Tejananda

‘Simply being’ points to the aliveness and awakeness that we can recognise at any moment. It’s an openness to full presence, our full being - in body, senses and awareness. It points to being what we really are, beyond conceptual fabrication. In recognising and opening to the steady and spacious aspects of experience here and now, we may glimpse a timeless awareness-emptiness that is inseparable from loving, compassionate energy.

From the earliest days, the main meditative approach to awakening in Buddhism has combined the cultivation of calmness of mind (shamatha) and mental absorption (dhyana) with the cultivation of liberating insight (vipashyana).

‘Simply being’ points to the aliveness and awakeness that we can recognise at any moment. It’s an openness to full presence, our full being - in body, senses and awareness. It points to being what we really are, beyond conceptual fabrication. In recognising and opening to the steady and spacious aspects of experience here and now, we may glimpse a timeless awareness-emptiness that is inseparable from loving, compassionate energy.

‘Simply being’ points to the aliveness and awakeness that we can recognise at any moment. It’s an openness to full presence, our full being - in body, senses and awareness. It points to being what we really are, beyond conceptual fabrication. In recognising and opening to the steady and spacious aspects of experience here and now, we may glimpse a timeless awareness-emptiness that is inseparable from loving, compassionate energy.

‘Simply being’ points to the aliveness and awakeness that we can recognise at any moment. It’s an openness to full presence, our full being - in body, senses and awareness. It points to being what we really are, beyond conceptual fabrication. In recognising and opening to the steady and spacious aspects of experience here and now, we may glimpse a timeless awareness-emptiness that is inseparable from loving, compassionate energy.

‘Simply being’ points to a quality of awakeness and receptivity that we can recognise at any moment, both in and outside of formal meditation. It’s an openness to full presence in our being - in our body, senses and awareness. It suggests opening to what we really are, beyond conceptual fabrication, inseparable from nature itself, which is undivided and ungraspable. 

These are meditation retreats and will be conducted mostly in silence. They will normally have between 5 and 7 hours a day of sitting meditation.  

‘Simply being’ points to a quality of awakeness and receptivity that we can recognise at any moment, both in and outside of formal meditation. It’s an openness to full presence in our being - in our body, senses and awareness. It suggests opening to what we really are, beyond conceptual fabrication, inseparable from nature itself, which is undivided and ungraspable. 

For more information read the retreat information sheet.

We’re very attached to the notion that our lives ‘should’ be useful, purposeful and meaningful. Yet ultimately these are just figments of the human mind. The ‘mandala of uselessness’ is simply being: being what we really are, inseparable from nature itself which is undivided and ungraspable.  

‘You don’t have to justify your existence by doing things which are useful’ - Sangharakshita

For more information, please read the retreat information sheet.

‘Simply being’ points to a quality of awakeness that we can recognise at any moment. It suggests being what we really are, beyond concept and one with nature itself. We’ll explore this by way of the five ‘awarenesses’ which are the essence of the mandala of the five Buddhas - a simple and very practical ‘map’ of our immediate experience which all points us back to ‘just this’ – what is here already, unnoticed: simply being.