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  • Self Retreating Mid Week

    Teacher: Krishia Schilz and William (Shogan)
    Cost: Number of days' accommodation
    15% discount offered on April mid-week bookings
    Dates: Thursday 29 August 2024 - Friday 01 July 2050 08:00am - 05:00pm

    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.

     
  • Open The Heart and Still The Mind: The Joy of Courageous, Heartfelt Presence

    Teacher: Sue Cooper
    Cost: 4 or 7 days accommodation + R450 surcharge
    Dates: Thursday 17 April 2025 - Thursday 24 April 2025

    sue cooper 2021This Easter long-weekend Open the Heart and Still the Mind Compassion Retreat with clinical psychologist Sue Cooper, is held in Noble Silence and is offered either as a 4 night Easter Weekend retreat or as an extended 7 night retreat. Inspired by the wisdom teachings of the Dharma and of Buddhist and western psychology, we will cultivate mindfulness and compassion practices which calm the nervous system and help integrate body, heart and mind. As we learn to listen and connect more compassionately with ourselves, drawing silent support from the sangha (like-minded practitioners finding solace in the shared silence), we will discover that the containment of ennobling silence allows us to find the courage to honour and embody our authentic, heartfelt presence with greater confidence, clarity and joy.

    As we embrace the joys and the sorrows of life with a greater understanding of impermanence, we move beyond fear, shame and crippling self-doubt. After establishing some stillness and calm in the mind and the heart, we will explore the Brahma viharas (the four divine abodes/ immeasurables) to cultivate greater kindness, courage and compassion for ourselves and others. These compassion practices bring more appreciative joy, equanimity and wisdom into our lives, strengthening our capacity for more open-hearted presence and healthier boundaries in our relationships. This silent retreat includes teachings, guided meditations, daily qigong, time to walk, rest and replenish, as well as short, individual sessions with Sue to deepen our insight and sense of well-being. There will be relaxing massages and mindful movement offered as optional extras (the cost of which to be confirmed), to support our embodied experience.

    CPD accreditation for psychologists and other HPCSA (or equivalent) registered professionals will be confirmed, with an annual admin fee tbc.

    Please note: There is a teacher's fee for this retreat, which is offered on a sliding scale, with reductions and payment plans on request. Please contact Sue on for her pre-retreat questionnaire and to discuss a pre-retreat session if needed. More details can be found here: https://stillmindretreats.com/event/retreat-the-joy-of-courageous-heartfelt-presence/

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    Sue Cooper is a Cape Town-based Clinical Psychologist with extensive experience as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, working in private practice since the early 1990's. She has a long-standing interest in the interface between psychological and spiritual approaches to self-discovery and inner healing, and has attended Buddhist meditation retreats, mainly in the Theravada tradition, for 40 years, both in South Africa and at Gaia House in the UK. She has been inspired by the teachings of Ajahn Chah of the Thai Forest tradition, and is deeply grateful to her primary teachers: the late Godwin Samararatne, Kittisaro and Thanissara, Ajahn Sucitto and Stephen and Martine Batchelor. She has a particular interest in exploring how our practice enables us to embrace our humanness, integrating love and loss in our lives, so that we can live and die with compassionate awareness. She offers weekend and longer retreats throughout South Africa at Temenos, Mont Fleur and Somerset Gift in the Western Cape; Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat Centre and the Buddhist Retreat Centre in KwaZulu Natal; and Emoyeni Retreat Centre in the North West Province, as well as "Open the Heart and Still the Mind" courses, on-going weekly groups and monthly half-day/day retreats in Cape Town See: https://stillmindretreats.com and please contact .

  • Reclaim Your Power: A Journey To Inner Balance

    Teacher: Heike Sym
    Cost: 3 days accommodation + R350 surcharge
    Dates: Friday 25 April 2025 - Monday 28 April 2025

    heike sym2020We all have inner guidance and knowledge, but we don't always know how to access it and use it as the incredible gift it is. We are constantly trying to keep up with the ever-increasing pace and demands of our lives which leaves us with high stress levels and exhausted. On this retreat we will fortify our spirit, embrace our personal power, and allow our light to shine brightly again, the way the universe intended. Through talks, meditation, group work, transformational exercises, relaxation and conversation, we will journey back to our centre - to our most natural and balanced state of being. Deepening our connection with our inner self allows us to stand strong in our own personal power in the here and now. We will learn to listen less to the limiting, fear-based voices of our mind, and start aligning with our intuition, to our core that already knows that we are born as an unstoppable and magnificent force.

