Centre News

There is no better place to reboot and rejuvenate and to get in touch with nature than in the beautiful, tranquil spaces of the BRC. 
All health protocols and Covid-19 regulations are in place - with social distancing, sanitizing and masks - for your safety and well-being.

Under normal circumstances, we would always welcome day visitors to Ixopo, but with our very strict Covid safety protocols in place, we are prioritising our residential retreatants at the moment, and therefore not accepting day visitors.

View full retreat schedule and details

As some of you know, I employed a wonderful Induna, Vikimpi Mbanjwa, who helped me build the Centre. I recall affectionately his question when he attended one of Godwin Samaratna’s meditation sessions: “Why are we encouraged to watch our breath when it comes so naturally?” Mbanjwa - as he liked to be called - and I became firm friends over the course of the 25 years he was in my employment - a wise, loyal man - and mentor. What a privilege it was to work side by side with him, building the Centre over those first arduous 10 years.

It is important for us to take time out  from the incessant demands and pressured pace of daily life.  The BRC gives you the space to do that. Join Stephen Coan on a silent Zen-style meditation retreat  in the tranquil environment of the BRC and give yourself the space and time to reconnect with your deepest self by simply being attentive, from moment to moment.

We are appealing to our friends and supporters to sponsor a square meter of thatch at R200 or more to help us to renew the deteriorated and leaking thatch roof over our studio. We need R110,000.00 to rethatch it to keep us high and dry over the summer rains.

Story and photo by Wanda Hennig • The Daily Maverick • 28 June 2019

Too many chefs. Zen food. Monkey thieves. Ensconced. Sangoma recipes. Kitchen wisdom. Adam’s sourdough. Only in KZN.

Tantric Tarts: crispy, zesty, intriguing. A Thriller with Vanilla: sublime, luscious, decadent. You’ll have guessed we’re talking food, this being TGIF. But what’s cooking? Who’s cooking? And where?
Read more...

Join us for a fascinating talk on beekeeping and the intriguing world of these little super insects that have been producing honey for millions of years.

Speaker: Curtis Fulton,
Owner: Avalon Apiaries
Date: Tuesday 11 December 2018
Time: 11:30
Venue: Studio, BRC
Bookings: 082 579 3037 or e-mail bookings@brcixopo.co.za

Share the Buddhist Retreat Centre with friends and family you love, and gift a retreat to them. BRC vouchers are available. Contact us at: bookings@brcixopo.co.za  

In October, the BRC was blessed with the visit of four Tibetan monks and esteemed Tibetan Medicine doctor Tenzin Lhanzey and Mrs Tenzin Lhamo, Tibetan Astro-Science Practitioner. The Consecration of the Stupa and Buddha Rupa was declared by Geshe Lobsang as an auspicious occasion and those in attendance were grateful to be part of it. 

Thank you Elizabeth Gaywood for organising this rare and special visit.

The 38th Annual General Meeting of 
The Buddhist Institute of South Africa
Wednesday July 25 2018 @ 19h30
to be held at the home of Chrisi & Louis van Loon, 
24 Bemersyde Road, off Stephen Dlamini (Essenwood) Road Durban.
Please RSVP for catering: 0824668306

It is said to be magical! But that description ignores the human and very real work and effort that went into, and continues to make the BRC what it is.

It was a person - not a sprite or a djinn - who had an idea, a vision and a plan to create a refuge for those in pain, lost, or those knowing the necessity to maintain contact with the spiritual self.

A plot of beautiful land on the edge of a green Ixopo hill giving onto a valley of more hills; trees, shrubs, foliage and flowers which in their green-ness, their extravagant abundance, create a protective armour that gives one the indisputable knowledge that one is supported, protected, nurtured whoever and whatever we may be.

Franchesca Balladon: 01.01.2021

Read more