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.
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.
January 2022
With Wendy Ridley: 28th – 30th January – Last few places remaining
This course is for people of all ages and backgrounds. It is designed for those who are curious about what shapes our experience and how we can transform our lives. The course was developed by the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom (FDCW). The content is rooted in Buddhist philosophy and psychology and is supported by scientific research, Western philosophy, positive psychology, and other wisdom traditions.
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February
With Ray Furminger: 18th – 20th February – Last few places remaining
Have you always wanted to meditate but don’t know how to start? Can you simply not find the motivation to sit and meditate, or perhaps think meditation is not for you.
In this weekend course Ray will lead simple and approachable meditations that will give the knowledge, confidence and courage to help you to begin a stable and regular meditation practice.
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With Wendy Ridley: 25th – 27th February
This course is for people of all ages and backgrounds. It is designed for those who want to strengthen their inner resources which help build deep and sustainable connections and relationships. The course was developed by the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom (FDCW). The content is rooted in Buddhist philosophy and psychology and is supported by scientific research, Western philosophy, positive psychology, and other wisdom traditions.
Learn more…
March
With Paula (Nyingje) Chichester: 08th – 14th March
Glorious White Tara is the healer of all ills and giver of long life. This beautiful practice will be the foundation for an online retreat 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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With Andy Wistreich & Shan Tate: 19th – 20th March – this will be offered as an online course
It’s understood in buddhist traditions in general that one needs a teacher, someone reliable from whom one can receive authentic teachings, advice and instructions. It is often said that one shouldn’t rush into a relationship with a teacher, but rather, that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
This weekend course will include conversations in small groups, and in the whole group, as enabled by Zoom. These conversations will enable buddhist practitioners of all different levels of experience, engagement with the path and walks of life, to come together and learn from one another.
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April
With Various leaders: 15th – 19th April
This is a chance for your family to spend precious time together while exploring ideas to develop positive thoughts and attitudes both within your family dynamic and beyond.
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With Ven Mary Reavey: 22nd – 30th April
Genuine Happiness is achievable. What is useful is a road map that will guide you from ordinary everyday (limited) happy experience towards Genuine Happiness that is lasting and under your control.
In this retreat, you will examine Stages of the Path (Lam Rim) that will lead you there.
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May
With Ven Mary Reavey: 20th – 22nd May
This weekend will provide the opportunity to discover and explore the fundamentals of Buddhist meditation. Throughout this weekend, we will look into the various aspects of the theory and practice of meditation as well as being guided through meditations on the subjects covered in the “A Practical Guide to True Happiness Retreat” in April.
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June
With Geshe Namdak: 17th – 22nd June
During this retreat we come to understand the most important aspects of the path to enlightenment.
We will see that the stronger our compassion is for others, the more courageous the bodhicitta attitude of attaining enlightenment becomes. If this gets combined with emptiness, the view of ultimate reality, it becomes even more powerful.
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With Francesca Sanchez: 1st to 6th June
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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July
With Ven Lozang Yönten: 1st – 23rd July
Arya Tara (Tib. Drol-ma) the “liberator” swiftly delivers the blessings of the buddhas and bodhisattvas to those who make their mind’s receptive through deep practice, particularly in a retreat setting. She can do this since she is the manifestation of the purified state of action-wind of all the buddhas. We can experience this transformation because we already have Buddha-potential.
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With Lou Beaumont: 29th – 31st July
This will be a weekend course of gentle movement & breathing helping us to connect with our subtle body. Combining these movements with mindful attention we can experience quite naturally how to rest our mind in this expansive energy.
We will learn how to control the breath with simple pranayama exercises that energise the body & gently train the mind to focus within.
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August
With Various leaders: 06th – 07th 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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With Fichou (Christian Fischer) & Ray Furminger: 12th – 22nd August
Many students have the commitment to complete the nine Ngöndro, or preliminary practices, associated with Vajrayana practice or have been given some or all of them to complete by their teacher.
Among these is the practice of offering 111,000 water bowls. Making offerings is said to accumulate great merit, helps us generate a mind of generosity and is also a specific antidote to miserliness. The water bowl offerings, as with the other eight preliminary practices (prostrations, Vajrasattva, refuge, mandala offerings, guru yoga, Dorje Khadro, tsa-tsas and Samayavajra), are an extraordinary way to accumulate merit and to purify negative actions in order to quickly generate realisations on the path.
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September
With Lou Beaumont: 2nd – 4th September
Another chance to join us at Land of Joy for some gentle chi gong movement & pranayama breathing.
These ancient exercise systems can deeply energise our bodies they are used as a basis for mindful attention and meditation practice.
We will be focusing on bringing these exercises into our everyday experience so that we can utilise them to enhance are health and our mental well being. Very simple techniques that can be done lying down in bed, standing up at the bus stop or just watching the telly! Learning to focus the mind in the body & breath is very simple.
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With Ven Mary Reavey: 23rd – 30th September
Shamata 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.
Learn more…
Shamata 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.
Learn more…
October
With Andy Wistreich: 7th – 23rd October
This retreat is open to anyone who has taken the Kalacakra initiation, regardless of whether or not they have experience in Kalacakra practice, as it’s a great way to learn to practice the Kalacakra tantra.
The practice that we will use during the retreat was composed at the request of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama by his senior tutor, Yongdzin Ling Rinpoche, in the sixties. It is a powerful practice for personal social and ecological transformation. So, participation in the retreat will benefit both the practitioner and the world.
