Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/12/2024 - 14/12/2024
5:00 pm
Location
Eden Rise
Eden Rise December 2024
Come join us in sitting facing a wall (and yourself!) for a few days. Seated meditation is the serious practice of simply doing nothing but letting your life unfold and appreciating it for what it is. This practice is from the Soto Zen tradition.
Just sitting (zazen), is an ancient form of meditation, it might be the most direct and it’s counter intuitive how that also seems to make it one of the most difficult. Seated meditation is entrusting ourselves to immediate experience, inevitably, we have to see the ways in which we have come to mistrust and misunderstand this basic experience of the senses. Just sitting without deliberate intention, opens up body and mind to the wisdom of its own real nature and the real sufficiency of existence. It’s impossible that realization of true nature can benefit only yourself, it extends into all your activities and includes whoever and whatever you interact with.
You don’t have to call yourself a Buddhist to attend this retreat. You don’t have to believe anything in particular at all. An inquiring mind is all you need to bring with you, and to have had some introduction and experience of zazen practice.
There will be some traditional (adapted) forms of practice used during this retreat, which will include ceremonial chanting (in English) and bowing, as well as formal eating meditation. All that will matter is to have the willingness to participate and make use of these formal ways of discovering meditation in every activity.
Rev. Willard Lee is a Buddhist monk in the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. He is the prior of Dragon Bell Temple in Devon. Willard will be giving guidance during the retreat.
At a minimum, you will need to have had instruction in zazen (seated meditation), from a qualified teacher, and there may be time before December to arrange this either with myself or someone else. If you have not attended a residential practice retreat before, there’s always a first time for everyone, so that’s not an obstacle. Please get in touch with Willard if you have any questions about whether it’s appropriate for you to join this retreat, or anything else.
Places will be limited to 11 people. Ideally, please book by 14th November, though later bookings will be accepted if there are still spaces. Further information will be sent to you after booking.
Food and accommodation is provided from 5pm Tuesday 10th – 5pm Saturday 14th December, (the retreat winds down after lunch on the last day, so most people will have left long before 5pm).
There is no charge for attending this retreat. The charity, Dragon Bell Temple, will cover the running costs. To help support the temple, there will be ways to make voluntary donations at the end of your stay.
To book, or anything else, please email Willard: dragonbelltemple@protonmail.com