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    Heike Sym was born in Bavaria, Germany, and fell in love with South Africa when she arrived in 1993 to volunteer as a Child Care Worker. She specialised in behaviour and learning difficulties and as a Montessori therapist, trainer and counsellor. She taught at St Philomena's Children's home in Durban for over 16 years and was involved in social outreach projects associated with it. She has also taught and counselled at primary schools and has continued to develop her spiritual interests over the years. She is now embracing her calling as a medium, energy healer, numerologist, metaphysical profiler and teacher. She gives regular talks, courses and interviews on radio, and offers individual sessions.

  • Beginner's Mind, Quiet Mind: Meditation Practice For Meaningful Daily Living

    Teacher: Tsunma Tsondru
    Cost: 3 days surcharge + R450 surcharge
    Dates: Monday 28 April 2025 - Thursday 01 May 2025

    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.

  • Active Hope - Practice For Difficult Times

    Teacher: Tsunma Tsondru
    Cost: 2 days accommodation + R450 surcharge
    Dates: Friday 02 May 2025 - Sunday 04 May 2025

    tsunma tsondruHope does not sit on the threadbare couch clutching a lotto ticket, passively waiting for good luck. Hope wields an axe, actively breaking down the door in a crisis. We can’t escape that Earth is in crisis. It’s also ever-more evident that we feel this crisis within ourselves as personal crisis. There is creeping hopelessness, fatalism, anxiety, denial, and numbness - a disengagement from the natural world which sustains us. The inner crisis even has a name now: eco-anxiety. To hear the daily news is to hear the myriad ways in which humanity is sensing and expressing the eco-anxiety.

    How to respond to these crises?  Within a framing of Active Hope, the weekend will be spent in group and solo practices from The Work That Reconnects, moving through the spiral of gratefulness, grief, and transformation that will unlock your unexpected resilience and creative power. Hope is waking up to the beauty of life, on whose behalf we can act. As Joanna Macy always says: I am so grateful to be alive at this time of great upheaval, because we are made precisely for these times! Mostly we will practise in silence and as much as possible  outdoors, in contact with nature. The retreat will be held in an atmosphere of silence and 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.

  • The Way Of Ubuntu: Exploring Traditional South African Healing

    Teacher: John Lockley and Nomusa Mthembu
    Cost: 3 days accommodation + R600 surcharge
    Dates: Monday 05 May 2025 - Thursday 08 May 2025

    john lockleynomsa mthembuParticipants will experience a traditional South African healing ceremony over three days during which they will learn to connect to their Ancestors (bones), Dreams, 'Umoya' (spirit) and one another. 'Ubuntu' means 'I am what I am because of who we all are'. It is a circle of interlinking relationships connecting the seen and unseen worlds. The ceremony will involve a plant cleanse, using medicinal plants to cleanse the spirit and open the heart. Included will be an in-depth discussion on 'African cosmology' and the understanding of ancestors, plant medicine and dreaming. Retreatants will learn one of the most ancient and misunderstood cultures in South Africa today - the Sangoma medicine people, the monks and nuns of Southern Africa. The retreat will focus on educating people about South African traditional spirituality and also lead participants on a spiritual journey to rediscover their own ‘soul’ or what is termed ‘umoya’ in Xhosa and Zulu culture. This is a unique opportunity as there are very few places in South Africa today where people can learn from this mystical tradition. 'Ubuntu' in essence represents harmony and is similar to the Zen circle. Linking the past and present, it is an evolving state of co-operation and compassion whereby every human being is linked to their own families and communities as well as the unseen world of ancestors. John will be assisted by his colleague Makhosi Nomusa who is the resident Zulu Sangoma. Please bring a plastic basin which will be used for medicinal foot healing, a dream journal, pen and paper to take notes, a meditation blanket and an open mind. This retreat is suitable for all therapists, healers and those with a desire to heal South Africa. 

    Read the Odyssey magazine article on John Lockley.

