The Heart Practice for Difficult Times

When things are difficult in our lives, strong emotions such as grief and anxiety can sometimes overwhelm us, making it hard to get on with even the simplest of daily tasks.

While meditation instructions invite us to stay present in the face of such strong emotions, to neither indulge nor suppress them, for many of us, it is hard to stay with such feelings for long without becoming completely overwhelmed or else totally shutting down.

In this weekend workshop John will introduce other methods from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition for working with our hearts and minds that can be particularly helpful for easing, releasing and transforming some of our more difficult feelings.

Content Summary

• Using imagination and visualisation to help soothe and calm our minds and hearts
• How our nervous system affect our emotions and how meditation techniques can help increase our tolerance for our own feelings
• Guided meditations and visualisations particularly focussed on calming or transforming our emotions
• An introduction to using mantras
• Exploring our personal relationship with prayer and how calling out from the heart can help connect us to greater sources of love and transformation both within and without irrespective of what we believe
• Integrating these various elements into a personal “Heart Practice” that we can have and use as a refuge for difficult times in our lives
• Small group discussions to share our experiences

Location

The retreat will be held in our new Dzogchen Beara Temple. With expansive views across the bay, the temple is a modern example of a traditional Tibetan monastery, a form of architecture designed to be an inspiring symbol of the Buddha’s teachings for our times.

Catering

Vegetarian lunches and evening meals are provided as part of your fee.