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Tuesday 29 April 2025
  • Beginner's Mind, Quiet Mind: Meditation Instruction And Practice For Meaningful Daily Living

    Teacher: Tsunma Tsondru
    Cost: 3 days surcharge + R450 surcharge
    Dates:

    tsunma tsondruIt is important for us to take time out from the incessant demands and fast pace of daily life. The BRC gives us a space to step off the wheel and the time to come home to the quiet, strong refuge which lies at our centre. Cultivating the natural state of peace and ease that lies there reveals our true nature - which enables us to not only help ourselves, but to help the world of which we are part. Then daily living becomes meaningful. This 3-day mid-week retreat will bring out our Beginner’s Mind through the practice of meditation. The time will be silent, quiet, and slow. There will be meditation instruction and guidance, formal sitting, and time for walking, writing, or staring into the distance. The retreat is suitable for those with or without meditation experience and will be held in an atmosphere of introspection.

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    Tsunma Tsondru is a nun ordained by Tai Situ Rinpoche in the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. She met Buddhism through Louis van Loon at the BRC in the 90's. After working as a lawyer and environmental scientist, she left for Spain for a traditional Kagyu three-and-a-half-year retreat, followed by a second retreat of four years. Returning to Cape Town, she served on the Board of the Southern African Faith Communities Environmental Institute - a multi-faith NGO - for 6 years and as its Executive Director. She later spent a 10-day intensive retreat with Joanna Macy, engaging with Macy’s “Work That Re-Connects”, which she teaches at the BRC and other places, Her particular interest is deep ecology, eco-philosophy and wilderness work, and the role that spirituality, ethics and connection/interdependence can play in transforming us and our economic and social systems in protection of the Earth.

  • Self Retreating Mid Week

    Teacher: Krishia Schilz and William (Shogan)
    Cost: Number of days' accommodation
    15% discount offered on March mid-week bookings
    Dates:

    krishia schilzwill parkerFind meaningful solitude on a Self-Retreat.  One can do as much (or as little) reading, walking, meditation or resting as one chooses. Enjoy walks and bird watching in 300 acres of beautiful rolling hills and indigenous forests. Savour our delicious vegetarian food prepared with love by our wonderful cooks; or browse our well-stocked library. Visit the stupa and the raked Zen sand gardens and walk the labyrinth. Massage treatments, guided walks, qigong and meditation are offered by resident staff, Krishia and William mid week. Self-Retreats are an ideal opportunity to be in a gentle, sympathetic space where one can be still and get in touch with oneself.

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    Krishia Schilz is a qualified Bereavement Counsellor specialising in Grief and Loss, as well as Trauma Containment. Her spiritual path led her to Yoga in which she is certified in various styles. Krishia completed her training in the beautiful Bali, before locating to Thailand in order to teach. Her practice includes: yoga , pranayama (breath work), meditation, Yoga Philosophy and healing massage treatments.

    William (Shogan) has been practising meditation for nearly 20 years, cultivating stillness and inquiry. He took precepts with Dae Chong, Osho at Poplar Grove and now leads morning and evening zazen at the BRC, weaving verses from the Dhammapada into meditation for reflection and insight. With a keen interest in how the Dharma might evolve in an AI-driven, multiplanetary future, William embraces both tradition and possibility. He also guides qigong in the mornings and offers tai chi in the afternoons, integrating movement into mindfulness. His practice is an invitation - to sit, to move, and to explore the ever-expanding nature of awareness.