What is Retreat?
Retreat practice provides the opportunity for you to restore your energies, have time to rest and to let go of the day to day mundane responsibilities and focus on your own inner development and spiritual growth. You can learn to nurture yourself, restore a sense of balance and well-being, and open up to nature. A weight may seem to be lifted from your shoulders and you may be able to experience a fresh perspective that will renew your appreciation for life and your commitment to appreciate and use every precious moment.
Throughout the year we offer a range of high quality retreats at Nan Hua Temple. In all retreats we practise techniques that are useful in the retreat situation and can also be applied to everyday life. Your basic needs will be completely supported and taken care of within a safe environment created by the facilitators and staff. You can then focus all of your energy and attention on finding the answers you seek and on rejuvenating your body, mind and spirit.
Throughout the year we offer a range of high quality retreats at Nan Hua Temple. In all retreats we practise techniques that are useful in the retreat situation and can also be applied to everyday life. Your basic needs will be completely supported and taken care of within a safe environment created by the facilitators and staff. You can then focus all of your energy and attention on finding the answers you seek and on rejuvenating your body, mind and spirit.
What is Meditation?
Meditation is a way of learning to relax your body whilst still keeping your mind alert. This happens quite naturally when we gently focus on something, maybe a sound, a sensation in our body or something that we imagine. It gives us a moment of space and freedom from the thoughts that endlessly go through our minds, and is a way of quite quickly and deliberately relaxing our bodies.
Why Meditate?
Everyone has experienced a state of deep calm, open awareness or contentment. Worries disappear, your mind is clear and focused. This is meditation.
With meditation you can learn to deliberately return to that clear and open state. You can also learn to relax quickly and effectively, improve concentration, and cultivate a deep sense of well-being and happiness.
People also practice meditation to :
With meditation you can learn to deliberately return to that clear and open state. You can also learn to relax quickly and effectively, improve concentration, and cultivate a deep sense of well-being and happiness.
People also practice meditation to :
- Learn to relax
- Relieve stress and anxiety
- Restore health and well-being
- Develop focus and concentration
- Develop self awareness and personal growth
- Enhance creativity
Can meditation help to reduce stress or to manage depression?
Yes. When you are fearful or sad, you can feel consumed by stress or depression. Meditation helps you to witness your mind, placing your fears and disappointments in perspective. Fears and disappointments, however vast, are temporary, like dark clouds in a vast sky. By observing the clouds, you begin to realize that the clouds are your own thoughts. The thoughts arose from your own mind. You can experience your own nature as peaceful, calm and quiet, like the sky on a still day. By paying less attention to your troubling thoughts you can experience power and peace.
Meditation retreats at Nan Hua Temple #1
Nan Hua meditation retreats provide an opportunity for you to let go of your day-to-day responsibilities, rest, restore your energies and focus on your inner development and spiritual growth. They provide an opportunity to cultivate your spiritual being, restore a sense of balance and well-being, and open up to nature. A weight may seem to be lifted from your shoulders and you may be able to experience a fresh perspective that will renew your appreciation for life and your commitment to use well every precious moment. Meditation is a wonderful way to nurture your creativity.
The Temple offers a Beginner’s meditation retreat (which includes an introduction to Ch’an or Zen meditation) and intermediate level Pure Land retreats. On the Beginner’s retreat we teach you relaxation, calming and focusing meditation techniques that you can take home and practice in the midst of the bustle of daily life to calm yourself down, restore your energy and help you cope with the ongoing stresses of modern life. We also introduce you to other Eastern Buddhist practices, not yet well known in the west, which can also be used to cope with the pressures of life.
The Temple offers a Beginner’s meditation retreat (which includes an introduction to Ch’an or Zen meditation) and intermediate level Pure Land retreats. On the Beginner’s retreat we teach you relaxation, calming and focusing meditation techniques that you can take home and practice in the midst of the bustle of daily life to calm yourself down, restore your energy and help you cope with the ongoing stresses of modern life. We also introduce you to other Eastern Buddhist practices, not yet well known in the west, which can also be used to cope with the pressures of life.
For more information
Beginner Retreat Reminders - Level 1: Bookings now open!
Beginner Retreat Reminders - Level 2: Bookings now open!
Intermediate Retreat Reminders
Beginner Retreat Reminders - Level 2: Bookings now open!
Intermediate Retreat Reminders
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