Residential retreats for 2008

Usada 1 Foundation Meditation Retreat

This will be run three times over the year. This is Burgs Foundation course in Meditation. It is designed to give a thorough practical induction into the practice of Samatha (Serenity) and Vipassana (Insight) Meditation. The course in built around the Buddha's teachings of Dhamma and meditation and combined with powerful healing practices to rapidly release blocked energy and open up the nerve system. It is often found that the body becomes a major hindrance to overcome in the early stages of meditation and Burgs unique approach has enabled countless mediators to swiftly get beyond this difficulty at an early stage whilst developing a powerful technique to heal the body and rid it of negative energy patterns. This significantly enhances the efficacy of the main purpose of the practice which is to develop the serenity and insight by which to more harmoniously navigate both the daily life and our ongoing spiritual journey. This still remains the most important retreat in Burgs" program and even experience mediators keep coming back year after year. It is a pre requisite to all other retreats. It is a silent retreat for the first six days. There will be six or seven sessions daily with two discourses and two Chi Kung or Yoga sessions. All instructions are given systematically and no previous experience of meditation is necessary. Participants are asked to inform us of any health or mental conditions prior to booking.

This year Burgs will continue to use the seven day silent retreat format for most of the work. The Usada programme running it three times. But each one will focus on a different aspect.

The January Retreat will be the same as last year, the introduction to Healing meditation and Buddhist Dhamma. This shall also aply to the September Usada 1 and the November Usada 1. This year Burgs will be offering students attending the november Usada 1 a chance to stay on for 10 days in order to deepen their practice. The retreat will break after 7 days for those wishing to go home at this stage, and will be a complete set of teachings, however the space will continue to be held for a consecutive 3 days for those who wish to stay.

For the April and July Usada retreats Burgs will focus on different aspects within the basic framework.

Usada 1 Introduction to Serenity Meditation

This retreat in April (18-25th) will focus on the samatha (serenity side) of meditation. The goal here is to develop deep states on peace and calm as an antidote to the frenetic pace of modern life. For centuries yogis have sought to attain states of Samadhi and a release and liberation form the mind. This practice emphasises the role of deep concentration in establishing these states. Within this context Burgs shall be discussing how serenity and concentration can be employed as powerful healing states to improve physical energetic and mental wellbeing.

Usada 1 Introduction to Insight and Healing Meditation

This retreat in July (17-24th) will focus on the insight and wisdom aspect of meditation. Learning to develop our mindfulness and the key to the investigation of states so that we might come to a direct and clearer understanding of our life process and the situations we find ourselves in. through wise attention and right understanding we are able to let go dysfunctional mental states and habits as well s past trauma. This is the most direct way to heal all conditions that have a consciousness aspect to them. Further to this we will investigate how to use this technique to heal deep seated physical problems and illness. While the Serenity session in April focuses on stilling and calming the mind this retreat is the counterpoise to that where we sharpen and hone the mind making it clear incisive and bright so that we can overcome our confusion and achieve clarity and right view regarding our life.

Ideally over time we would recommend that you attend both these courses. But it is likely that many of you can only find time to do one retreat a year and so we suggest you choose the one that appears most appealing to you now and try to do the other one some time in the future when you are able. My advice is that those of you who feel stressed and overwhelmed by life, or who are exhausted and need a good rejuvenating time out, join the serenity course. Those of you who have the urge to investigate how your mind functions and how life comes to be the way it is, or those of you who are facing physical health conditions but are mentally feeling quite robust should join the Insight and Healing session. In the end you will know which one is right for you. If not you may ask our advice.

Special November USADA - Serenity, Insight and Proactice of Loving Kindness

Burgs has decided to make this retreat a combination of the Usada retreat and the Metta (loving kindness) retreat for all those who are interested to sit both courses.

The Usada will run as per normal, and there will be a break of the silence on day 6 (18th) in preparation for returning to the daily life. From 10.30 am on the 18th there will be a initial explanation and practice of loving Kindness, which will end by 6 pm, after which there will be tea as usual and a evening discourse, again on the practice of metta and its use in the daily life. Those wishing to leave will do so the following morning after breakfast. Those staying shall continue with the systematic explanation an practice of loving kindness given oven the next 3 days. We will also be accepting people who wish to come and attend only the Metta Instructions, an ask that they would arrive by 5 pm on the 18th of November, so that they would have tea and be ready to join the evening discourse at 7.30 pm.

Prices for the different options are listed below. It promises to be an excellent event, and a wonderful opportunity to get not only the instructions on the twofold practice of Samadhi and Vipassana, but also the protective meditation of Metta. We hope to see as many of you as possible there.

Metta (Loving Kindness) Retreat (7th-10th April)

Loving Kindness or Metta as it is known is a powerfully healing state and one of the most rewarding and enjoyable of all mediation practices. On the Foundation retreat we only get to practice in a very brief way at the end as a way of winding down before going home. On this four day retreat Burgs will expand the practice of Loving kindness considerably giving detailed instructions in how to use it as both serenity practice and a purification and healing practice. He will also introduce the practice of Meditation on Compassion and Appreciative Joy. This retreat was extremely popular last year and you are advised to book early. The programme will run from 6am till 9 pm daily and the course is residential in Woking. Numbers are limited to 20.

