BRC Online Events and SANGHA SUPPORT - Letters from lockdown - 28 May 2020
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The Buddhist Retreat Centre |
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| SANGHA SUPPORT: Letters from lockdown - 28 May 2020 | ||
Dear BRC Friends,Online Programme May, June and JulyHaving a community to tap into and feel connected to is a huge gift. Our online initiative comes as a result of your encouragement, our teachers’ generosity and with love and kindness. Please support our Online Programme below which is published on our website with all the links. Your donations will help enormously to keep the wolf from the door and to keep the Centre going while we are in lockdown limbo. |
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Image: Angela Buckland
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Vinyasa Yoga: Stilling The Mind30 May | Hannelize Robinson A gentle 90 min yoga class with the emphasis on creating stability and calmness in both body and mind. Standing poses and floor-work, coupled with a focus on conscious and extended exhalations will guide awareness inwards to that space of stillness that exists beyond the thinking mind. The class will include pranayama and will culminate in a seated meditation. Open to all levels. How to Get Writing30 May | Elana Bregin "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." Michaelangelo Like all good voyages, the writing journey is not about arriving, but the pleasure of exploring. In this one-hour webinar, we focus the zoom lens on getting ourselves into the Write zone. We put out the welcome mat, shake loose some ideas, and get over our fear of flying - to set our stories free. Going With The Flow30 May; 7 June; 13 June | Bruce van Dongen Join a 4 week beginner’s meditation course with Bruce with breathing practice to restore your balance, vitality and to develop mindful awareness. Vipassana Meditation: Introduction and Basic Instructions for Vipassana31 May | Anna Scharfenberg and Jonathan Preboy Vipassana (Insight) meditation is based on mindfulness, which is always available, everywhere, without limit or cost. The challenge is how to realise it. Tapping Into Your Buddha Nature To Manifest Your Goals And Desires31 May | Tronél Hellberg We are powerful beings! We know this… and we don’t... We know it when life is calm and effortless, but when we are in the midst of a dark storm like the one right now, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the raising level of uncertainty – losing sight of possibilities and hope. It is in times like these that we need to remember who we are and access our unlimited Source of power, inspiration and creation – our Buddha nature! Finding Purpose In Times Of Challenge4 June | John Homewood Taming Fear And Anxiety5 June | John Homewood Retreating At Home: Stillness And Resilience6 June; 7 June | Katrin Auf de Heyde “"In order to move the world, we must be able to stand still in it”. - Yongey Mingyur Rimpoche This retreat will explore the cultivation of stillness and resilience as integral aspects of an embodied practice and will include periods of sitting meditation and movement. June 6 - Introduction, June 7 - Full day. Memoir & Mindfulness: Your Path To Freedom And Enlightenment8-11 June | Wanda Hennig We all have stories to tell but many of us don’t know where to start. When we meet we will stop, listen, connect (with ourselves), write. The focus will be on two interconnected, transformative practices: mindfulness (presence, “listening”) and memoir / writing / story. My workshop was scheduled to run over these four days. Instead, we will do four one-hour Zoom sessions. Metaphysical Causes Of Illnesses14 June | Heike Sym Finding A Sense Of Contentment15 June; 18 June | Elizabeth Gaywood Finding a sense of contentment with who we are and how we can live a purposeful life quite often eludes us. Happiness and satisfaction should be part of our daily life but we find ourselves constantly looking for methods and means whereby we can find some peace of mind. Meditation techniques have proved to be particularly helpful to balance emotions and to find a new and more meaningful approach to living, especially with kindness to ourselves and others. Your Precious Life. Discovering Avenues To Meaning And Purpose Based On The Principles Of Logotherapy: How it is possible to live life powerfully despite adversity20-21 June | Klasie Wessels and Samantha Sparkes Our search for meaning is the most prominent quest of our time. The journey to meaning and purpose is one that many of us will embark upon with the aim of enjoying a more fulfilled life. (View schedule) Zen Pen5 July | Dorian Haarhof In this wordshop we explore the connection between writing and meditation. Both these states of grace slow us down so we can live in the moment. They increase our awareness and wake us up. We look with new eyes and hear with new ears. We write and meditate on the many changes and transformations we experience as we journey along the river of our lives. We consider how creativity steadies the boat and how writing helps us dip the oars into dark water so we may navigate the river safely. |
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| Image: Angela Buckland | ||
News From IxopoFor those who have been waiting patiently for the reprint of the BRC’s innovative recipe book: “The Cake The Buddha Ate”, we are pleased to announce that the Cake has risen again! After being out of print for a couple of years, the book is at last back on our shelves with all the BRC’s favourites like “Beans in a sizzle”, “The good shepherd’s pie” and “Cry the beloved crunchies” to tempt the palate. If you would like to order the “Cake” to support the BRC, please call the office on 0878901687 or email: . |
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| Image: Angela Shaw | ||
