Retreats & Courses at Land of Joy
Land of Joy offers a range of introductory, next step, advanced and secular retreats through most of the year. Please click on any event that interests you to learn more about it and book your place.
Please be aware that due to the Coronavirus pandemic we can currently only offer our group retreats via Zoom. This will continue until we are able to host them onsite once again. When this happens we hope to live stream the onsite retreats online so those who can’t make it to the centre can still join the retreat via Zoom. Therefore, please share how you would prefer to attend the retreat when you complete your booking form so we know how many people to expect on onsite if this becomes possible.
Personal retreats or private stays are also possible depending on availability. Please click here for more details.
Please be aware event might be cancelled up to two weeks prior to their start date due to lack of numbers or other reasons. It is also possible they will be re-arranged if we have the chance to host touring teachers,, so please keep this in mind when booking transport.
February
With Lynne Knight: 27th-28th February – this will be offered as an online course
Compassion can be both empowering and healing for us and those around us if embraced in an open-hearted and genuine way. The habit of putting ourselves down can be so deeply ingrained that we don’t even realise we’re doing it. Perhaps we can’t truly imagine how different life could be if we were able to truly embrace and accept who we are while feeling worthy of being free from difficulty.
This weekend will introduce and explore the importance of cultivating self-compassion, a profound acceptance of ourselves as we are, as well as how this can enable us to cultivate the genuine wish to help others in whatever way possible.
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March
With Ven Robina Courtin: 9th-13th March – this will be offered as an online course
During this course Ven Robina will offer teachings based on the content of the book ‘How to Face Death Without Fear’ by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, which provides detailed advice on how to help your loved ones prepare for the end of their life with courage, acceptance, and a mind free of fear. This is information we all need but is especially useful for caregivers, health care professionals, chaplains and social workers.
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With Martin Kerrigan: 20th-21st March – this will be offered as an online course
Why do we suffer? How can we change things for the better? Our ability to control external reality is very limited but we can definitely change the way we react to it. During this retreat, through a combination of meditation and discussion, we will be looking at the practical application of Buddhist Psychology, and how we can utilise this, both for or own benefit, and to put us in a better position to help others.
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With Paula Chichester: 26th-29th March – this will be offered as an online course
Glorious White Tara is the healer of all ills and giver of long life. This beautiful practice will be the foundation for an online course focused on experiential meditations that will introduce the tantric sadhana and mantra recitation as a healing method. White Tara is a favorite of our teachers so we will be dedicating the power of this practice to the long lives of our gurus.
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April
With Lou Beaumont: 10th – 11th April
Over years of practise Lou has seen for herself what a support to meditation working with prana/chi energy is and she would like to share this with you.
Through gentle movement we can release the tensions of the body allowing the mind to expand and easily relax into meditation making sitting on our cushion a much more profound and also more comfortable experience!
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With Lou Beaumont: 15th – 18th April
We will use the Chenresig sadhana, which is perfect for learning the foundations of Buddhist practice, discussion, breathing exercises and simple chi gong movement to connect with the subtle energies in our bodies, so that we can begin to experience the sadhana at its deepest level. It is here that we truly connect with Tantric practice to train the mind with joy and ease and where its power can be harnessed for transformation.
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With Pauline Barber & Lou Beaumont: 22nd – 27th April
Land of Joy’s large and varied grounds have much become a place for nature to thrive and a haven for a variety of wildlife to live. Connecting with this kind of nature gifts us the opportunity to ground ourselves in our inner and outer environment. While helping Land of Joy maintain their precious grounds for the wildlife who live there and those who visit, you can become aware of how being in nature effects our body and mind, allowing us to become aware of what is happening within ourselves and release any stress we are holding.
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With Marina Brucet Vinyals: 23rd – 27th April – this will be offered as an online course
There is no negative action that cannot be purified. These negative imprints left in our mind-stream can be purified so that we don’t have to experience the suffering results that would otherwise come, and so we can clear this negative energy out of the way of our spiritual development.
We will follow the sadhana of Heruka Vajrasattva composed by Lama Yeshe, for 4 sessions a day. The retreat will take place in an atmosphere of silence. Daily Lam Rim meditations will be included and prostrations will be done in some sessions.
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May
With Ven Mary Reavey: 30th April – 9th May
Are you curious about Buddhist practice, but don’t know where to begin? Have you attended Buddhist teachings and feel they could be useful for you but don’t know how to meditate on the subjects you’ve studied or how to apply them to your life? This retreat will answer these questions and more.