Burgs on our need for Metta (Loving Kindness)Many people are asking why I have decided to start offering retreats teaching exclusively the meditations on Loving Kindness and Appreciative joy, when before it had only been incorporated into the main body of the meditation retreats. We are living now in a time of great challenge and many of us are finding it hard to find peace and serenity in our daily lives. The process of purification that helps us to get to the state where we are un perturbed by such challenges and at peace with our lives as they are is a gradual one that we work towards over time. While we work to this end we need immediate antidotes to the difficulties we face. We are in an age now where anger frustration and ill will are every bit as prevalent as greed and attachment. In fact we might even say that it is the aversion that appears in us that is causing more immediate suffering than the greed that we need to let go over time. The natural instinct of human kindness and affection is being suffocated in so many of us simply because we feel over whelmed by life. It has become hard enough to have to secure our own survival let alone have time for love and good will towards others. And so we are driven into ever more selfish patterns with less and less regard for others. At this time we are facing such a rapid degeneration in the quality of human consciousness despite all the bold claims that we are heading into a spiritual age. Both of these things are true and we need to stop and reflect on how we will make real spiritual progress towards meaningful peace and happiness. We are intelligent beings who swiftly grasp high spiritual principles but we have forgotten how to love unconditionally and remain unjudgemental. We rate our progress towards liberation in terms of how much we have come to understand and not by the emerging qualities we express. Never is any quality more important than the ability to feel and express pure unconditional love, for it IS the very remedy to the agitation and aversion that plagues us and keeps our minds from resting peacefully. We are coming toward the end of our Buddha Gotama's dispensation. Genuine teachers who can expound the complete path out of suffering a rare indeed and hard to find. Soon they will all be gone. Our next Buddha will be the last in this world system and he will teach the path to liberation through Loving Kindness , Compassion and Appreciative Joy. We are lay people seeking peace here and now and not yet fully engaged in the quest for enlightenment. This means that we will have to endure the degeneration of our world system and its re emergence. As Wisdom was the signature of the past Buddha's dispensation, Loving kindness is the very signature of the way to enlightenment that we will follow in the coming age. We will need to deeply establish ourselves in Loving kindness and come to understand what love truly is. It is for this reason that I feel the time has come to make the meditations on Loving Kindness, Compassion, Appreciative Joy and Gratitude a significant part of the practice I teach from now on , for these very practices will open the door to our higher attainments and enlightenment over time. Never has there been a greater need for many of us to become established in a powerful feelings of goodwill and loving kindness. It is our group efforts that will help to roll back the fear and aggression that are driving so many of us. I invite all of you to consider seriously taking the time out to learn the foundation practices of Loving kindness and Appreciative Joy and make them a genuine part of your life as soon as you can.

Long Retreat (13th october-2nd November)

At the end of the Summer I will be holding a Long retreat for 21 days. A number of you have said that you feel the desire to sit a long retreat and I am very happy that now we are able to facilitate one.I would like to say a few words about how this retreat will be set up and how the approach differs slightly from the seven day format that your are used to.Most of you who will come are at the stage of working to develop your Samadhi as preparation for higher Vipassana work. The discipline of Samatha requires a different approach than the one we usally use. We need to begin to sit for longer periods and rest for longer between each sit. So on this retreat there will be five sits of one and a half hours a day with a further private sit early morning.

The programme will be as follows.

5.00 -6.30 Morning sit
7.00-7.30 Yoga/ Chi Kung
7.30- 8.30 Breakfast and house work
.8.30- 10.00 Groups meditation / Private interviews
11.00- 12.30 Group Meditation.
12.30-2.30 Lunch . Rest. House work.
2.30- 4.00 Meditation
5.00-6.30 Meditation
6.30- 7.30 Tea/ Rest period.
7.30 - 9.00 Evening Chanting and Meditation/ Occasional discourse.
9.15 Day ends.

As you can see there is also house work designated on the timetable. We will be running our own retreat and doing our own cooking and cleaning and so each participant will be tasked with a specific job to perform at designated times. Anyone who wishes to help with the cooking and preparation side please contact us prior to the retreat.The retreat will be in Silence but during the afternoon tea period yogi's will be permitted to chat amongst themselves in a discreet way. I have found this level of interaction can be constructive on longer retreats and helps to keep everyone grounded without providing to much by way of distraction. Of course maintaining noble silence in these periods remains an option.So far there are ten people who have contacted us about this retreat and that is most encouraging. We will limit numbers to sixteen of practical reasons.

So who might this retreat suit?
Those of you who are comfortable with your practice and are ready to make efforts towards deeper concentration. The continuity that this longer period offers gives the opportunity to break through to higher levels and the small group means that I will be interviewing everyone individually and giving one on one instructions in accordance with progress.It will be assumed that you are all mature students able to work independently while under the guidance of your teacher. There will only be one formal exercise period but there is plenty of rest time during the day to get further exercise.Over the three weeks I will give a series of discources on further aspects of the Dhamma to suppliment the meditation work you will be doing.

Dhamma Service.
It is a wonderful thing to provide service to those practicing Dhamma. On this retreat there will be opportunities to serve for those who wish. Please remember though that I would always encourage you to do your meditation primarily and not consider it to be selfish not to serve. We will all have jobs to do that will contribute to the smooth running of our retreat.However the kitchen work will require time to be taken out of formal practice periods and so constitutes Dhamma service.We will need cook to oversee the menus and meal and the sourcing of provisions and this obviously is a big job. Further to this we will also need two kitchen assistants to help prep and serve food. Cleaning the kitchen will be one of the jobs that all yogis will share during the after meal periods.If anyone is keen to serve in these roles on the retreat please contact us in advance .

I am delighted that we have finally come to the point of being able to begin to offer these long retreats and I am hoping they will become a regular occurance.

Please note that all the prices listed for retreats are for accomodation costs only. All teachings are done on a purely donation basis.