BRC Newsflash - August 2023
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The Buddhist Retreat Centre |
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Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
For people of all religions |
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BRC Newsflash: August 2023 Dear Retreatants, |
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| Stupa sunrise | Image: Andrew Brown | |
The Middle Way
The skies are clear, the mornings crisp, and the path to the meditation hall is dark and still. The Centre is in its autumnal splendour with the leaves sporting a rainbow of colours in their dying moments. This is a good time to reflect on and celebrate what has been over the last 6 months and to take the best of our lives forward into what remains. I would like to acknowledge the dedication of our staff - Lien, Venessa, Nelson, Vearle, Enkakeni, Mdu and their respective teams who hold the space for retreats to happen. We are indebted to them for giving their time and energy so ably and unstintingly. I would also like to pay deep respect to the inspiration of all our teachers, their generosity and for their penetrating insights and skills born of deep personal practice and years of experience. So far this year, apart from the broad range of retreats from yoga, qigong, art, gardening and cooking, we have offered Intensives such as a 10 day Vipassana retreat with Anna Scharfenberg and Johnathan Preboy, a 5 day silent Theravada retreat with Sister Candasiri, a 5 day with Jason Ross, a two day silent Wesak retreat with Stephen Coan and a 7 day retreat with Sue Cooper. Over these silent retreats, having experienced meditators around does help beginners to slip into the practice with greater ease and confidence - while a group of meditators - a Sangha - gives support over the vicissitudes of the longer retreats. |
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| Path to the zendo | Image: Tsunma Tsondru | |
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For all those who would like to deepen their practice, please take the opportunity to attend some of our forthcoming extended silent retreats with Tsunma Tsondru in July and over Christmas and New Year, with Sue Cooper in November, and with Ajahn Sucitto in February 2024. Without your support and attendance, we would not be able to invite these experienced teachers to Ixopo. Our retreats have been well supported over the last 6 months. More people are making use of the ‘open’ periods between scheduled retreats for self-retreating. It is a great support to the resident community to have retreatants quietly joining in the daily routine which is the marrow of our practice in Ixopo. The atmosphere at the BRC is a balance of relaxation and hard work, discipline and spontaneity, practice and service: the ‘Buddhist Middle Way’. In our daily lives a balanced situation must be both open and dynamic. To keep balanced, we must stay as awake and alert as we can. The Buddha’s encouragement to his disciples was to note that all phenomena are impermanent - that life is a dynamic flux. Our work is to cultivate awareness and openness and to ride the wave of ever-changing circumstances - and - simply, to do our best. With friendly greetings, Louis |
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| A resting spot | Image: Kim Ward | |
Walk Into StillnessThink peace over pressure and serenity over stress. Enjoy some time out at the BRC mid-week, with nourishing vegetarian meals, sunrise meditation and nature's healing embrace to colour the mood of your day. There is no better place than the BRC to rejuvenate the body and mind to guide you into presence and stillness. A 10% discount applies for midweek bookings. |
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| Autumn colours | Image: Lisa de Venter | |
There are still a few spaces left on the following July retreats:
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| Wind chime at the Buddha Boma | Image:Lisa De Venter | |
Conducted Retreats August 2023Iyengar Yoga: Nudging The Body Into Shape And HealthJudy Farah | Weekend | 4-6 August Iyengar Yoga: Deepening Your PracticeJudy Farah | 5 days | 6 -11 August Three Treasures For Mindful Living - A Pathway To BalanceBridget Hawkins | Weekend | 11-13 August Know Your Health – Living with PurposeProf Monique Marks, Kathryn Millar, Dr Mario Shonga | 2 days | 14-16 August Please note that this is a fee-based course. To register, please contact Kath Millar at or Prof Monique Marks at Starting with a science-based approach, retreat guests receive blood work analysis by a kind and thoughtful GP, looking at important health markers which set the baseline for understanding physical health. From there, two experienced health coaches guide retreat participants through a series of exercises and one-on-one coaching to understand limiting beliefs, to create a focussed health and wellness vision with structured goals, and an action plan that is immediately implementable. The principles and theory of balancing blood sugar - guides our food focus - along with meal planning and simple, delicious recipes. After a fire ceremony where the ideas and beliefs that no longer serve towards holistic health are burned, retreat participants leave the BRC feeling empowered. Relaxation: Opening And Relaxing The Heart And MindPippa Cope | Weekend | 18-20 August