Welcome to our 2021 Programme
15 July 2021 update
What a joy that Gaia House is now open for residential retreats! After 14 months of shutdown, it has been truly wonderful to have our first retreatants back at Gaia House this summer.
Below you’ll find our schedule of upcoming residential and online retreats. We do hope you’ll be able to join us soon.
Please click here for information on what we’re doing to create as supportive and safe a retreat environment as possible, under the covid regulations that are still in place.
*Please be aware that whilst we are in the process of re-opening our team is very busy so it may take a little longer than usual to respond to any enquiries you may have. Please make your booking via the website, unless you are enquiring about a FAB Fund or Young Persons’ place. Thank you!*
A note on dana/generosity
None of your registration fee goes to the teacher(s). Gaia House teachers rely on the generosity of students for their livelihood. There is an opportunity to make a dana offering to the teachers at the end of each event.
May our practice serve the welfare, happiness, and safety of all life.
ONLINE
Online Series of Meditation Days
Timeless presence in the midst of daily life
with Leela Sarti
12 September ♦ 3 October ♦ 14 November ♦ 12 December
A series of one-day retreats exploring the possibility of being grounded in the depth of timeless presence in the midst of daily life. We will inquire how to live a full life from silence and emptiness, and yet being yourself in peace with others, and doing what needs to be done.
If you wish to register for the remaining three days, then please do so. The recordings from the first date are available on the noticeboard, details on how to access this will be sent to you with your order confirmation.
Retreat open to all, but most suitable for those with previous meditation retreat experience.
ONLINE
Online Meditation Day: Timeless ethics, life structures and living without remorse
with Leela Sarti
3 October
This is the second day in the series of day retreats, Timeless presence in the midst of daily life, which can be booked as a series or as standalone days.
A day of retreat opens the possibility to turn to our dissatisfaction, distraction and restlessness, so that we may remember and live from the deeper stream. The practice of the noble eightfold path trains heart, mind and presence and weaves habits of integrity, truth and goodness. It is a training to live this life that we have been given; with openness, curiosity, kindness and courage, and to do what needs to be done, to make this precious life count.
Retreat open to all, but most suitable for those with previous meditation retreat experience.
RESIDENTIAL
Residential retreat: The Richness of the Heart
With Kirsten Kratz
7-10 October 2021
Wisdom teachings encourage us to look deeply and with love into our experience, with all its complexities, challenges and contradictions.
When we approach our existence with kindness and courage, the limitless potentials of this human heart are gradually unveiled. There may be liberating insights, small and big, into how we can relate to life in more skillful, fearless, compassionate and creative ways. The moments of our life become richer as we can begin to discover our innate potential for compassion, openness, love, and joy.
This retreat is open to all, including beginners and those with experience.
This retreat is now full with a long waiting list. We aren’t currently taking bookings for this retreat.
ONLINE
Online: Everyday Dharma: Insight Meditation and Qigong retreat
With Norman Feldman and Brad Richecoeur
Wednesday, 13 October – Sunday, 17 October 2021
On this retreat, the sitting practices of Insight Meditation and the standing and movement of Qigong are integrated into a form that invites and supports us in gently exploring ways in which we define and limit ourselves. This is particularly in the context of being at home, and yet also alongside others. From this practise, insight can effortlessly arise into our true nature and free us to live in a wiser and more compassionate relationship with our inner and outer world.
This retreat is suitable for all levels of experience and health.
RESIDENTIAL
Meditation Day: A Deeper Calm than Stillness
With Jenny Wilks
Saturday, 16 October 2021
This day retreat offers an opportunity to explore how the practice of meditation and mindful awareness can support us in cultivating more calmness and clarity of mind and heart. This can gradually free us from unhelpful and reactive tendencies, and enable us to maintain steadiness and well-being in the midst of the ups and downs of life.
Open to people who are new to meditation or who have some experience and would like to refresh their practice.
This retreat is now full but you can still join the waiting list.
ONLINE
Online: Exploring Anatta – The Skill of Disidentification and the Emptiness of Self
With Juha Penttilä
Monday evenings, 18 October – 29 November 2021 (7pm – 9.00pm)
The emptiness of self is one of the central aspects of the emptiness teachings at the heart of the Dharma. On this course we will be focusing on two meditative practices which will support the deepening of an experiential understanding of how the self is fabricated – and exploring how our life can be a movement between different ways of seeing and conceiving the self.
A thorough familiarity with mindfulness practices is required for participation on this course and openness to new ways of approaching practice is helpful.
RESIDENTIAL
Residential retreat: Embodying the Awakened Heart
With Yanai Postelnik and assisted by River Wolton
Friday, 22 October – Thursday, 28 October (6 nights)
At the heart of the Buddha’s teachings is the real possibility of awakening: our innate potential to discover inner peace and freedom, and to embody the unobstructed openness that is our deepest truth. This retreat will explore the art of Insight Meditation as an invitation to be authentic with our experience, to relax into an intimate relationship with the depth of our being, and to cultivate a genuine kind-heartedness towards ourselves and all of life. In learning to trust our life we can come to abide in the wide-open heart of awakened presence.
