Offerings

 

 

All courses, sessions and retreats convene at the teaching space in Shoreham. Please advise us of your intention to come along and, subsequently let us know in advance if you are unable to attend a session. Some sessions are also available via Zoom. The sessions are offered freely in the spirit of dana, the responsive flow of universal generosity. Offerings to further the Teaching are welcome.

Deepening Dharma Practice

We offer fortnightly sessions exploring the universal teachings of awakening drawing upon diverse spiritual teachings from around the planet, in particular, classical and contemporary Buddhadharma.

Each session introduces a contemplative theme complemented by guided, gentle mindfulness through movement practice and sitting meditation. These practices provide a deep foundation of ease and calm that also settles the mind; thereby, calm, loving kindness and interest blossom furthering greater curiosity, awareness and joy. This foundation of calm (samatha) enables and supports contemplative exploration (vipassana) and greater discernment of what is supportive of a wholesome, healthy life. A more natural and open way of being is realised with the release of old habitual patternings.

These explorations are further supported with group discussion and guidelines for individual practice at home.

Current Sessions

Awakening with the Planet: Ecologically oriented Buddhadharma

In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the Bodhisattva vow is to awaken speedily for the sake of all beings and, in so doing, bring all 'sentient' (living) beings to awakening. This supports the ultimate manifestation of an awakened planet. In the midst of the climate and extinction crisis that currently confronts us, the urgency of this task is immediate.

Additionally, the Dharma teachings about non-separateness or 'Interbeingness' (Thich Nhat Hahn) suggest that the unique Path we live is fully interconnected with all life around us, despite our, sometimes, scant regard or appreciation of this truth.

Within this series of sessions, the teachings, contemplative exercises and explorations will prompt greater pause to experience the interbeingness with all the livingness surrounding us (including other human beings) and to cultivate both greater wisdom and skills to awaken and quicken our responsiveness.

Session Dates: Sundays, June 16 & 30, July 7 & 21, August 4 & 18, September 1, 15 & 29, October 13 & 27; November 10 & 24 and December 8 & 22.

Retreats

Monthly Retreat Days

Setting aside a whole day for Dharma practice in a supportive environment is what is offered through our monthly retreat day. We provide a general theme for the day, lead a session of movement and a group sit followed by individual contemplative work using the practice space, the garden, the bush and the beach walks available in the neighbourhood. The day includes group sharing, discussion and feedback on arising questions and themes of exploration.

Current Sessions

Monthly Retreat Day(s).
Finding Sanctuary in the Natural State
10.00am - 4.00pm (AEST) - Monthly.

Once a month, we are offering a workshop/retreat exploring interbeing with nature and sanctuary/refuge within the natural world. No meditation experience or particular commitment to a tradition is required to join.

Across the day, formal sessions include gentle movement work, calm abiding practice and classical teaching from various traditions. Space and time is also set aside for individual practice - sitting & walking meditation in the bush and beside the sea, contemplative practice and, using voice, written or graphic formats to craft expressions of personal musings, reflections and insights from the explorations.
Collective sharing with other participants of personal exploration serves to deepen collaborative learning.

Registration Essential. Please bring your own lunch. Refreshments provided.
Sundays, 10.00am - 4.00pm: June 2nd & 30th; July 21st; August 18th; September 15th; October 13th; November 10th & December 8th.

Longer Retreats

We offer two (2) nine-day retreats annually focused on specific theme in May and October commencing on a Saturday and finishing the following Sunday week. The schedule generally includes a morning and occasionally an afternoon teaching session with space between for personal exploration and practice – sitting, standing, lying down and walking – both indoors and outdoors in the beautiful Shoreham bushland and beach environments.

Current Sessions

Nine Day Retreat:
Cultivating Naturalness
9.00am Saturday 11th to 4.00pm Sunday 19th.

All the great spiritual and mystical teachings ultimately come back to the cultivation of an 'authentic' self, unhindered by both unhelpful entrenched personal habits and coercive messages of others - parents, families, society and the media.

The unending natural world of living beings - plants, animals, insects, fungi - both of the land and sea, seemingly unencumbered, contribute their unique configuration of being to their particular ecological niche. Our own immersion in the natural world is both healing and provides unending inspiration for attuning oneself with the 'natural order of things'. How do we as both individual and collective human beings, find and contribute our own authentic and unique configuration to the unfolding of life on the planet? This nine day retreat will be an opportunity to deepen and further explore these themes.

Awakening, as in natural awakening, is an adverb; an ongoing, continuum experience founded upon deep bodily calm, thus a settled mind, and increased familiarity with resting in a non-dual, first-person, direct experience of a vibrant, vast, spacious, open mandala of being, arising moment-to-moment.

The retreat will provide participants with some simple practices for contacting a way of natural abiding that can be readily incorporated into existing busy lives. These include pausing in the flow of events, centring and grounding oneself in the body, experiencing greater calm and spaciousness of being and thereby, increased clarity of mind. By cultivating these qualities, one's natural state of abiding and interconnectedness with the natural world becomes more apparent.

Retreat provides experienced practioners with space, time and a supportive environment for deepening practice. For those new to meditation, it is the opportunity to build confidence, receive encouragment and ask those questions you always wanted to ask. The daily program will comprise silent individual practice both formal and informal, and group gatherings:
* a morning teaching session on a specific facet of contemplative practice and mindfulness practice: both gentle movement work and group sitting meditation;
* an afternoon session of movement work.

The retreat runs from Saturday May 11 through to Sunday May 19, 2024.
Participants need to self-cater for meals.
Camping is available at the Shoreham Foreshore Reserve (ph: 5989 8325).
For other accommodation options check The Cliffs Retreat (https://www.thecliffsretreat.com) or call Kathryn 0457 203 630.

For registration and further information for all courses contact Kathryn: ph:+61 (0)3 5989 8179; mob: +61 (0)457 203 630; contact@openpathmeditation.com.au

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