Easeful abiding, loving enquiry, compassionate action
An urban non-residential retreat with Grant Rix
While participants are encouraged to attend all classes if possible, those unable to do so are welcome to attend as many sessions as they are able.
Thursday 24 September 7.00-9.00pm
Friday 25 September 7.00-9.00pm
Saturday 26 September 9.00-11.30am
Sunday 27 September 9:00am – 3:00pm
(an opportunity to deepen the explorations with a full day of practice, please bring a plate for a shared lunch)
Cost: $5 per session
Dana (a personal donation to the Teacher) may also be offered
Venue: Queenstown Dharma Centre, 12 Lake St, Queenstown
The retreat is open to practitioners of all levels who have a heartfelt aspiration to unfold wisdom and compassion for the sake of all life.
“Mindfulness… The balance of body and mind in accord with situation and circumstance. Not just a practice, not just a science, but the art of resting with awareness and responding with compassion to the ever-present immediacy of living… intimate, direct, and alive.”
For practitioners of old, the world was one in which body, mind and nature were viewed as a unified whole. All of life was seen to be interconnected – everything being created, sustained, and supported by everything else.
Far from contradicting the reality of diversity and individual uniqueness, a unified view of life recognises that individual expression is only possible in relation to multiple causes and conditions.
Just as a forest contains a multitude of unique specimens of flora and fauna, each of those specimens can only express its individuality due to its relationship with, and support from the whole forest ecosystem.
Remembering that life is essentially integrated in each moment serves as a reminder to recollect and reorient ourselves to an appreciation of the fullness of life whenever we become distracted and forgetful.
As our attention becomes less divided, physical tension and disturbing patterns of thinking and emotional reactivity calm. This calming process results from the rebalancing of mind and body and allows our physical senses to become more attuned to life within and around us helping us to experience greater relaxation in body and alertness of mind. We feel more alive, satisfied, and engaged with the world.
This foundation of solid loving presence facilitates curiosity, openness and acceptance, which in turn supports an increased capacity for engaging in the world with compassion and awareness.
This urban retreat will explore why it is important to consider the orientation we bring to meditation training, why it is important to continuously reflect on our intentions for practice, and will explore meditations to support the cultivation and union of calm-abiding and clear seeing as a foundation for compassionate activity.
Grant Rix has been studying and practising mindfulness and meditation for 16 years. From the ancient to the modern Grant is intimately familiar with the Buddhadharma and modern secular approaches to mindfulness practice and research. He is the Operations Manager for Mindful Aotearoa, which is part of the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand, where he develops and manages various mindfulness initiatives including the Pause, Breathe, Smile mindfulness in schools programme. Grant has been regularly teaching meditation courses for the past 10 years.