The retreat will also provide the opportunity to discover and explore the fundamentals of Buddhist meditation.
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With Pauline Barber: 13th-16th May
This is a wonderful opportunity to re-connect with nature while helping us maintain our precious grounds for all to enjoy, including the wildlife who live there.
There are a range of tasks people can work on in the woodland, each of which requires varying levels of physical effort. We therefore try to ensure you get to do something you feel comfortable with
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With Francesca Sanchez: 19th-26th May
The Nyung Nay retreat is a two day intensive practice of Chenresig, the Buddha of Compassion, involving meditating on bodhicitta, visualizing Chenresig, reciting prayers, chanting compassion mantras, and performing prostrations. We start early in the morning taking the 24-hour Mahayana Precepts with the addition of complete fasting (no food or drink) and silence on the second day. Doing even one Nyung Nay for just two days is said to be as effective as three months of other purification practices and is extremely powerful for purifying negative karma and opening the heart to compassion.
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June
With Shan Tate: 5th & 6th June
Inner happiness is possible when we change our perspective and appreciate how our past experiences affect our lives today. We can be free from limiting concepts and empowered to live with a more open, honest and joyful mind.
This weekend will explore how to develop our own inner strengths by learning how to embrace our pasts and take control of our future through relying on our inner wisdom. Becoming more comfortable in our own skin enables us to be more comfortable with others.
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With Andy Wistreich: 11th & 19th June
This retreat will be an Instruction and practice on how to do the Kalachakra Mind Mandala nearing retreat, including the preliminary rituals and fire puja. The Kalachakra mind mandala is a most profound and powerful practice of self-transformation and benefit to the world. Not only is one’s path to enlightenment enhanced, but the effort of doing the retreat helps to strengthen the energies that harmonise the inner and outer elements, thus contributing to environmental and social wellbeing.
Anyone who has received the Kalachakra empowerment and who has enthusiasm for the practice is highly recommended to practise the mind mandala nearing retreat.
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With Pauline Barber: 24th – 29th June
This is a wonderful opportunity to re-connect with nature while helping us maintain our precious grounds for all to enjoy, including the wildlife who live there.
There are a range of tasks people can work on in the woodland, each of which requires varying levels of physical effort. We therefore try to ensure you get to do something you feel comfortable with
Learn more…
July
With Ven Lozang Yönten: 7th – 31st July
During tumultuous times, the practice of Chittamani Tara becomes especially vital for clearing inner and outer obstacles and bringing protection. Through deep retreat practice, we come closer to Cittamani Tara and strengthen our altruistic motivation and ability to more directly benefit ourselves and others.
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August
With Various Leaders: 7th & 8th August
This relaxed weekend of events and activities is a great chance for friends to reconnect with Land of Joy or join us for the first time to explore our home and be a part of our growing community. Many of the sessions on offer will create a huge amount of positive energy for those who attend and towards the ongoing success of Land of Joy so it’s win, win!
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September
With Hans Burghardt: 1st September-6th October
An enabling action retreat is an approximation retreat to the deity during which you complete the number of mantra recitations that permit you to perform mandala actions such as the fire puja and the self-initiation among others.
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October
With Ven Mary Reavey: 15th-23rd October
Shamatha is the development of attention which enables us to focus our attention on an object without agitation or dullness, eventually reaching the clear mind of. Shamata (calm abiding) is the clear mind that provides us with the focus we need to positively transform our minds for ourselves and others. We all need to start where we are so no matter what our level of meditation might be, you will find benefit from training your attention.
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November
With Max Gillespie: 5th – 7th November
The effects of modern living impacts on our bodies, the way we breathe and the way we relate to our emotions. During this three-day course you will learn techniques to rest the body, calm the breath, and relax the mind. Ultimately, embracing a greater depth of self-compassion.
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With Ray Furminger: 12th – 14th November
In this weekend course, Ray will share some of his knowledge of the subject gained over many years both as a practitioner and as a thangka painter in order to help you gain a deeper understanding of the symbolism of the mandala, how this can be inter-connected with all levels of your practice and how you can use this in your daily lives.
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With Lynne Knight: 19th – 22nd November
The teachings known as The Four Limitless (or Immeasurable) Thoughts are a time honoured way of developing Love and Compassion, and also the qualities of Impartiality (or Equanimity) and Joy. In this course we begin our explorations of these trainings, giving us the tools to step in the direction of being truly of benefit to ourselves and our families, and an offering to the world.
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