The Four Brahmaviharas

Starts 29 Aug 2020

retreat for mitras, Order members and by special request

This annual retreat will explore the Buddha's teaching on the cultivation of positive emotion and emotional awareness as taught within the Triratna Buddhist community. In order to benefit fully, it is essential that everyone attending has an established experience of metta and metta bhavana meditation.

Bookings are limited and open to all mitras and Order members.

If you have a established metta bhavana practise and are simply not yet a mitra or are new to the Triratna Buddhist Community - please contact the Auckland Buddhist Centre or Ratnavyuha directly if you want to attend this retreat.

"Positive emotion" is a broad term referring to all the 'skilful' and 'spiritually helpful' intentions which incline us towards Truth, Beauty and Goodness. Within the constellation of emotions labelled as positive, we would include gratitude, devotion, care, good-will, appreciation, generosity, compassion, rejoicing, contentment, tranquility, peacefulness, loving-kindness, and a few more.

On this retreat, we will focus on the teaching of the Four Brahmaviharas and Sraddha (sometimes translated as confidence-trust or even faith with its connotation of a positive imaginal faculty which points beyond the known). Every day will include periods of meditation, silence, presentations and group discussion, personal free time, body-based explorations, and devotional practises.

Although it is a meditation retreat, due to the topic being essentially about our relationship with others, silence will only be observed for periods of time rather than the whole of the retreat. Still, those attending will be encouraged to practise the speech precepts and avoid unnecessary speech (although we will not have any fixed rules about what is and isn't necessary).