BRC Newsflash - February 2023
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The Buddhist Retreat Centre |
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Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
For people of all religions |
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BRC Newsflash: February 2023 Dear Retreatants, |
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| Buddha sunset | Image: Andrew Brown | |
‘Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention’The book “Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention” by Johann Hari recently caught my attention. Hari suggests that it is the perfect storm of ‘cognitive degradation’ - I call it rather the pleasures of distraction and constant diversion - that pull one away from being centred and focussed. Your attention is your life - your reality. Only by paying such attention, can you fully engage with what is front of you - screaming for your attention. If you are too locked up in your own neuroses and agitation, you drain away all that energy that could go into engaging what it confronting you with a clear mind. It is all about training our restless, chaotic mind to be more focussed, to see with clarity, to have more spaciousness for more purposeful living and to feel more connected. |
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| Cape Batis focussed | Image: Andrew Brown | |
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Twenty-five centuries ago before Mindfulness became a popular commodity in modern culture, the Buddha laid great emphasis on the need to fully engage and be present in any situation that requires you to interact with it, so whether you are simply eating a meal or shaking someone’s hand or doing complicated mathematics, it just requires paying attention in different degrees and intensity. I began meditating more than five decades ago, with teachers from the Theravada, Zen and Tantra traditions. I may not have achieved any higher states of consciousness, but mindfulness and meditation practice were instrumental in helping me maintain a greater degree of equanimity in my daily life and in the workplace. I am happy to say I have had a ‘look in’ and gleaned enough to taste this exquisite capacity of the mind to overflow into something else other than one’s own story - and to find stillness and presence. We are fortunate to have Anna Scharfenberg and Johnathan Preboy from Poland leading retreats from 9-19 January on how to realise ever-present mindfulness. This may be an opportunity for you to acquaint yourself with a powerful practice that can lead the wandering mind to calmer waters. For 2023, let’s all be ambassadors for joy and kindness. With affection, Louis |
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| Zendo meditations | Image: Kim Ward | |
Now And Zen: Reboot, Recharge And RetreatThere is no better place than the BRC to rejuvenate the body and mind with nature, meditation and movement to guide you into presence and stillness. |
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| Entrance to the Buddha Boma | Image: Chantelle Flores | |
There are still a few spaces left on the following January retreats:
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| Stupa spire | Image: Lisa De Venter | |
Conducted Retreats February 2023Happy Healthy Yoga For Healing And HarmonyCarol Segal | Weekend | 3-5 February Shining Bright: Awaken The Authentic Leader WithinRajes Govender | 2 days | 5-7 February Getting To Know The Birds At The BRC: 160 Birds Of A FeatherSteve Davis | Weekend | 10 -12 February Creative Intuition RetreatTheresa Hardman | Weekend | 17-19 February |
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| Labyrinth at night |
Image: Andrew Brown | |
Live and work in the beautiful rural environment of the BRC
Image: Antony Lavoipierre We are looking for a mature person - a non-smoker - who has IT and office experience to handle the bookings, reception of guests and allocation of rooms for retreatants, the shop sales, as well as correspondence with local and international guests. The applicant must have Excel experience, be fully IT literate, enjoy meeting new people and be sympathetic to the Buddhist philosophy and to residing in a rural environment. We are therefore inviting applications to fill this administrative position. Being a non-profit organisation, we are not able to offer a ‘going wage’, but we do offer an allowance, live-in board and accommodation, a small medical-aid, a chance to meet an interesting array of people and the opportunity to attend retreats. Full details of the position, including renumeration, terms and conditions of employment are available. Please contact either Lien Duvenage at 0878091687 or Chrisi at 0824668306 or email: |
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About the BRCPerched on a ridge at the head of a valley in the Umkomaas river system in KwaZulu-Natal, the Buddhist Retreat Centre looks out on a vista of indigenous valleys, forests and rolling hills receding like waves in the blue distance. Here, for forty two years, people of all religions and none have come to experience peace and tranquillity. It is a gentle, sympathetic space where one can be still and get in touch with oneself and reflect on the things that crowd one's life. The BRC was voted by CNN as one of the ten best meditation centres in the world. CNN Travel awarded another feather in the BRC’s cap by voting it as one of the ten best spiritual centres in South Africa, recently. The BRC was awarded Natural Heritage status in 1995 under the auspices of the Department of Environmental Affairs and received a certificate to that effect signed by President Nelson Mandela for turning an eroded farm into the natural paradise it has become - thousands of indigenous trees were planted by retreatants under the supervision of Mervyn Croft - with 160 species of birds, including the Blue Swallow, otter, deer, antbear and indigenous forests. The Centre was also given the special status of “Custodian of the Blue Swallow” for its work in preserving the breeding areas of this endangered bird. Recently, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife granted the BRC “Private Nature Reserve” for the conservation of the rare Blue Swallow and Mistbelt Grassland. The BRC facilitated the founding of Woza Moya, the community-based NGO, located in Ufafa Valley, twenty-two years ago, on the estate. Their vision is for all people in the community to be healthy and.productive, to live in a safe and clean environment, with good access to services and social justice. The Centre continues to support the organisation by showcasing their crafts in the shop and sponsoring their trainers and consultants. We have been very touched by your appreciative letters, emails and friendship towards the BRC - your spiritual home from home. We are deeply grateful for your generous gifts to the Centre this year: new beds and bases, office chairs and a desk, a new refrigerator, bathroom towels, indigenous trees and seedlings, books for our library, a generator, garden benches, clothing and Dana for our staff - and so much more. Thank you to all of you who continue to support our work in Ixopo with monthly and Paid Up Yogi contributions and donations, with gifts, or with skills and time. And, of course, everyone who comes to the Centre keeps us open and viable. We are deeply grateful for your generosity towards us; it encourages us to continue Louis’ beautiful vision and legacy for the future. Please continue to support the BRC by becoming a friend of the Buddhist Retreat Centre (a registered non-profit organisation) and find out more about the BRC's Paid-Up-Yogi and Sangha Friends’ projects. Chrisi Visit our website for further information, directions, image gallery etc. |
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