All levels of experience are welcome.
This retreat is now full with a long waiting list. We aren’t currently taking bookings for this retreat.
RESIDENTIAL
Personal retreat: November Solitary
With Christina Feldman, Yanai Postelnik and Kirsten Kratz
- 2 – 30 November (28 nights)
This retreat is a rare and precious opportunity to engage in an extended period of individual meditation without interruption. Regular teacher interviews and Dharma talks are offered, and guidance is available in Insight Meditation (Vipassana), tranquillity (Samatha) meditation, Loving-kindness (Metta) and the other Brahma Viharas. Each participant has a single room, and is offered the possibility to be in solitude or to sit with a small community retreating at Gaia House during this time.
Previous experience of at least three week-long residential teacher-led silent meditation retreats and completion of a Personal Retreat Application Form is required in order to be able to attend this retreat.
*Limited places are available – please apply now to secure one the remaining places.
ONLINE
Online: Joy of Mindful Living: Autumn Family Gathering
With Sari Markkanen
6 – 7 November 2021
A series of online teaching sessions aimed at supporting parents, carers, grandparents and families — including short online sessions and an invitation to engage with off-screen, family friendly, autumn activities.
You are welcome to join us in this joyful exploration!
ONLINE
Online Meditation Day: Curiosity and the love of truth as fuel for the spiritual journey
with Leela Sarti
14 November
This is the third day in the series of day retreats, Timeless presence in the midst of daily life, which can be booked as a series or as standalone days.
Throughout time spiritual practitioners have embarked on the simple, yet challenging path of meditation and inquiry; to stabilize oneself in effortless embodied presence and using human creativity and curiosity to deepen understanding. Wisdom arises from the spirit of exploration, the innocence and freedom to simply ask; What is this? What is the truth of my experience, of body, mind and heart? What is the nature of awakening and the path of awakening? What brings peace of mind and the end of suffering?
Retreat open to all, but most suitable for those with previous meditation retreat experience.
ONLINE
Online: Three Doorways to the Sensible and the Sacred
with Gregory Kramer
19 – 21 November
In this short retreat, we will explore three of the gateways to the sacred that run through our lives: aging, illness and death; nature; and relationship. We will learn and practice Insight Dialogue, and apply the power of silent and relational meditation practices to investigate qualities of experience that subtly saturate our apparently rational lives and Buddhist practices.
Please come prepared to participate in relational meditation in breakout rooms, and to devote as much time as possible this weekend to quietude and inquiry.
Open to all — beginner and experienced practitioners of Insight Dialogue. Prior experience with meditation/mindfulness is supportive.
RESIDENTIAL
Residential retreat: A Path of Wisdom and Love
With Zohar Lavie and Jake Dartington
Saturday, 4 December – Wednesday, 8 December (4 nights)
The practice of Insight Meditation helps us to connect with what is happening in our own hearts and minds and to sense our innate potential for wisdom, love, openness and freedom. We will also explore ways to creatively respond to the patterns, habits and obstacles that appear to obscure these beautiful qualities. Our exploration will be supported by meditation instructions, dharma talks and meetings with the teachers.
All levels of experience are welcome.
This retreat is now full with a long waiting list. We are no longer taking bookings for this retreat.
ONLINE
Online Meditation Day: Depth, rest and stillness. Practicing beyond life and death
with Leela Sarti
12 December
This is the fourth day in the series of day retreats, Timeless presence in the midst of daily life, which can be booked as a series or as standalone days.
There is a momentum in life; we rise, live as best as we can and fall asleep. We go through life stages and a multitude of challenges. We remember, regret, our lives now shaped by life gone by. We plan ahead, hope, fear and dream of what is yet to come. There is no stopping of this incessant stream, and yet a day of retreat offers a sacred territory to simply stop. To pull the breaks, to enter the still point and linger there. Beyond the momentum of life there is timeless presence, there is profound stillness and we can incline our heart, mind and spirit to that still point and let ourselves be unburdened.
Retreat open to all, but most suitable for those with previous meditation retreat experience.
RESIDENTIAL
Residential retreat: New Year’s Retreat
With Kirsten Kratz and Jenny Wilks
Tuesday, 28 December – Monday, 3 January (6 nights)
This retreat is an opportunity to practice for a sustained period over the New Year, dedicated to cultivating a heart rooted in calm receptive insight. The retreat follows a similar outline to Insight Meditation retreats at Gaia House with instructions in Insight and Loving-kindness meditation, daily talks and meetings with teachers.
To join this retreat you need to have attended at least one week’s previous residential Insight Meditation retreat. Please commit to attending the whole of the retreat.
This retreat is now full but you can still join the waiting list.
