BRC Newsflash - October 2023

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The Buddhist Retreat Centre

Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

For people of all religions

BRC Newsflash: October 2023

Dear Retreatants,

SOS: The BRC Needs Your Help

The BRC has embraced difficult and uncertain times before and we have found that with the help of the BRC family and friends we have always emerged with increased enthusiasm and confidence to continue to offer the Centre as a place for self-reflection and spiritual growth.

As has happened before, we are again facing challenging times and we need your help.

The BRC has not fully recovered from lockdown over Covid and the subsequent fallout from cancelled retreats, followed by the unrest in Natal two years ago. This - compounded by the low attendance of our retreats over the last 3 months - has resulted in the Centre being under serious financial constraint.

• Sue Cooper will be offering her 2 or 5 day Open The Heart And Still The Mind retreat: "Mist Rising, Dew Falling - Embracing Impermanence With Courage, Compassion And Joy" from 24-29 November. This is a fee-based retreat. Book early to avoid disappointment.

• The beautiful documentary "Bodhi Is Light" by film maker Richard Pakleppa has just been released. We include the trailer as a taster - view the trailer - and hope that you will support the film. If you would like to view the whole film, please apply for the link at:  and consider making a donation of R200 or more in order to preserve the ongoing work of the Centre. We enclose banking details. Please reference with your Name/ Film.

• Jonathan Preboy and Anna Scharfenberg will be returning to offer a 10-day Vipassana retreat (plus weekend and four day mini-course) from 15-25 January 2024. They currently manage and teach at the Tisarana Vipassananusorn meditation centre in Prague.

• The wonderful news is that Ajahn Sucitto who has taught at the BRC for the past 38 years will be returning from the UK to offer a 7-day retreat "Regaining The Centre" from 11-18 February 2024. Ajahn's two news books "Standing On Your Own Two Feet" and "Breathing Like A Buddha" are available in the shop for free distribution. Spaces are filling up quickly, so book early to avoid disappointment.

There are still a few spaces left on the following September retreats:

Yoga Mind, Body And Breath: A Journey Of Self-Discovery

Marc Kress and Kirsten-Mia Hickey | Weekend | 15-17 September
The practice of yoga brings the mind and body together, grounding us in the present, connecting us with where we are and what our body tells us about ourselves. It is a process of re-connecting to our body and breath and coming back into the present moment.This retreat is open to beginners and experienced students.
Read more

Healing The Family Tree: An Ancestor And Us Writing Retreat

Dorian Haarhoff | Weekend | 22- 24 September
The songs of our ancestors are also the songs of our children. Our stories are gifts we give each other and gifts we leave behind us. For, one day we too will be ancestors. In this retreat we write our stories and place them next to those of our family, immediate, extended and chosen. The idea of family can include not only blood, but our spiritual tradition, culture and the line of those who share our passions.
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Between First In-Breath And Last Out-Breath: The Art Of Story-telling

Dorian Haarhoff | 2 days | 24-26 September
There is something deeply fictional about us human beings. We are the stories we tell about ourselves. Rediscover the lost art of story-telling. Experience the joy, presence, mindfulness and transformation that arrive when we engage with a tale, learn how to craft it and inhabit it.
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A Taste of Somatics: Feeling And Healing The Body From Within

Lisa Firer | Weekend | 29 September-1 October
Join Lisa for a weekend of mindfulness-based-somatic movement in the tradition of Clinical Somatics. Learn gentle and mindful body-based practices to help release chronic tensions that underlie pain and stress.  Meditation will be incorporated throughout the retreat to develop your inner awareness.  You will leave with tools and practices to become your own body worker.
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Conducted Retreats October 2023

Practical Consciousness - A Simple Guide To Raising Your Consciousness

Dash Singh | Weekend | 6-8 October
In our daily lives, we are constantly searching for clarity in how best to engage with the world. How do we juggle the complexities of modern life - work, family, relationships, finances, health, our spirituality and community without “dropping the ball”?  In this retreat, we will discover some basic tools to help us reach insight, calmness and clarity and to live a more mindful, meaningful life. Affirmations, meditation and journaling will be incorporated as well as contemplative creation, visualisations and vision boards, breathwork and other practical tools interspersed with rest. We will find ways to align ourselves with the wider community of people who are on a consciousness journey.
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The Sacred Feminine : Empowering The Feminine With Yoga, Meditation And Your Astrological Moon

Margarita Celeste and Sandra Hedges | Weekend | 13-15 October
In 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. 
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Stand Like A Tree To Power Up Your Chi

Paul Dorrian | Weekend | 20-22 October 
Zhan Zhuang (‘Standing like a Tree’) Chi-Gung is unlike most other Chi-Gung styles, in that with the exception of changing from one static posture to the next, the practitioner remains absolutely still, developing a mind like still water. Regarded by many contemporary Masters as the most powerful of all Chi-Gung practices, it opens all of the nine energy portals in the body, and encourages one’s chi (life force) to flow powerfully throughout one’s entire being. In this retreat Paul will teach the Four Posture Zhan Zhuang Set, which assists in developing a strong physical structure as well as creating a greater supply of healing chi to promote health and vitality.
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If The Buddha Found His Soulmate: Finding A Loving Relationship On A Spiritual Path

Natascha Prussen and Warren Shaw | Weekend | 27-29 October 
The Buddhist teachings provide a wonderful foundation to understand why relationships work - and why they don’t. This helps us to develop an ability to live in the present moment - because only then can we truly flourish. Our exploration of vital, loving relationships will include Buddhist insights into how compassion, impermanence and loving-kindness are key in the way we relate to others. We will explore the role attachment and craving plays and the suffering these cause. Because, if we were fully awake and present, we would know that to harm another is to harm ourselves, and that to harm ourselves is to harm another. As we come to fully understand this, we will become less reactive to others and will respond with loving-kindness. Some of the fundamental traits of a loving relationship that we will explore are: a deep commitment to being a couple and yet separate individuals; the ability to resolve conflict; having shared values, dreams and life-style; showing appreciation, respect and care and sharing a strong connection to community and being of service to others; having a sense of humour and being able to laugh at ourselves. Natascha and Warren are able to speak from their own experience and how Buddhism triggered a deeper understanding of the subtle issues involved in maintaining a healthy relationship.
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Spring Fling: A Personal Retreat

Think peace over pressure and serenity over stress. Enjoy some  time 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 in September and October.
 Read more

About the BRC

Perched 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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