenation, relaxation and restoration. The retreat is based on the ancient practices of hatha and raja yoga and is open to all levels of ability, including beginners, who wish to understand the fundamentals of yoga and develop, or deepen, their own practice. In the tranquil environment of the Buddhist Retreat Centre, we will discover how shatkarmas (cleansing techniques), asanas (postures), pranayama (control of the breath), mudra (gestures to manipulate and stimulate the energies in the body), bandhas (energy locks with the body) bring us into equilibrium. These traditional practices will help us to develop awareness of body, mind and breath. As the body gently opens like a lotus flower, and we start to release our past impressions, so the mind becomes relaxed preparing us for meditation. We will follow traditional guided meditation techniques in the meditation hall and in the labyrinth to quieten the mind, calm anxieties, recover balance in life and enhance creativity, insight and self-reflection.

 Winter time is a time for going inward, to consciously slow down and take stock. In nature, winter is the time we focus on preparing the soil before planting in spring. During this retreat, we create and hold space for you to go inward, take rest and reflect. We focus on preparing our soil for the seeds we wish to sow once we step out of hibernation - clearing out remnants of last season's crops and taking time to nurture and nourish - body, mind and soul. We will explore our inner landscape through pranayama, yoga, mindfulness, meditation, contemplation and journaling.

Why is it so difficult for us to be kind or gentle or good to with ourselves? Perhaps it is because we have grown up within the paradigm that ‘good people put the needs of others first’. In other words, we believe that we need to sacrifice ourselves in order to show we care. Or, it could just be that finding time for self-care just means one more thing on the already unobtainable to-do-list. But what if caring for ourselves wasn’t that difficult? What if, by a few simple adjustments or re-tuning of your emotions, thoughts or attitude patterns, we could find that calm place on the merry-go-round where we were at our best and could deal with and handle what life throws at us with style. The Buddha’s teachings emphasise the importance of taking care of ourselves in order to be of service to others. The wisdom of this teaching tells us that when we are kind and good to ourselves, we are automatically much more so to others.

This 4 night, silent retreat Open the Heart and Still the Mind Compassion Retreat will provide an opportunity to develop and explore meditation practices and teachings which strengthen our embodied, heartfelt presence, whilst integrating the joys and the sorrows that we have all been confronted with during these years of so much uncertainty. Drawing on the wisdom of Buddhist psychology and the inspiring teachings and practices of Kuan Yin, the bodhisattva of Compassion, who "Listens to the cries of the world at ease" we will strengthen our capacity to be with things as they are unfolding. After establishing a calm and grounded body, heart and mind, we will focus on the practice of loving-kindness (metta) meditation and the deepening of compassionate wisdom and appreciative joy. These practices connect us with our authentic presence, strengthen our boundaries and provide us with a secure foundation of courage and trust. In a contained and nurturing atmosphere of contemplative (Noble) silence, we will learn how to transform the viciousness of the inner critic, so that we can end the habitual cycle of self-abandonment and fear. As we discover how to internalise the archetypal good-enough mother, represented by Kuan Yin, we will develop the courage and trust which allow us to honour our vulnerability without fear or shame. When we can embrace our humanness with kindness and compassion, we can live more authentically and more courageously, and joyfully, so that healing and awakening can occur.

A pre-retreat individual session via Zoom/Whatsapp is requested and highly recommended for newcomers or if you have not attended one of Sue’s residential retreats before. The fee for this is R975 for 50 mins or R800 for 30 mins, fully covered by medical aid and can be reduced if necessary.

Please contact Sue on for the 4 day course fee.

Please Note: At present, in-person retreat attendance requires a vaccination certificate or a negative PCR test 48 hours prior to the retreat.

Join Kugan for a weekend of gentle yoga to restore and rejuvenate the body and mind and for holistic health and well-being. There will be time for walking in the tranquil grounds of the Centre, for rest and meditation.

Everybody experiences tranquility from time to time, because this open quality of mind is natural to us all. Yet, often our bodies and minds tighten and freeze to life’s challenges and stresses, even though creative solutions and expansive ideas are most likely to arise from a relaxed state. Healing Relaxation - designed by the late Akong Tulku Rinpoche, a wise Tibetan Buddhist healer, and a team of western healing professionals - is a simple, highly practical, yet profound programme which helps people repair the strains and tensions resulting from the conditions of modern life, and prevents them from developing in the first place. Relaxation and awareness practices can enhance our ability to access calm, expansive states of mind intentionally throughout our day. In this workshop, we will explore the benefits of developing such calmer states of mind, and learn effective relaxation, breathing and visualisation techniques.

