Led by: Paramananda, Kshantika, Satyamuni, Satyamanas and team
Location: Bowerwood, Nr. Broadhembury, E. Devon
Deposit amount: £125
Experience level: Experienced meditators - at least three years
Age group: Adults
Total suggested cost (including deposit): standard:£600, supported:£375, donation tier (helping others to come on retreat):£880
Greening the Heart
'In the green morning, I wanted to be a heart. A heart.' - Lorca
This two week intensive meditation retreat held under the trees offers a rare opportunity to deepen our practice supported by the natural world.
Faced as we are with the challenge of coping with the degradation of the living world, there is a vital need to strengthen our hearts so that we can act with love and imagination.
Living a simple life in community cultivating love and awareness can give us a new energy and confidence to dedicate our life to the good. Come and join us on this retreat led by Paramananda and supported by the experienced Buddhafield team.
See our FAQ for an explanation of the deposit/ dana/ donation tier system. Please do read this is you think that you will not be able to afford the retreat or you are not sure about the deposit/dana/ donation tier system in any way. We have suggested donation amounts to guide you and they relate to what it costs us to run a retreat. However you are free to give as little or as much as befits your circumstances.
Buddhafield offers the ideal opportunity to practice in a natural environment free from the distractions of our daily lives. Living in simplicity and community we will explore how attending to our bodies and hearts can open.
We will together create a community of practice that supports us to go beyond our normal sense of who and what we are, opening to ourselves, one another and the world.
Leader Bios
Paramananda
Paramananda is an inspirational and much loved Buddhist teacher who has written a number of books on Buddhism and the craft of meditation, including ‘A Deeper Beauty’, and mostly recently ‘The Myth of Meditation: Restoring Imaginal Ground through Embodied Buddhist Practice’.
He worked for a number of years as a psychiatric social worker and did voluntary work in the community for the Samaritans, in drug detox, and in a hospice. His time is now dedicated to teaching.
Satyamuni
Satyamuni is delighted to return to total immersion after a gap of 3 years. For 10 years this retreat was her context to practise more deeply within a community in greater harmony with the land. In the gap, she spent 2 years in the spanish mountains in a women’s community also supporting meditation and ordination retreats For the last 14 months Satyamuni has been mainly in retreat with communities of practitioners (wales, spain, new zealand, england) as well as on solitary retreat in lapland.
Satyamuni originally trained as a social psychologist and researcher before retraining as a clinical and forensic psychologist and psychotherapist. Her focus was on more appropriate, timely and responsive therapeutic pathways into and out of secure psychiatric care. She now practices full time as a Dharma practitioner contributing to communicating the teachings in any way that is helpful.
Kshantika
Kshantika has been practicing the dharma and yoga within Triratna since the mid 90's in Newcastle, Croydon and then her home town of Nottingham where she facilitates a study group and teaches yoga and meditation. She found a turning point through a quieter yoga practice, bringing a deeper connection with body and breath, allowing a softening and opening of the heart. She loves breath-centric asana practice, restorative practices, and the use of simple sound to find space and ease in the body to gently release the body's armour. More recently she has trained in Biodynamic massage to deepen her understanding of how our conditioning manifests in the psycho-physiological aspects of our experience.
Satyamanas
Satyamanas was ordained in 2021 at Guyhaloka retreat centre in Spain. For the last seven years he has managed and taught at Breathing Space, the London Buddhist Centre's secular mindfulness project. He is a accredited Breathworks and MBSR/MBCT teacher and has run many courses and retreats helping people recover from recurrent depression and anxiety, as well as offering mental health and wellbeing support to unpaid carers. Since ordination he has led retreats at Vajrasana retreat centre in Suffolk and is a regular weekly teacher at the London Buddhist Centre. He attended his first buddhafield retreat last year and was inspired and impressed by the community and depth of practice the event offered.
Things to note