Food for the Heart - The Factors of Awakening: a 7-Day Silent Residential Retreat, August 2024

Dates: August 11th - 17th 2024

Venue: De La Salle Pastoral Centre, Castletown, County Laois

Cost: We are keeping the fees as low as we can as we do not seek to make any profit from our retreats.  It is important to us that we keep the retreats we offer as affordable as possible so that they can be inclusive.  These prices are last years so they are approximate. We will be in a position to update the costs over the next while. In the meantime they will be in the region of the prices here. We offer the option to pay by installments. Please get in touch with us on info@mindfulness.ie if this is something you wish to avail of.  

Standard shared single: approx. €675; standard single occupancy: approx. €790; single en-suite: approx. €890.

Donations:

To allow us to be able to continue to be sustainable and inclusive in the current climate we would very much welcome donations so that we can continue to offer places at reduced rates.  We hope to offer rates which continue to reflect our intention that anyone who would like to attend can do so, through collective generosity.  Please consider making a donation, no matter how small.  

‍Suitable for:

The retreat is open to anyone with previous experience of similar types of silent retreat of 5 days or longer, but preference will be given to mindfulness teachers and teachers in training.  

The Retreat:

Personal meditation practice is an essential foundation for anyone who works with mindfulness-based interventions and participation in silent teacher-led mindfulness meditation retreats is part of all Good Practice Guidelines.  This retreat satisfies the MTAI criteria for a mindfulness teacher's annual retreat.

This retreat will explore aspects of the discourses of the Buddha which are the foundation for the so-called 'modern mindfulness movement.': Part of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the Awakening Factors and the Karaniya Metta Sutta, the Buddha's words on Loving Kindness (or boundless friendliness). These are profound teachings that encourage us to place the path of freedom and compassion in the classroom of our lives, nurturing a heart that is receptive and unshakeable. Developing the capacity to encounter our own inner and outer experience with equanimity and curiosity creates a foundation for meeting the experiences of our students and clients, in offering mindfulness-based interventions.

Each day will offer a sustained schedule of formal meditation practice (both Insight and Metta), group meetings with the teachers, talks and instructions, all within an underlying environment of silence.  There will be periods of guided mindful movement each day.

Access: We welcome people with disabilities to our retreat.  Please contact us with your specific needs relating to disability, long-term illness or health condition.

We hope to offer rates which continue to reflect our intention that anyone who would like to attend can do so, through collective generosity.  Please consider making a donation, no matter how small.  

Supporter's rate:

Pay for yourself and help support one person to join on a Bursary with any further donation you feel able to offer.

Concession rate:

For those in financial hardship who cannot afford our full priced rate (see below for more) - talk to the organisers about your situation and we will do our best to accommodate you.

‍Cancellation policy:

Cancellations up to 1st June 2024 will incur a €50 administration fee.

Cancellations after 1st June 2024 will incur the loss of the deposit.

The organisers may waive cancellation fees in exceptional circumstances, at their discretion.

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Prior to your retreat, we will send some more information about what to expect whilst at Castletown.