The five elements provide a very dynamic system of understanding life. They make up the world around us and are in all living organisms, only the proportions differ.When the elements are in balance there is balance and harmony, when they are out of balance there is disharmony and dis-ease.The balance is constantly changing within and around us. To help us learn how to work with this ever-changing balance of the elements in a positive way, we have to first get to know them. In this retreat we will use the Tibetan schemata of the five elements - earth, water, fire, air and space. We will explore and get to know them in a practical way. We will examine and become familiar with the characteristics and qualities of each, and observe their interaction. At the same time we learn to observe our mind/body states in relation to the elements. The retreat will include guided relations, gentle stretching and creative work around each element, including painting and working with clay. Please wear loose comfortable clothing.

Join Jennifer in taking it slowly, and aligning your body with your mind and emotions. During this restorative Yin Yoga retreat, we will rest and stretch, and flow calmly from one posture into another.

When we allow ourselves to move in creative and healing ways, paying careful attention to the joy, the discomfort, the desire or the agitation that arises, we may learn how trauma of everyday life can break parts of us and how we might have put ourselves back together again in less helpful ways. By finding a flow in our bodies, stretching, balancing, and strengthening our bodies - we build a relationship between the parts of our being, allowing us to reshape ourselves. Fiona will guide both gentle and flowing yoga; Jason will help us understand the language of our bodies through meditation and therapeutic reflection. Simply bring your body -  just as it is -  and a mat.

Nia is a powerful collaboration of dance, martial arts and mindfulness practices that repatterns your nervous system for body, mind and holistic well-being and joy. By dancing barefoot, we use The Body’s Way to sense the wisdom of the body - and dance in a way that feels energising and balancing. Join Susan on this transformational retreat as we weave the tapestry of joy and embrace the beauty in life. After all, life is art.

Join Lisa for a weekend of mindfulness-based-somatic movement in the tradition of Clinical Somatics. Learn gentle and mindful body-based practices to help release chronic tensions that underlie pain and stress. The retreat will offer some theory of somatic movement in general and Clinical Somatics specifically. Exploring the communication between the brain, nervous system and muscular system, we will learn about pandiculation, nature's way of releasing tension from the body. We will weave Basic Mindfulness practices and meditations throughout the retreat, develop your inner awareness and bring comfort and ease to the body through this slow and mindful approach. You will leave the retreat with some tools and practices to become your own body worker. This weekend is suitable for everyone and will meet you where you are. Begin an inner dialogue with your body, reminding it of its intelligence!

The songs of our ancestors are also the songs of our children. Our stories are gifts we give each other and gifts we leave behind us. For, one day we too will be ancestors. In this retreat we write our stories and place them next to those of our family, immediate, extended and chosen. The idea of family can include not only blood, but our spiritual tradition, culture and the line of those who share our passions. The retreat also touches on healing the family tree and looks at questions such as how we can change the script and create new patterns.

Ever since I heard my first love story I have been looking for you  - Rumi

Who is the who that Rumi alludes to? There is something deeply fictional about us human beings. We are the stories we tell about ourselves. Rediscover the lost art of story-telling. Experience the joy, presence, mindfulness and transformation that arrive when we engage with a tale, learn how to craft it and inhabit it. We begin to see our lives as a story, keeping pace with the rhythm of our hearts, balanced between the in and the out of our breathing. Be enchanted by Zen and other tales from many paths.

The Zen hermit-monk Ryokan (1758-1831) remains one of Japan’s favourite poets. An eccentric original (he is also known as the “Great Fool”) his antics have endeared him to successive generations. After his initial Zen training Ryokan spent several years of wandering before settling in a mountain hermitage. However Ryokan was no world-hating recluse and was frequently to be seen playing with village children or sharing a drink with farmers. According to one authority Ryokan's life “was a living sermon”. In an atmosphere of contemplative silence this retreat will use Ryokan's life and his luminous poetry to reflect on our relationship with ourselves, the world and all the beings who inhabit it. There will also be free time to enjoy the beautiful grounds of the centre. Please note: apart from an introductory talk and a discussion period this retreat will be held in Noble Silence.

Yoga and meditation can be experienced as a practice of cultivating well-being. The practice of yoga improves overall emotional and spiritual well-being, joint mobility, immunity and organ health - to mention just a few of its benefits. We will be exploring Yin, Hatha and Restorative yoga, breathwork, soundwork and mindfulness practices through the lense of the vagus nerve and soothing the nervous system. Yin yoga is a quiet, slow, nourishing, releasing and grounded yoga practice. Hatha yoga is practised at a slow, steady pace, supporting the strengthening and flexibility of the body, heart and mind. Restorative yoga focuses on relaxing and softening, rather than stretching and strengthening. Mindfulness is paying particular attention to the present moment with curiosity and friendship with whatever is arising from moment to moment - it is knowing what we are doing when we are doing it; it is being awake and open to this life just as it unfolds. Combining these practices of movement and stillness creates powerful possibilities for insight, transformation and healing for the body, mind, and heart.

