Love Without Limits Retreatants’ Page

Vessantara’s retreats in 2021 can be found here

Links to Youtube recordings are at the bottom of the page

Question for reflection/ groups day 1:

‘What encourages or inspires or causes the heart to open?’

Resources day 1 :

Prayer to Tara

Question for reflection/groups day 2:

What have I appreciated this year? What has been positive this year?

Resources day 2:

Kathleen Raine Amo Ergo Sum

Refuges and Precepts_retreatlanguages-2

Questions for reflection/groups day 3:

Is there a habit or a view I have seen through in 2020 and want to leave behind me?

Resources day 3:

Suggestions for dealing with overwhelm

The Journey by Mary Oliver

Resources Day 4:

We have not come here to take prisoners – Hafiz

3 Myths diagram:

Active

Receptive

‘Outside’

Development

Surrender

‘Inside’

Discovery

Emergence

Everything Is Waiting for You_david whyte

Question for reflection/groups day 4 30th Dec:

What have been important for me from this retreat? (and is there a way I want to take that further?)

For the Ritual on 30 Dec:
This ritual with focus on aspirations for our Dharma practice in the new year. Before the ritual, you can think about what this might be for you, and perhaps whether there is a simple daily/weekly/monthly action or ritual you want to keep with you throughout the year to honour this. We will make this in the ritual. Bring incense, pen & paper, and a vajra if you have one.

For Ritual 29th Dec:

The ritual will be around letting go.

At some point it will include the chance to let go of things we want to leave behind in the old year, and ritually burn them. You can either write down things and burn where you are, or if you want to have something in the “collective fire”, you can send an email to Advayasiddhi on meditationdk@gmail.com just saying “XXX (your name) has something I want to let go off” and it will be included in the ritual. You are welcome to still do this, even if you cannot attend the session or will be watching the recording later on.

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If you have any questions on the material retreat please feel free to email Vessantara during the retreat vessantara@outlook.com (he will be offline after the retreat). Or Advayasiddhi on meditationdk@gmail.com.

Programme

All timings are UK:

Session 1: 7.00 – 7.50am Chanting and unguided meditation with Advayasiddhi.

Session 2: 10am–12 noon: Teaching session with Vessantara.

Session 3: 3.00 – 3.40pm: Small groups.
3.45 – 4.30pm: Led practice/devotion with Advayasiddhi.

Session 4: 7.30 – 8.30pm: Teaching session with Vessantara.

( Australasian suggested programme timings are here )

The retreat will begin at at 10am on Sunday the 27th, and finish after session 2, at 12 noon on Thursday 31st December. For those who’d like the opportunity, there will be an additional Meditation and Ritual session to see in the New Year, from 23.15 -00.15 UK time.

We will be calling on Amitabha and Green Tara to support our practice on the retreat. If you have a favourite reading on either of these figures you are welcome to send them to Advayasiddhi on meditationdk@gmail.com and they may appear in one of the sessions.

Optional small groups: We will be having small groups in session 3 (3.00 UK time ) for about 35 min. These will be random each day, and each day we will give you a question at the start of the group session to focus on. Please arrive promptly for this session as we can’t allocate groups until everyone who wants to join is present. There will be a short 5 min break between the groups and the ritual session. If you want to organise your own group, that is fine, just make sure you are ready in the main session for 3:45 UK time.

Teachings are offered on a dana (donation) basis. If you’d like to support our Dharma work, that would be very much appreciated. We would also like to make a contribution to Adhisthana who are providing us with facilities and technical help.

You can donate via Paypal by clicking the button below. (You don’t need to have an account with Paypal; just a debit or credit card.)