Bookings are now closed for Love is the Way.
For any questions about the retreat please email peacefulheartrafford@gmail.com
The essence of loving kindness is being able to offer happiness. You can be the sunshine for another person. But you can’t offer happiness until you have it yourself. So build a home inside by accepting yourself and learning to love and heal yourself — Thich Nhat Nanh
This retreat is an opportunity to deeply explore the teachings on love offered by Thich Nhat Hanh. What can be more important in this time of change than cultivating love and understanding for ourselves, our loved ones, the Earth and all beings?
About the Retreat
Accepting and loving ourselves is fundamental – understanding ourselves as a person and also what it is to have a human mind with both the joy and the pain. These insights allow us to open our heart more and more to the whole range of human experience. Through opening our heart, transformation becomes possible. True love comes with compassion, joy and inclusiveness, and on our long weekend together we will cultivate those qualities through Plum Village practices and teachings.
Dharma teachers Mhairi McLuskie and Susanne Olbrich will guide us through the retreat and the beauty of these teachings with warmth and honesty, supporting us to find ways of applying them in our own lives. There will be time to relax and care for ourselves and time to connect with nature and our ancestors (blood, spiritual and land based). There also will be a ceremony to transmit the Five Mindfulness Trainings.
Who the Retreat is Suitable For
This is an in-depth retreat for those who have practised mindfulness before and are familiar with the basic practices of mindful breathing, sitting, walking, eating and Dharma sharing.
Five Mindfulness Trainings Ceremony
This retreat will include a Five Mindfulness Trainings Transmission ceremony. If you would like to take or re-take the Five Mindfulness Trainings (or a subset thereof) please indicate this when filling in the Retreat Questionnaire.
UK Dharma Teacher Mhairi McLuskie
Mhairi McLuskie discovered Thich Nhat Hanh in 1990 and was ordained as a lay Dharma teacher in 2012. She has applied her mindfulness practice during the ups and downs of family and work life, including the sudden deaths of her parents and the premature death of a beloved friend.
Mhairi (pronounced Vari) has shared mindfulness in many settings – including courses for female offenders, victims of sexual abuse and for organisations, as well as through Plum Village UK retreats and the Be Calm, Be Happy courses which she co-developed. She enjoys offering mindfulness retreats and courses on the themes of transformation and healing and cultivating love. Mhairi was born in Scotland and is currently living in the West Midlands.
UK Dharma Teacher Susanne Olbrich
Susanne Olbrich discovered Thich Nhat Hanh and Plum Village in 1996 and wholeheartedly embraced mindfulness as her path. In 2016 she received the Lamp transmission as a Dharma teacher in this lineage.
Born and raised in Germany, Susanne moved to Scotland in 2001 to live in Findhorn. There she co-founded Northern Lights Sangha which serves people from across the north of Scotland. Susanne is a pianist, music educator and mindfulness teacher. She loves sounds, silence and the aliveness of creative discovery. Her work explores mindfulness practice, nature immersion and creativity as pathways for growth, wellbeing and collective awakening. Susanne offers 1-to-1 and group work, retreats and workshops. Recently she completed the MSc in Mindfulness Studies with the University of Aberdeen, researching “Mindfulness and Musical Creativity”.
Practical Information
Venue
Wiston Lodge
Milrig Road
Wiston, Biggar
ML12 6HT
Accommodation and Cost
All accommodation is in shared rooms.
£305 Standard
£225 Camping / Campervan
If you are able to offer a little extra above the stated cost, this would help us to offer supported places to those on a lower income.
Supported Places
Some partial bursaries are available. If you would struggle to pay the full cost of the retreat, please email us.
Special Diets
All meals will be vegan. You can specify any additional dietary requirements that you may have when you book.
Dana
The fee for the retreat does not include a fee for the teachers who offer a great deal of time, love and experience in delivering their teaching. There is an opportunity to offer dana (donations) in support of their continuation of this work during and after the retreat.
How To Book
Bookings are now closed.
About the Dharma Training Program
Originally the DTP was seen as a training programme for those practitioners who wanted to deepen their practice as a group. People were encouraged to sign up to all three DTP sessions in a year so that a sangha could be created amongst participants and spiritual friendships nurtured during these retreats. We would like to encourage you to consider the programme in this way in 2024 if that is possible for you.
The Dharma Training Programme operates in England over a weekend in February, a long weekend in May and a five day retreat in October. We would be delighted to welcome you at all three. Additionally, every other year there is a DTP retreat in Scotland, offering a further option.
In addition to Love is the Way, we have one other Dharma Training retreat this year:
24-28th October | Sidcot School, Somerset
Discourse on the Diamond that Cuts Through Illusion
Facilitated by UK Dharma teachers Dene Donalds and Teri West
Image by Wiston Lodge