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    John Lockley is a traditionally trained sangoma from the Xhosa culture, with over 21 years' experience. He was taught the essence of 'Ubuntu' by his Xhosa elders in the Eastern Cape and has lectured and run retreats all over the world stressing the importance of 'Ubuntu' ('Humanness') and our need to unite as a human race and reconnect to our "blood and bones". The name he was given by his Xhosa teacher MaMngwevu in 1996 was 'Ucingolweendaba' which means "The messenger or bridge between people and cultures". This is an auspicious name and reflects his calling and mission to help bridge African spirituality and western psychology. John also has a background in Zen Buddhism and was a Zen student under the late Zen Master Su Bong from South Korea. His book Leopard's Warrior is an account of his pioneering journey in crossing the 'rubicon' or divide between white and black people in South Africa. This will be John's 6th retreat at the BRC and every year there are amazing stories of healing and transformation.

    Nomusa Mthembu has been a traditional healer and Sangoma since 2001. She lives in the Chibini community where she meets monthly with other traditional healers for traditional ceremonies. She has been a valued BRC staff member for twenty-two years.

  • Wesak: Doing What The Buddha Did

    Teacher: Stephen Coan
    Cost: 2 days accommodation + R400 surcharge
    Dates: Friday 09 May 2025 - Sunday 11 May 2025

    stephen coan2024The feast of Wesak is the most important day in the Buddhist calendar, commemorating the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha 2,500 years ago, and is held annually on the full moon of the lunar month of Vesakha (coincidental with May). We will mark this festival with a programme of sitting and walking meditation plus reflections on the Buddha’s life and teachings and, in union with Buddhists around the world, hold a traditional Wesak ceremony - a lantern-lit circumambulation – on Saturday evening. Apart from a talk or two, and some discussion, the weekend will place an emphasis on meditation, the basic Buddhist practice common to all traditions – simply breathing in and breathing out – doing exactly what the Buddha did.

    This weekend will also mark the 45th year anniversary of the Centre. We hope that you will share this milestone with us.

    The schedule will include time to enjoy the beautiful grounds of the Buddhist Retreat Centre.

    Please note: This retreat will be held in Noble Silence.

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    Stephen Coan has been teaching and retreating at the Buddhist Retreat Centre for over three decades. Inspired and informed by the Theravada and Zen Buddhist traditions his retreats place emphasis on the centrality of practice in living a skilful and enlightened life while also exploring the interface between poetry and silence and the profound benefits of doing nothing, seriously.

  • Unveiling The Deeper Layers of Yoga: The Philosophy Of Posture

    Teacher: Sushmitha Shrikanth
    Cost: 2 days accommodation + R350 surcharge
    Dates: Friday 16 May 2025 - Sunday 18 May 2025

    sushmita shrikanthThrough a merging of concepts from Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and Vedanta Philosophy, this retreat explores deepening your understanding of yoga beyond asanas. We will uncover how the practice of yoga postures can be a gateway to understanding the subtle interplay between our physical actions and mental states through a variety of lectures, reflection exercises, group discussions and breathwork sessions. The aim is to view asanas not merely as physical shapes, but as embodiments of our mental states. The weekend is ideal for those interested in bringing ancient wisdom to modern times through a time-tested self-practice method or Sadhana (spiritual training) to serve as an antidote to our distracted lives.

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    Sushmitha Shrikanth is an Ashtanga Yoga Teacher from Chennai, India with over a decade of practice and teaching experience under her belt. She formalised her training in Hatha Yoga at Kaivalyadhama, one of the oldest and most renowned yoga schools in India and spent several summers studying Indian philosophy at Vedanta Academy, alongside a degree in Western Philosophy from the University of London.
    She is a 500HR (RYT) and 200HR (AYI) certified teacher and is one of the youngest Indians to have completed Intermediate Series in Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga directly under the late Sharath Jois in Mysore, the lineage holder of the Ashtanga Tradition. At the age of 23, she travelled across East Africa to work for an NGO delivering yoga training to refugee women at UN projects, orphanages, sober houses and the like. She has been featured in national newspapers for her work and has programs on major TV service providers like Tata Sky Fitness and Dish TV.