Enquiring Into The Tibetan Schemata Of The Five Elements Of Earth, Water, Fire And Space Externally And Within OurselvesPippa Cope | 2 days | 20-22 August The five elements provide a dynamic system of understanding life. They make up the world around us and are in all living organisms - only the proportions differ. When the elements are in balance there is ease and harmony, when out of balance there is dis-ease and disharmony. The balance is constantly changing within and around us. Change Your Story - A Memoir Writing, Family Constellations And Meditation RetreatDawn Garisch, Vasintha Pather and Alistair Blair | 6 days | 28 August - 03 September We are all born into stories that were not of our own making. Thereafter we may have found ourselves in situations that are difficult to accept, even if we were complicit in some way. The stories we tell ourselves about our lives are sometimes inadequate or even damaging to ourselves, our relationships and all life on earth. Importantly, we need not perpetuate the harmful narratives that we have carried; indeed we have the power to create stories that offer new possibilities and greater joy. This hybrid retreat combines Family Constellations, memoir writing and meditation practice. Over 5 days the facilitators will guide you in exploring where you have come from, and to expand what is possible by engaging more awareness, curiosity and creativity. In addition, the meditation teaching can help to ground yourself in the fluidity of the present instead of the fixed narratives of the past and of our expectations. Expect a deeply reflective, nourishing and safe space to explore and create. A Personal Self Retreat: Walk Into StillnessPeople often yearn for an opportunity to recalibrate their lives and to spend some time in quiet reflection among like-minded people. The BRC provides such a refuge - where silence is a precious commodity. Treat yourself to a personal retreat. |
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| Bench in the autumn leaves |
Image: Jane Bedford | |
About the BRCPerched on a ridge at the head of a valley in the Umkomaas river system in KwaZulu-Natal, the Buddhist Retreat Centre looks out on a vista of indigenous valleys, forests and rolling hills receding like waves in the blue distance. Here, for forty two years, people of all religions and none have come to experience peace and tranquillity. It is a gentle, sympathetic space where one can be still and get in touch with oneself and reflect on the things that crowd one's life. The BRC was voted by CNN as one of the ten best meditation centres in the world. CNN Travel awarded another feather in the BRC’s cap by voting it as one of the ten best spiritual centres in South Africa, recently. The BRC was awarded Natural Heritage status in 1995 under the auspices of the Department of Environmental Affairs and received a certificate to that effect signed by President Nelson Mandela for turning an eroded farm into the natural paradise it has become - thousands of indigenous trees were planted by retreatants under the supervision of Mervyn Croft - with 160 species of birds, including the Blue Swallow, otter, deer, antbear and indigenous forests. The Centre was also given the special status of “Custodian of the Blue Swallow” for its work in preserving the breeding areas of this endangered bird. Recently, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife granted the BRC “Private Nature Reserve” for the conservation of the rare Blue Swallow and Mistbelt Grassland. The BRC facilitated the founding of Woza Moya, the community-based NGO, located in Ufafa Valley, twenty-two years ago, on the estate. Their vision is for all people in the community to be healthy and.productive, to live in a safe and clean environment, with good access to services and social justice. The Centre continues to support the organisation by showcasing their crafts in the shop and sponsoring their trainers and consultants. We have been very touched by your appreciative letters, emails and friendship towards the BRC - your spiritual home from home. We are deeply grateful for your generous gifts to the Centre in the form of PUY and Monthly contributions, new beds and bases, office chairs and a desk, a new refrigerator, microwave oven, bathroom towels, indigenous trees and seedlings, books for our library, a generator, garden benches, pillows, towels and linen, geyser insulation blankets, clothing and Dana for our staff, an inverter and beautiful antique scrolls and Imari platters and ceramics, framed prints and Thankas, new tablecloths and serviettes, signage for our forest paths - and so much more. Thank you to all of you who continue to support our work in Ixopo with monthly and Paid Up Yogi contributions and donations, with gifts, or with skills and time. And, of course, to everyone who comes to the Centre - you keep us open and viable - and to our teachers who keep the Dharma wheels turning. We are deeply grateful for your generosity towards us; it encourages us to continue Louis’ beautiful vision and legacy for the future. Please continue to support the BRC by becoming a friend of the Buddhist Retreat Centre (a registered non-profit organisation) and find out more about the BRC's Paid-Up-Yogi and Sangha Friends’ projects. Chrisi Visit our website for further information, directions, image gallery etc. |
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