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Detailed List of Retreats

Events for the week :
31 December 2018 - 06 January 2019
Monday
31 December
  • Catching The Ungraspable Moment - New Year at the BRC: Where to from now?

    Teacher: Louis van Loon and Tsunma Tsondru
    Cost: 3 days’ accommodation + R200 surcharge
    Dates: 08:00am - 05:00pm 

    louis van loon smltsunma tsondruLife consists of things coming and going, births and deaths, decay and renewal, stops and starts. We try to juggle these as well as we can, liking some of it, avoiding the ones we don’t. But there is a deeper wisdom behind all this - one that asks us not to be so choosy and opinionated about what should and should not be happening to us. This requires us to live on the edge of the only thing that is truly real: the ever-fleeting, ungraspable moment. In this retreat we will discover how we forget to live in the here and now when we focus too much on what is past and fret about what may or may not happen in the future. This is a good time of the year to take stock and contemplate our moment to moment, here-now reality in all its fullness; bid farewell to 2018 and welcome the New Year with a renewed willingness to take life on the chin and make whatever comes along workable.  We will welcome the New Year with a lantern-lit perambulation around the Buddha and chanting, and usher the old year out with an ancient Chinese temple gong, as well as periods of meditative Noble Silence.

    View teacher details
    Louis van Loon lectured in Buddhist philosophy at the Universities of Cape Town and Durban-Westville for 22 years.  He established the Buddhist Retreat Centre in 1980 and, along with his wife, Chrisi, directs its affairs. Both were involved in the compilation of the BRC’s popular recipe books Quiet FoodThe Cake the Buddha Ate and Plentiful:The Big Book Of Buddha Food. His interest lies in the psychology of meditation and in the relationship between art, science, religion and philosophy.  He is an architect and consulting civil and structural engineer in private practice in Durban. He teaches Sumie, Japanese brush painting, and sketching in Durban, Cape Town and Ixopo.

    Tsunma Tsondru is a nun ordained by Tai Situ Rinpoche in the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. She came across Buddhism through Louis van Loon at the BRC. 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. Since returning to Cape Town, she has served on the Board of the Southern African Faith Communities Environmental Institute, a multi-faith NGO, and is now its Executive Director. She spent a 10-day intensive retreat with Joanna Macy, engaging with Macy’s “Work That Connects”, which she has offered in Cape Town. Her particular interest is eco philosophy and the role that spirituality and ethics play in transforming our economic and social systems in protection of the Earth.

Tuesday
01 January
  • Catching The Ungraspable Moment - New Year at the BRC: Where to from now?

    Teacher: Louis van Loon and Tsunma Tsondru
    Cost: 3 days’ accommodation + R200 surcharge
    Dates: 08:00am - 05:00pm 

    louis van loon smltsunma tsondruLife consists of things coming and going, births and deaths, decay and renewal, stops and starts. We try to juggle these as well as we can, liking some of it, avoiding the ones we don’t. But there is a deeper wisdom behind all this - one that asks us not to be so choosy and opinionated about what should and should not be happening to us. This requires us to live on the edge of the only thing that is truly real: the ever-fleeting, ungraspable moment. In this retreat we will discover how we forget to live in the here and now when we focus too much on what is past and fret about what may or may not happen in the future. This is a good time of the year to take stock and contemplate our moment to moment, here-now reality in all its fullness; bid farewell to 2018 and welcome the New Year with a renewed willingness to take life on the chin and make whatever comes along workable.  We will welcome the New Year with a lantern-lit perambulation around the Buddha and chanting, and usher the old year out with an ancient Chinese temple gong, as well as periods of meditative Noble Silence.

    View teacher details
    Louis van Loon lectured in Buddhist philosophy at the Universities of Cape Town and Durban-Westville for 22 years.  He established the Buddhist Retreat Centre in 1980 and, along with his wife, Chrisi, directs its affairs. Both were involved in the compilation of the BRC’s popular recipe books Quiet FoodThe Cake the Buddha Ate and Plentiful:The Big Book Of Buddha Food. His interest lies in the psychology of meditation and in the relationship between art, science, religion and philosophy.  He is an architect and consulting civil and structural engineer in private practice in Durban. He teaches Sumie, Japanese brush painting, and sketching in Durban, Cape Town and Ixopo.

    Tsunma Tsondru is a nun ordained by Tai Situ Rinpoche in the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. She came across Buddhism through Louis van Loon at the BRC. 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. Since returning to Cape Town, she has served on the Board of the Southern African Faith Communities Environmental Institute, a multi-faith NGO, and is now its Executive Director. She spent a 10-day intensive retreat with Joanna Macy, engaging with Macy’s “Work That Connects”, which she has offered in Cape Town. Her particular interest is eco philosophy and the role that spirituality and ethics play in transforming our economic and social systems in protection of the Earth.