Please note that the retreat will be trauma sensitive/informed'.

Zhan Zhuang (‘Standing like a Tree’) Qigong is unlike most other Qigong styles, in that with the exception of changing from one static posture to the next, the practitioner remains absolutely still. Regarded by many contemporary Masters as the most powerful of all Qigong practices, it opens all of the nine energy portals in the body, and encourages one’s chi (life force) to flow powerfully throughout one’s entire being. In this retreat Paul will teach the Four Posture Zhan Zhuang Form, which assists in developing a strong physical structure as well as creating a greater supply of healing chi to promote health and vitality. He will also teach the ancient Taoist Qigong meditation for inner tranquillity.

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.

In this experimental and experiential writing course, we will explore our relationship with the natural world. We have done damage to ourselves and the environment by constructing the idea that human beings are separate from nature. Even our language betrays this attitude - we speak of nature and the environment as though it is ‘out there’. Through experiential exercises and writing, we will explore how the built environment, consumerism, ideas about time, and our fears, anxieties, disgust and distrust keep us disconnected from resources that nourish and support us.

The creative mind is a natural space where we can remake connections with the source of life as inclusive and sensory. Writing into our relationship with the elements, our habitat, natural cycles and with life in all forms can help us live in a responsive and responsible way, taking better care of the two homes we inhabit until we die – our bodies and the earth.

Yin yoga provides the balance to our hectic Yang lifestyle. In today’s busy world we are inundated with the pressure to do more, take on yet more and push ourselves even further. This 3-day mid-week retreat provides a balance to our often frenetic, stressful lives and will restore harmony, health and calmness. In relaxing our muscles and surrendering into our yoga postures, we are able to work deeply into the joints, ligaments, fascia and bones of the body - releasing tension and detoxifying normally inaccessible parts of our bodies. The retreat is centred around releasing, relaxing and restoring our bodies, our minds and our energy and is suitable for everyone. Please bring your own yoga mats.

Food and eating can be a source of great joy, but it can also be a source of great suffering and struggle. This retreat is based on a combination of the principles of Mindful Eating And Intuitive Eating. The intention of this retreat is to examine our relationship with food and to start the process to create a healthy relationship with food. Using a non-judgemental and compassionate approach to re-learning internal physical and emotional cues to guide us when, what and how much we eat, also examining our rules around food. We will look at how to deal with cravings and urges through the development of mindfulness skills. Through a process of enquiry, we will explore the emotional triggers that often lead us to overeating and binge eating, and how these may be understood and effectively dealt with. Using mindfulness and examining our conditioning around food, we will gain an awareness of our habitual behaviour and begin a process towards a joyful and peaceful relationship with food and our body. 

Birding is entrancing and fulfilling, but it is challenging. Enhance your everyday life with this birding course which demonstrates protocols, processes and empowerment, rather than trying to cram in the key characters of a plethora of species. Experience how to use your binoculars, field guides and apps, how to see and remember birds, using interactive presentations and field outings. The ambience is supportive and encouraging as we begin birding with multiple rewards. Bring binoculars, a bird guide or app, walking shoes and sun gear. The weekend includes periods of meditation and personal time.

Birding is entrancing and fulfilling, but it is challenging. Enhance your everyday life with this birding course which demonstrates protocols, processes and empowerment, rather than trying to cram in the key characters of a plethora of species. Experience how to use your binoculars, field guides and apps, how to see and remember birds, using interactive presentations and field outings. The ambience is supportive and encouraging as we begin birding with multiple rewards. Bring binoculars, a bird guide or app, walking shoes and sun gear. The weekend includes periods of meditation and personal time.

{Toggle}Aldo Berruti began birding as a young boy, an interest which evolved into a career in ornithology, attaining a MSc and PhD in ornithology. After twenty years as a publishing scientist, including work on albatrosses at sub-Antarctic Marion Island, waterbirds at sub-tropical Lake St Lucia and the coastal seabirds of the Western Cape, Aldo became the first Director of BirdLife South Africa in 1996. He currently lives in Underberg with his wife Sharron, where his guiding business focussed on the iconic Sani Pass. He turned to running on-line birding courses (Birding with Aldo) as COVID shut down tourism. He retains his amateur enthusiasm for birds fifty five years after beginning, and loves sharing birds with people.{/Toggle}

Qigong is an ancient Chinese practice that boosts one’s health and longevity. Through gentle, slow and flowing movements, it integrates and harmonises one’s bodily functions and states of mind by eliminating static and toxic energy patterns. Qigong strengthens the internal organs and skeletal structure and encourages good posture. In this retreat Paul will teach the Healing Sounds Short Form - a set of gentle exercises that also uses sounds to cleanse and heal our major organs.

