These days are led by facilitators from Gaia House on relevant Buddhist topics and practices

Day retreats take place mostly in a setting of companionable silence, including during the lunch period. Silence offers an opportunity to attend to one’s own experience without the need to be anyone for other people.

There will be a chance for a chat with a cup tea at the start and end of the day and during the day there will usually be time for questions and discussion with the teacher.

You will be asked to sit quietly for periods of up to 30 minutes, with varying amounts of guidance. These sittings are interspersed with periods of walking and movement.

We recognise that this level of silence may be challenging for newcomers and is not always suitable for everyone at every time. If you have any concerns or wonder whether a retreat is the right thing for you at this time, you are welcome to get in touch with us.

Some retreats do require attendees to have some prior meditation experience. If this is the case it will be stated in the retreat description.

We welcome volunteers to help on the day, if you would like to help in this way please contact us.

Fees

We ask for a booking fee to cover costs of venues, teachers’ expenses, ongoing administrative costs. We offer an Early Bird (closes 1 month before the event) and Tier 1 rates. A freely given rate is also available so that no-one is excluded.

Dana

Dana can be translated as cultivating generosity or giving. The teachers who lead our retreats receive their travel costs and ‘out-of-pocket’ expenses but do not receive any payment for their teaching. However they are happy to receive voluntary contributions from participants in the events they lead. These offerings are traditionally called dana. Most of our teachers depend on dana for most or all of their livelihood.

Our teachers are following an ancient tradition, offering teachings freely just as they received them freely from a previous generation of teachers. In this way the dharma (the teachings of the Buddhist tradition) is not made an object of commerce, and the relationship between teacher and student is based upon trust, freedom, and mutual generosity.

If you attend one of our events and appreciate what the teacher has offered, we warmly invite you to make whatever contribution you feel appropriate. If you do so, you will be making a vital contribution to their livelihood and helping them to continue teaching on this generous basis, particularly in situations where people cannot afford to pay anything.

Saturday 28th February 2026 - ONLINE Retreat Day - The Consolation of the Five Regular Contemplations with Bhante Bodhidhamma.

A day of practice in the traditional of the Mahasi Sayadaw of Myanmar.

During this online daylong we will explore the following: The Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma, one of the most influential meditation teachers of the last century, developed a combination of techniques, primarily noting and going slow, to develop the steadiness of attention needed for insight into the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and insubstantiality. Such insights lead to a greater well-being and ease of living and, ultimately, to liberation from all suffering.

A day of practice with Bhante, beginning with the Refuges and Precepts, periods of sitting and walking meditation. There will be a short talk to raise curiosity, a Factor of Awakening, with some time for questions and answers.

Bhante Bodhidhamma began his meditation in the Soto Zen tradition in 1978 and has practised widely in the Theravada tradition, centring on the Mahasi tradition. In 1986, he ordained and subsequently spent eight years at Kanduboda Meditation Centre in Sri Lanka. From June 2001-2005, he was the resident teacher in residence at Gaia House. He founded Satipanya Buddhist Retreat (https://www.satipanya.org.uk), dedicated to the Mahasi tradition, on the borders of Wales in 2007. The centre has gone through extensive development and now accommodates 10 meditators in single rooms.

Saturday 25th April - Jaya Rudgard in Person at Glenfrome School

Info coming shortly

Saturday 6th June - Healing the Wounds of Spirit, Being and Belonging with Maura Sills (In Person at Glenfrome School)

During our day together through meditation, small group practices, dialogue and talks we will explore the places in ourselves that may feel constricted or split off from the qualities of the open heart. The possibility of reconnecting with our inherent goodness to enter the deep flow of well-being. Re joining us with and nourished by the Benediction of the Great Emptiness.

Maura Sills is the Founder of Core Process Psychotherapy which offers an innovative psycho-spiritual approach to therapy. Karuna Dartmoor integrates western psychotherapeutic models with Buddhist psychology and mindfulness practices. Drawing on over 40 years of experience, Core Process Psychotherapy offers a depth understanding of what helps and hinders healing insight and transformation. She was a nun in

Description supplied by the event organiser.