Wednesday
02 January
  • There are no events on this date
Thursday
03 January
  • There are no events on this date
Friday
04 January
  • Time To Reminisce, Reflect And Re-assess: We will give you the space and the silence. A self- retreat with BRC staff and Deborah Don

    Teacher: A self-retreat
    Cost: 2 days’ accommodation
    Dates:

    brcixopo stupa cflores 5301It is difficult to make decisions about important issues in your life when you are immersed in them. You need some distance from them, physically and psychologically - to see them clearly for what they are. Only then, can you gain a fresh perspective on them. So, if you feel like you need a gentle, uncluttered space to tune into what lies ahead in 2019, this largely unstructured weekend will prove useful. Experience sunrise chi kung or yoga, followed by meditation, after which the centre is yours to enjoy, walking or birdwatching in three hundred acres of rolling hills and indigenous forests. Circumambulate the labyrinth, meditate in the Zen garden or Buddha Boma, and spend solitary time in the deer park and at the dam stalking the light or listening to the windchimes and gazing at clouds. The BRC provides an ideal opportunity to be in a sympathetic space to reflect on the things that crowd one’s life: to just be. Deborah Don, a qualified Self-esteem Coach, and massage therapist, has been involved in the “Health Retreats” offered at the BRC over the last three years. She will be offering sound therapy and energy balance treatments, aromatherapy, back, neck and foot massages. If you would like to include a treatment on your retreat, please arrange with the office on booking.

    View teacher details
    Deborah Don, a qualified Self-esteem Coach, and massage therapist, has been involved in the “Health Retreats” offered at the BRC over the last three years

    Lien Duvenage has spent her first two years of retirement from corporate life managing and overseeing all the affairs of the BRC, and has been a volunteer in residence for the past two years.

Saturday
05 January
  • Time To Reminisce, Reflect And Re-assess: We will give you the space and the silence. A self- retreat with BRC staff and Deborah Don

    Teacher: A self-retreat
    Cost: 2 days’ accommodation
    Dates:

    brcixopo stupa cflores 5301It is difficult to make decisions about important issues in your life when you are immersed in them. You need some distance from them, physically and psychologically - to see them clearly for what they are. Only then, can you gain a fresh perspective on them. So, if you feel like you need a gentle, uncluttered space to tune into what lies ahead in 2019, this largely unstructured weekend will prove useful. Experience sunrise chi kung or yoga, followed by meditation, after which the centre is yours to enjoy, walking or birdwatching in three hundred acres of rolling hills and indigenous forests. Circumambulate the labyrinth, meditate in the Zen garden or Buddha Boma, and spend solitary time in the deer park and at the dam stalking the light or listening to the windchimes and gazing at clouds. The BRC provides an ideal opportunity to be in a sympathetic space to reflect on the things that crowd one’s life: to just be. Deborah Don, a qualified Self-esteem Coach, and massage therapist, has been involved in the “Health Retreats” offered at the BRC over the last three years. She will be offering sound therapy and energy balance treatments, aromatherapy, back, neck and foot massages. If you would like to include a treatment on your retreat, please arrange with the office on booking.

    View teacher details
    Deborah Don, a qualified Self-esteem Coach, and massage therapist, has been involved in the “Health Retreats” offered at the BRC over the last three years

    Lien Duvenage has spent her first two years of retirement from corporate life managing and overseeing all the affairs of the BRC, and has been a volunteer in residence for the past two years.

Sunday
06 January
  • Time To Reminisce, Reflect And Re-assess: We will give you the space and the silence. A self- retreat with BRC staff and Deborah Don

    Teacher: A self-retreat
    Cost: 2 days’ accommodation
    Dates:

    brcixopo stupa cflores 5301It is difficult to make decisions about important issues in your life when you are immersed in them. You need some distance from them, physically and psychologically - to see them clearly for what they are. Only then, can you gain a fresh perspective on them. So, if you feel like you need a gentle, uncluttered space to tune into what lies ahead in 2019, this largely unstructured weekend will prove useful. Experience sunrise chi kung or yoga, followed by meditation, after which the centre is yours to enjoy, walking or birdwatching in three hundred acres of rolling hills and indigenous forests. Circumambulate the labyrinth, meditate in the Zen garden or Buddha Boma, and spend solitary time in the deer park and at the dam stalking the light or listening to the windchimes and gazing at clouds. The BRC provides an ideal opportunity to be in a sympathetic space to reflect on the things that crowd one’s life: to just be. Deborah Don, a qualified Self-esteem Coach, and massage therapist, has been involved in the “Health Retreats” offered at the BRC over the last three years. She will be offering sound therapy and energy balance treatments, aromatherapy, back, neck and foot massages. If you would like to include a treatment on your retreat, please arrange with the office on booking.

    View teacher details
    Deborah Don, a qualified Self-esteem Coach, and massage therapist, has been involved in the “Health Retreats” offered at the BRC over the last three years

    Lien Duvenage has spent her first two years of retirement from corporate life managing and overseeing all the affairs of the BRC, and has been a volunteer in residence for the past two years.