|
This new retreat has been eagerly requested for three years!
Meditation teacher Claudiu Trandafir, who has led the Hridaya Retreat for thousands of people since 2002, introduces for the first time an Advanced Hridaya Retreat. This retreat intends to take a more profound approach to meditation and the depth of practice. It creates the premises for even deeper insights in which Awareness, Compassion, Beauty, Love, Bliss, and Freedom will be revealed. This retreat will generally include less speaking and less introduction of techniques, etc., with more and deeper meditation periods, plus special elements that apply only to this retreat.
Some of these elements include:
- Tonglen, a Buddhist practice of compassion
- Presentations about Advaita and Christianity: the affirmations of Jesus considered from the Advaita perspective (commentary on some passages from the Gospels)
- Walking meditation
- More commentary about mental void
- Stories and narratives that detail the enlightenment of great masters: inspiring stories from inside the process
- 3-2-1-0 Method
- Beauty as a means and Reality
- Selected methods from Vijnana Bhairava Tantra
One condition must be met in order to join the Advanced Hridaya Retreat:
Participants will need to commit to attending the standard 10-day Hridaya Retreat directly preceding the Advanced Retreat. This purifies participants and prepares the ground for advanced levels of meditation; it is absolutely necessary and non-negotiable. Thus, this retreat is considered 17 days in length and all participants of the Advanced Retreat must join all days.
There is no further prerequisite. Anyone - even someone wholly unfamiliar with meditation or someone who has not previously joined a meditation retreat - is welcome to join if committing to the full retreat of 17 days. (Of course, all are welcome to join only the regular 10-day retreat which is held 28 May - 6 June and overlaps the Advanced Retreat.) It is important that participants prepare themselves and commit from the beginning with a determination to attend the complete 17-day retreat. Attendees should not take a "wait and see" approach, leaving a decision to join to follow their evaluation of the 10-day retreat.
Participants will realize that the energy and depth of the retreat builds up naturally through its extended duration. This period of practice will bring by itself some important transformations to all participants.
Dates: 28 May - 13 June, 2010
Daily program: 07:00-12:00 / 15:30-20:30; see Hridaya Retreat overview for general program and guidelines
Fee: 5,000 Baht
Registration: Thursday, 27 May, 16:00, at Shiva Hall, Srithanu Campus. All participants, regardless of whether they have previously attended a Hridaya Retreat, must attend the registration session which takes place at this time. This session will consist of payments and registration, going over the retreat guidelines, and a short meditation followed by Q&A with Claudiu. The entire session should last no more than 1.5-2 hours.
Agama Yoga arranges a vegan buffet on-site at Atma Restaurant twice daily for the convenience of participants. Cost is 100 Baht for lunch (12:00) and 80 Baht for a lighter supper (20:30). All meals (17 days, therefore 34 meals), will cost 3,060 Baht. Lunches only will total 1,700 Baht; Ohsawa option available. Please bring your meal payments to the registration session.
Daily Schedule
The daily program for this retreat is split into two parts: a morning session (07:00-12:00) and an
afternoon / evening session (15:30-21:30).
07:00-09:00 Meditation: The revelation of the Spiritual Heart, Atman. This meditation will begin in smaller segments (for example, with short hourly breaks), building to one continous, deep meditation session.
09:00-10:15 Relevant lecture teaching
10:15-11.30 Hatha Yoga practice of techniques, especially those that facilitate the revelation of the Spiritual Heart: a simultaneous (class-like) group practice
11:30-12:00 Meditation: The revelation of the Spiritual Heart
12:00-15:30 Lunch and rest. Agama arranges a vegan and inexpensive buffet lunch.
15:30-18:30 Meditation: The revelation of the Spiritual Heart. This meditation will begin in smaller segments (for example, with short hourly breaks), building to one continous, deep meditation session.
18:30-19:00 Hatha Yoga: Individual practice and tapas
19:00-20:00 Daily themed spiritual discourse
20:00-20:30 Final evening meditation
20:30 Q&A (optional)
Retreat events end for the day. Agama arranges a light vegan and inexpensive supper.
A single, gentle bell-ring will mark the end of each meditation or other period, and will signal a short break. A series of bell tones will indicate that the next meditation or other period will begin within two or three minutes and that it is the time to take one's seat and cease movement in the hall.
Special Themes
Special meditation lecture topics will be explored every evening between 20:00 and 21:00
Day 1: Meditation for revealing the Divine Self, Atman, using the Self-inquiry method of Ramana Maharshi "Who am I?"
Day 2: Spanda, the sacred tremor, and the Divine Mystery that is revealed by opening to the reality of the Divine Self, Atman
Day 3: The method of resorption of the I-thought at its source (according to Ramana Maharshi's revelation)
Day 4: The prayer of the Heart (the fundamental method of the Fathers of the Desert)
Day 5: Exemplification of the four fundamental stages in the process of Self-revelation
Day 6: Complete surrender to the Supreme Reality of the Divine Self, Atman
Day 7: The witness consciousness and its role in the revelation of the Divine Self, Atman
Day 8: The Divine Love that pervades our entire being, through the revelation of the Divine Self,Atman
Day 9: The consciousness of Unity that is revealed through the expansion of sensory perceptions
Day 10: A special schedule will be kept this evening that affords time for concluding remarks, open questions and answers, and an opportunity for retreat participants to share their spiritual experiences.
|
