When we learn how we create what we refer to as “experience”, we also learn how to take responsibility for how we see our lives.

We are then able to recognise that there is no need to blame external conditions for our discomfort and insecurity or any negative feelings we may have. Rather than depending on external conditions to alleviate our underlying dissatisfaction, we instead derive confidence from knowing why we often feel that there’s something missing from our lives.

The retreat therefore equips us with the tools to be our own psychotherapists, so that we can first benefit ourselves and eventually, make our lives beneficial to others. The meditation methods Ani teaches are simple and effective, especially when integrated into our perception of daily life. Life becomes our practice and practice becomes our life.

Retreat Highlights

• A brief introduction to Human Psychology, also known as Ego Psychology. This is the understanding of how we construct, moment by moment, our own personal experience of what we call “life”.

• Once we understand the basis of our mental processes (what we call “mind”), we can begin to see how what we consider to be reality is just a complex illusion which continuously distorts our perception, resulting in the confused and dualistic way we see the now.

• It is this basic confusion, arising from not recognising our true unconditioned nature, which generates our suffering and dissatisfaction and, in fact, all our neurotic psychological habits and tendencies.

• As we learn how we construct our own experiences, we also learn how we can de-construct whatever we have created.

• We can learn to be a child of illusion, playing with apparent phenomena and utilising whatever is arising to our consciousness as our path of awakening to true liberation.

Retreat Instructor

Ani Zamba

A monastic for more than five decades, Ani Zamba holds various lineages of practice within the Buddhist tradition. She was fortunate to have studied and trained under some of the greatest meditation masters of the last century. One of the first Western women to take Buddhist monastic ordination, her training includes various lineages: Tibetan Rime (non- sectarian), Korean Son, Chinese Chan, and both the Thai and Burmese Shamatha/Vipassana schools of practice. Ani Zamba has been teaching around the world for 47 years. She is very passionate about these teachings as they are essential to understand, no matter what path one follows.

About the Retreat

The retreat will include different meditation practices(silent and guided) throughout the day, as well as Ani Zamba’s teachings, and Q&A sessions/short discussions. Retreatants are encouraged to attend daily yoga morning practice to ground the body. All meals will be taken in silence including lunch and dinner, the latter of which will be held at separate times from the rest of the community.

Retreat Program

Arrival and departure

• The retreat opening session will begin on the 22nd of September at 19:30

• The retreat will end by 12:00 on the 27th of September

Daily Schedule

6:00 – Wake up Gong

6:30 – Yoga (with rest of community)

7:30 – Silent Breakfast

8:30 – Guided Meditation

9:00 – Teachings and Practice

10:30 – Tea Break (15 minutes)

10:45 – Teachings and Practice

12:00 – Silent Lunch

14:00 – Teachings and Practice (includes Q&A)

15:30 – Tea Break (15 minutes)

15:45 – Teachings and Practice

17:00 – Break, free time, steam bath

18:00 – Dinner

19:30 – Q&A, Discussion and Meditation

21:30 – Noble Silence, until 9am on the next day