This retreat will provide an opportunity to explore two aspects of Buddhist meditation practice - the gradual development of calmness and peacefulness in our mind; and the practise of awareness, in order to live with more clarity and more centredness in the present moment. This foundation of calmness helps us to meet our confused thoughts and emotions with more acceptance and kindness and leads to a deeper understanding of the nature of our minds. The retreat will create a gentle and relaxed space in which to explore the benefits of spending time quietly with ourselves, to allow the qualities of calmness and clarity to develop in a natural way and to enjoy the nurturing effect of being silent in a beautiful environment.

Drumming and music-making are ancient ways of transcending our routine lifestyle, opening ourselves to spiritual realms of healing and creativity, which is experienced as liberating and rejuvenating. This is because the universe is a flux of pulsating rhythms and drumming connects us to these rhythms, thus facilitating a change in consciousness and a sense of belonging and well-being, which, in turn, promotes deep relaxation and healing. In this retreat we will learn basic drumming techniques and explore rhythmic creativity which will be combined with meditation practice and contemplation. A Sound Journey meditation using exotic instruments will also be included. The objective of this retreat is to find a balance between the hands-on experience of drumming and its more profound spiritual effects on the human psyche.

The practice of yoga brings the mind and body together, grounding us in the present, connecting us with where we are and what our body tells us about ourselves. Yoga is a process of re-connecting to our body and breath, coming back into the present moment. The ancient yogis realized that in order to be able to meditate effectively requires a healthy, strong body, so they developed yoga postures (asanas), cleansing techniques and breathing exercises (pranayama). Through regular practise of asanas, pranayama and meditation, yoga unlocks the deeper levels of our being. It is a way of moving into stillness in order to experience the truth of who we are. This retreat is open to beginners and experienced students. Please bring a yoga mat.

In a series of talks and Mindfulness meditation sessions, we will explore the chemistry which mediates the effects of mind states on the body: psychoneuroimmunology or PNI. The talks and demonstrations will show that we can attain optimal wellness and performance by getting to know our temperament and personality traits; by being more present-minded; and through sensible, informed ways of living and behaving.

Shibuie - When Beauty Happens Accidentally: Sumie and Raku - Japanese brush painting and pottery

Shibuie is the ancient Japanese concept of Accidental Beauty in which the artist is just one ingredient in a number of dynamic interacting natural processes, the outcome of which is delightfully unpredictable, but strangely beautiful - not ego-driven or deliberate. Ingrid will teach the classical Japanese brush painting techniques (Sumie) as these are applied to traditional subjects, such as landscape, bamboo and flower studies - as well as contemporary subjects. We will use the genuine, traditional materials: solid pine-soot ink, a hollowed-out slate to liquefy it, a deer-hair bamboo-stemmed brush and absorbent mulberry paper. Tools will be provided, but sets can be purchased (R850) from the BRC. Each retreatant will receive a bisque-fired tea bowl to sumie-decorate and glaze. Jess will then fire up the kiln after which we will watch the magic as the pots emerge from their ordeal of having been subjected to 1000ºC heat, smothered in sawdust and immersed in cold water. The pots will emerge triumphantly from the scorching heat!

Based on the Chinese philosophy of Taoism, tai chi is rooted in balance and flow, stillness within movement, and reflection during action. Just like the shape of the Taijitu - the symbol of yin and yang - every movement is based on circles. Al Huang, in Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain, suggests: “Stop the words and start the doing.” With gentle movements and focused mind, we will teach a short sequence of yang-style tai chi, complemented with simple qigong  exercises and movement-within-stillness meditation. Tai chi has been described as “learning to move with the wind and water in the course of everyday life”.

Be here now. Rest in the moment. Catch the ungraspable moment. How do we do that when life keeps tumbling us along like a sand grain in a river? When all is in dizzying motion, where is 'the moment’, where is ‘here’? Take time out at the BRC over Christmas to slow down into the moment. You can find your true home in the here-now. With sitting and walking meditation, we will stalk the elusive moment. We will discover how to recognise our 'home', and we will see that we are in fact at home always. The retreat will be held in an atmosphere of introspection and silence with time for journaling, reflection, and fireside talks.

The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived - Thomas Merton

New Year is a good time of the year to take stock and contemplate our moment-to-moment, here-and-now reality in all its fullness. It’s a traditional time for clarifying our motivations, and for starting afresh with new intentions. A time, in other words, to reboot the system. Give yourself the gift of time over this New Year period to collect the Three Wise Medicines of gratitude, ahimsa and contentment, to reflect on the past year, and uncover how you can best live your life in the coming year. During this time together we will let our body, speech and mind fall silent through the practice of meditation and silence. In working with the Three Wise Medicines, there will also be time for writing and contemplation, walking and ceremony especially outside in nature. We will welcome the New Year with a lantern-lit ceremony in the Zendo, chanting, ringing out the old year with an ancient Chinese temple gong. The retreat will be held in an atmosphere of silence and introspection.