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It was inspiring to receive a friendly call about our book “The Cake The Buddha Ate” from a couple who have embarked on a vegetarian venture. It turns out that a friend lent them the “Cake” . They were so enthusiastic about the recipes that they ordered the book immediately. It is good to know that in these times people are re-assessing their lifestyle choices and opting rather to celebrate our fellow creatures and to do the least harm to them. Live in joy and peace, even among the troubles. Love in joy in health, even among the afflicted. Live in joy and love even among those who hate, quiet the mind and the heart and be free from fears and attachment, know the sweet joy of living in the Way - The Buddha Dear BRC Friends, Autumn has silently vacated. Like the changing of the guard, so we experience the changing of the leaves here in the hills of Ixopo. The skeleton-like branches of the majestic trees in the grounds of the Buddhist Retreat Centre remind us that winter has finally arrived. Even if it looks a bit different it still has its own beauty. We hear that it is snowing in the mountains. How wonderful it would be to drive through to see the blankets of white snow covering the Drakensberg mountains. So close and yet so far. It’s as though we are in a time capsule here at the BRC and venture out just to do the necessary in the village of Ixopo. During the winter months we will continue with the upkeep of this amazing space and remain in the moment, taking one day at a time and witnessing the seasons changing. With Metta Annie and the BRC Team |
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| Image: Angela Shaw | ||
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To Be Human Is To Be Hopeful This virus has affected our collective psychology as people struggle to cope with the consequences of isolation, social distancing, anxiety of the unknown and fear of the virus - all of our routine ways of living have been disrupted. Not being close to friends and family has impacted on all of us. But at the same time this enforced isolation offers us the opportunity to be more reflective and inward than we would usually allow ourselves time for. The tradition of meditation, so clearly outlined in the Buddhadharma, asks us to purposefully choose such periods of silence and aloneness to get our lives into proper perspective. Only then can we find in us our core of sanity. |
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| Image: Fanele Dube | ||
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Try to set aside time for meditation every day, even if it is only for 15 minutes, and notice the simple things that can be observed such as the sensation of just sitting or hearing the sounds that come your way, and, simply, feeling the pressure of the soles of your feet on the floor. You are just present. If the mind wanders - which it will - the meditation hasn’t failed, as long as you have noticed that your mind has done that disappearing trick and locked itself somewhere else. Gently bring it back to your breath. Friends have mentioned that over the lockdown they have had a low day or felt very anxious. We should of course realise that we can’t always feel good. When we have these low days, simply acknowledge the feeling. See it for what it is - and let it go. Afterall, it doesn’t define or own you. |
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| Image: Angela Buckland | ||
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We should see this time as physical distancing, and not social distancing. We can still socialise on Skype and on the Internet and in the Zoom Room, once you have shed the fear of the digital unknown. I know….at my advanced age of 85, this is difficult. These platforms offer a virtual Sangha as we have seen in our online sessions and the BRC brand in your home. We are grateful to our BRC friends for joining our Zoom courses. Your donations are helping us to keep the Dharma wheels turning in Ixopo. I leave you with a poem and image from Dorian Haarhoff and a Rumi quote. Wishing you Calmness and Clarity, Louis |
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| Image: Angela Buckland | ||
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Dorian Haarhoff has offered his popular “Zen Pen” writing retreats at the BRC for many years. Undercover BeautyNow look objectively. You have to in these days we host the undercover Covid 19 and shuts and seals today my love adorns an unglazed pot. blown up, magnified, could we, as host, dust off for it cannot celebrate itself. Dorian |
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A Rumi quoteToday, like every other day you wake up empty |
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| Image: Angela Buckland | ||
Psychoneuroimmunology With Dr Ian Weinberg - In Your HomeIan Weinberg, a neurosurgeon and pioneer in PNI, has led his renowned retreat “A neurosurgeon probes wellness and performance: Psychoneuroimmunology: PNI” for 12 years, twice a year, at the BRC. His retreats are hugely popular and always fully subscribed to. In these uncomfortable times in which we are challenged at every level of our being - physical, psychological and emotional - Ian’s expertise and insights will provide one with practical tools to explore optimal, integrated wellness, and to understand how our thoughts inform our immune system - and how by reframing the way we react to the world around us, we can completely alter our health and quality of life. Ian is offering to assist the BRC to raise funds to ensure its continuity. He has uploaded his full, comprehensive, PNI weekend retreat onto his website in 5 edited modules: See www.neuronostic.com under COURSES – ONLINE MENTORING COURSES. The programme includes slides in PDF format, an online diagnostic and workbook. If you would like to support this fund-raising venture, please consider purchasing his online programme through the BRC at a significantly discounted price (R3,000) relative to the online listed price (R5,500). Proceeds will go to the BRC. To register, please contact Annie Sanders in the office on 0878091687 or for details on registration and payment. |
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| Image: Angela Buckland | ||
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