  • The Sacred Feminine : Empowering The Feminine With Yoga, Meditation And Your Astrological Moon

    Teacher: Margarita Celeste and Michelle Strybis
    Cost: 2 days accommodation + R400 surcharge
    Dates: Friday 23 May 2025 - Sunday 25 May 2025

    margarita celestemichelle strybisIn this empowering weekend for women, gentle Yin-style yoga will be offered as an invitation to expand, open and release tightly-held emotions and stress, focusing on the hips and heart. Evening "Moon" themed meditations will help participants to get in touch with this powerful Lunar Body to connect with your inner Feminine. Included will be talks on the Astrological Moon which will help women to navigate their emotional styles, and that of others. Body and Mind will be nourished over a weekend that promises to be nurturing for women - mothers and daughters, sisters and best friends - in a moment by moment openness to each other and to the beautiful, tranquil surroundings of the BRC.

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    Margarita Celeste was intuitively drawn to the starry skies from a young age. In 2013, she enrolled for Rod Suskin's three-year Diploma course, receiving a scholarship for her final year, after which she studied formally with the School of Intuition and Healing. Her passion is to help and guide others towards a more conscious state of being. She has a deep interest in alternative healing such as reiki, crystal therapy, kinesiology, chakra balance, tachyon healing and life alignment.

    Michelle Strybis danced from a very early age and has always been aware of the way movement affects our moods and mental states. Her journey with yoga started on a visit to an ashram in India many years ago where she completed her Yoga Teacher's Training in Bangalore. She has since visited India annually to further her yoga studies. In 2017 she completed a pre-and-post Natal Yoga Teacher's Training and in 2018 she qualified as a Meditation teacher in Dharmsala. She is passionate about sharing how yoga and meditation can help to keep us centered in our everyday lives.

     

  • Change Your Mind - A Mindfulness Retreat

    Teacher: Mark Joseph
    Cost: 2 days accommodation + R400 surcharge
    Dates: Friday 30 May 2025 - Sunday 01 June 2025

    mark josephIn the 1980’s Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn brought mindfulness into western medical focus. He was a practitioner of Zen Buddhism at the time and wanted to introduce his eastern learnings into a secular western framework. He was highly successful, and his work spread worldwide from the university of Massachusetts USA in the form of MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction). His definition: ‘Mindfulness can be cultivated by paying attention, in a particular way, on purpose and in the present moment, with three attitudes of  non-reactivity, non-judgement and open heartedness’ became the cornerstone of a Mark Joseph's work. He found it wasn’t about converting South Africans to Buddhism but sharing the heart of practices that transformed his mind and heart. Mark became fascinated with the collaboration of HH The 14th Dalai Lama and science, especially with the work of neuroscientist Richard Davidson and author Daniel Goleman. Mark has been running mindfulness workshops for many years incorporating neuroscience and performance psychology. In 2016 he created the ‘Mindfulness teacher training program’ and in 2018 it was introduced into RMB bank to train wellness ambassadors. During the pandemic this program spread to the entire First Rand organisation as well as ABSA and DHL. Mark has pioneered the growth of mindfulness not only in the corporate world but also in training psychologists and individuals in mindful therapy.

    The essence of this program will be shared in this 2-day retreat and combines key points around how mindfulness contributes to:
    - Focus and attention management
    - Stress Management
    - Insight and Innovation
    - Psychological safety
    - Emotional Intelligence
    - Self compassion
    - Empathy
    - Wisdom

    Experience the merging of the eastern and western forms of mindfulness to provide you with an evidence-based approach to cultivating a daily practice and how this will affect your positive mental well-being.

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    Mark Joseph is truly grateful to have been part of the shift in the world of mental health from reactive to pro-active. His training is in mindfulness, neuroscience and positive psychology - which he brings into his teachings. Living in a Buddhist temple for 3 years and backpacking the Himalayas was life-changing and encouraged his love of ancient systems for building resilience and tenacity. His journey with his own struggles with mental health began at a young age, with daily panic attacks - fuelled by the suicide of his father due to ill mental health. By using pro-active techniques of mental wellness and mindfulness, his life stabilised and improved. This approach became his passion and led to his teaching and speaking on the subject as far back as 2001. In 2018 Mark took the leap from Managing Director of an advertising agency to become a full time mental health speaker and facilitator. In a few short years he has been instrumental in the change in culture in large corporations and his role has also expanded to wellness strategist and advisory. Mark truly believes that we can change the world, one liberated mind at a time.