What is a retreat?

 Retreats at Amitabha Centre, Bristol    Retreats elsewhere

A retreat is an opportunity to deepen our experience of a practice with which we already have some familiarity. Some of these retreats do include some guidance in some sessions - for the benefit of beginners - but in general teaching is not emphasized as much as meditating to gain deeper familiarity with what has already been understood.

What makes a retreat 'a retreat' is the boundaries we put on our activities of body, speech and mind.

Geshe Kelsang says:

'On retreat we stop all forms of business and extraneous activities in order to emphasize a particular spiritual practice.
There are three kinds of retreats: physical, verbal and mental.
We engage in physical retreat when, with a spiritual motivation, we isolate ourselves from other people, activities, and noise, and disengage from extraneous and meaningless actions.
We engage in verbal retreat when, with a spiritual motivation, we refrain from meaningless talk and periodically remain silent.
We engage in mental retreat by preventing distractions and strong delusions such as attachment, anger, and jealousy from arising, and by maintaining mindfulness and conscientiousness.
If we remain in physical and verbal retreat but fail to observe mental retreat, our retreat will have little power. Such a retreat may be relaxing, but if we do not prevent strong delusions from arising even on retreat our mind will not be at peace. However, keeping physical and verbal retreat will help us to keep mental retreat.'

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, in Guide to Dakiniland

Some more details on the meditation retreats held at Amitabha Centre, Bristol 2009

TTP retreats (with titles in this colour) have four 90 minute sessions a day - see This weeks programme (There is no admittance to the meditation room once the session has started.) There are five one week retreats through the year and the four week retreat in January. Students on the Teacher Training Programme have a commitment to engage in all these retreats (9 weeks a year in total). These retreats cover very important Buddhist topics

During these retreats we try to be silent as much as possible in order to help maintain peace and concentration in the minds of ourselves and others. If you are attending for the first time you must let us know in advance that you're coming so that we can let you know what to expect and how you can make the most of your opportunity to attend the sessions.

Course Fees: There are generally no course fees for retreats. Amitabha Centre is a charity/non-profit organisation and depends on donations for its upkeep. All donations towards the maintenance of the Centre are greatly appreciated.

Jan 3-30 Lamrim
'Lamrim' is Tibetan for 'Stages of the path' [to enlightenment]
The sessions follow the schedule given in the appendix of The New Meditation Handbook . This schedule covers 28 sessions in one week and is repeated four times in the January retreat. The first week often includes guided meditation and so is ideal for beginners.
These meditations cover the whole of the path to enlightenment. Many of them are helping us to improve our intention towards other beings by improving our love and compassion for them. Others help us to develop concentration and wisdom.

Feb 5-7 Amitayus
Amitayus is the Buddha of infinite life. He also bestows merit and wisdom. We traditionally do a few days of 'The Yoga of Buddha Amitayus' early in the year. Session length is about 75 minutes. Sessions are at 9am, 11am and 4pm

March 22-28  Refuge
The practice of going for refuge is the gateway to Buddhadharma. It entails understanding our situation as living beings and recognizing that we need help if we are ever to bring our suffering to an end. With the understanding that the Three Jewels that are Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are completely reliable sources of protection from all suffering, we turn to them for their help.

April 10-11 Nyungnay
A special fasting retreat in conjunction with 1000 armed Avalokiteshvara. This retreat includes a few prostrations. It is an excellent way of purifying negative karma. Attendance at the first (6.30am) session (or taking Mahayana precepts at home at 6.30am) is required for each day that you want to attend any sessions. To get the most from the retreat it is best to attend all the sessions.

May 17-23 Guru Yoga and Mandala offering
This retreat combine two special practices that help us immeasurably - to receive blessing, accumulate merit and develop pure view. We do this one twice in the year.

June 1-3   Post Spring Festival Retreat
We'll review and meditate on the teaching given by Ven. Geshe Kelsang at the Spring Festival.
Daily schedule will be:
7.00am Wishfulfilling Jewel
9.30am First session
11.30am Second session
4.30pm Third session
7.00pm Fourth session
sessions will probably last about one hour

August 23-29 Lamrim
'Lamrim' is Tibetan for 'Stages of the path' [to enlightenment]
The sessions follow the schedule given in the appendix of The New Meditation Handbook .
These meditations cover the whole of the path to enlightenment. Many of them are helping us to improve our intention towards other beings by improving our love and compassion for them. Others help us to develop concentration and wisdom.

October 11-17  Guru Yoga and Mandala offering
This retreat combine two special practices that help us immeasurably - to receive blessing, accumulate merit and develop pure view. We do this one twice in the year.

December 6-12   Vajrasattva
A powerful purification practice to remove the imprints of negative karma from our mind. All our suffering and our obstacles to spiritual progress come from our negative karma. We all need to purify our mind.

Course Fees: There are generally no course fees for retreats at the Centre. Amitabha Centre is a charity/non-profit organisation and depends on donations for its upkeep. All donations in support of the event and towards the maintenance of the Centre are greatly appreciated.

Retreats held at other venues