BRC NewsFlash - July 2017
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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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Dear Retreatant BRC Newsflash: July 2017There is much to read in this July edition:
Everyone should have an existential crisis....When American and English young men demobilized after they had served as soldiers in the Vietnam war, they were often at a loss at the prospect of trying to adjust to civic life: a nine-to five job in an air - conditioned office on the fifth floor of a multi-storey building and going home to a wife and young children - and, grocery bills, a pension, a bowling green and a park bench. And, finally, a coffin. Surely, there had to be more to life than that? |
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Image: Chantelle Flores |
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I was then in my early teens. I lived in a tiny attic in the western part of Amsterdam where I had just emerged from my own existential crisis. The Second World War had been traumatic for my family too, particularly the last part of it, the so-called Hunger Winter, when we tried to survive on shrivelled tulip bulbs. Like other children living in our neighbourhood, schooling had stopped when German soldiers commandeered our school and used the class rooms as barracks to quarter its soldiers. After the war, when schooling started again, a large chunk of early learning was therefore missing in my life. But I had a ferocious hunger to learn more about the kind of world I had been experiencing - and was now preparing to engage. I had seen truckloads of Jewish families being rounded up to be sent to the gas chambers in Germany, some of them childhood friends of my parents. Both my father and mother had been brought up in the "Depression" - the period between the First and Second World Wars, which had been equally devoid of opportunities to enrich one's life through education or employment - now so casually taken for granted by today's young people. In hindsight though, I am grateful to have had this early conditioning in feeling trapped in a hopeless and helpless situation. It makes you seize every opportunity that may come your way in later life to help you understand the world around you - and your place in it. After the war, I discovered a second-hand book market in a seventeenth century arcade in the centre of old Amsterdam. That is where people off-loaded unwanted books they had found lying about in their homes. In that way they could earn some urgently needed guilders. There I randomly chose books that ranged in subject from the French Revolution to astronomy and authors such as Hemingway, Dickens, Zola and Dostoevsky, paid for with the money I had earned playing my accordion at birthday parties and other celebrations. I realize now that my eagerness in embracing a Buddhist ethic in my life, once I came across it, has its roots in these early experiences: one can rise above one's fears, anxieties and suffering and use them as stepladders to reach deeper levels of insight into what life is really about. |
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Images:Chantelle Flores & Craig Meltzer |
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Forthcoming Retreats: 30 June to 30 July, 2017Give yourself the gift of a retreat over July where you can step away from your busy lives into tranquillity - to still the mind, and open the heart. The programme gives participants the opportunity to tap into their creativity in sketching what you see in front of you, to finding your inner- child along with your kids on the family retreat when the BRC "goes juvenile", to experiencing meditation-in-action with poise and presence in walking, and learning to take care of yourself and find your centre in order to be of service to others. Walking The Sacred Way: Poise, Grace And Presence In WalkingThe essential art of walking - this most ordinary activity of daily life - has been degraded into mindless, extreme exercise. As we change this conditioned mindset, we can restore the poise and elegance of our body- mind. Rejuvenating The BRC - A Family Retreat With Children In MindThis family retreat offers a basic introduction to Buddhist thought, as well as guidance for parents and children to explore spirituality through connecting with nature and creative expression. Karma Or Fate: Why Things Happen The Way They DoWhy do things happen the way they do? As living beings, we are woven into an unimaginably complex causal network where nothing escapes being recorded and is ready to act out whatever needs to be resolved. 'Hell Is Other People': The Magic And Mystery Of RelationshipSome relationships prove to be harmonious, others problematic. The good news is that relationships can become dynamic opportunities to move beyond narrow self- interests and fixations. How To Draw What You See: A Pen And Ink Sketching RetreatYou don't have to be an artist to be able to sketch what is in front of you. All you need is one eye and two fingers, to take your pen and sketchbook anywhere and to experience what it is like to be truly present in where you are. Finding And Keeping Your CentreWhen we are told to take better care of ourselves, we either feel that we don't have the time or don't know where to begin. The secret lies in finding your Centre. |
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Image: Chantelle Flores |
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The 37th Annual General Meetingof |
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Visiting International Teachers at the BRC
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Chamtrul Rinpoche conducts a retreat: The Heart Sutra from 25-27 August.He has taught for over 20 years to thousands of Tibetan monks and foreign students (monks, nuns and lay people), in Tibet, India and other countries. In the words of Rinpoche himself: “Teaching is what I do in this life. Wherever someone asks me to teach, I am there.” More details on Chamtrul Rinpoche’s life can be found on Rinpoche’s offical site in the page “autobiography”. For more information and for updates on Rinpoche’s teachings please visit: Bhikkhu Sukhacitto and Janet Surrey conduct An Introduction To Insight Dialogue from 12-17 December.Bhikkhu Sukhacitto is an ordained monk since 1990 and an Insight Dialogue Teacher. He has lived at various monasteries in the West, including Dhammapala Monastery in Switzerland for six years and at Amaravati Monastery, UK, for 4 years. Janet Surrey, PhD, is an Insight Dialogue Teacher. She teaches Insight Dialogue retreats worldwide and leads a monthly practice group in Boston, USA. She has studied with a number of Vipassana teachers for over 25 years. She is a practising clinical psychologist and founding scholar of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute at the Wellesley Centres for Women. She is on the faculty and board of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. Take A Sneak Peek At Our New Schedule Of RetreatsSee the attached Sneak Peek for our new schedule of retreats from September 2017 to October 2018 and take the opportunity to book in advance for your favourite retreats. Call 0878091687 or . |
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Image: Chantelle Flores
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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 thirty-seven 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. In 1989, the BRC was awarded Natural Heritage status by President Mandela for turning an eroded farm into the natural paradise it has become with 160 species of birds, including the Blue Swallow, otter, deer and indigenous forests. The BRC facilitated the founding of Woza Moya, the community-based NGO, located in Ufafa Valley, sixteen years ago. It continues to support the organisation in a variety of ways by contributing Dana, sponsoring their trainers, visitors and Directors' accommodation, and showcasing their wonderful crafts in our shop. Thank you for the amazing gifts and abundance that has flowed to the BRC over these last six months in the form of beautiful thankas, woven carpets, curtains, ornaments, Tibetan artefacts and furniture for the refurbishment in the Lodge, PUY contributions and other donations, trees, herbs and plants, and books for our library. We have been so touched by your gifts and appreciative letters, emails, support and friendship. Visit our website for further information, directions, image gallery etc. |
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| www.brcixopo.co.za | 039 834 1863 | 087 809 1687 | 082 579 3037 | 031 2095995 |
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