Urban Retreats

Urban retreat? Don’t I mean rural retreat? or solitary retreat?

Nope, urban retreat. The idea is that you take whatever you have in the way of spiritual aspiration, practice and experience into your ordinary week. So if you have a job interview, that’s part of your urban retreat ‘programme’. Or a night out with your colleagues. Or taking your toddler to her playgroup. Or a work presentation. Or a conversation that you’ve been putting off for a while. Or meditating in a room overlooking a busy street.

Are you on your own in this sort of retreat?

Well yes and no. Yes, in many ways, because you are probably going to be the only person in your workplace who is thinking about themselves as being on a Buddhist retreat! And ditto for the other main people in your life. But then again, no, because you may be able to join up with other people in your local area for a given week and meet up with them at times during that week to compare notes and practice together.

What’s the benefit?

The benefit of keeping alight the inspiration that we get from rural, residential retreats. The benefit of taking the Buddha’s teaching into our world and testing it and ourselves. Of avoiding the tendency to put ‘practice’ and ‘normal life’ into separte categories. Of deepening our awareness of the practice of ethics and how that impacts on our life. Of noticing how our habitual tendencies (samskaras) interfere with our good intentions. Of seeing suffering and joy in the world around us. And of realising the ways in which we respond to that. That’s enough of the possible benefit for the moment!

Can anyone do an urban retreat?

Hmm, I really am still thinking about how to answer this. I guess maybe not everyone can do an urban retreat. Because you need to know something about Buddhism and you need to know how to meditate. So if you are completely new to Buddhism and Buddhist meditation then there is a preliminary step needed of acquiring some basic information. But I’d say that anyone with that basis could do an urban retreat.

Interested?

OK then I’ve written up a series of pages with information from an urban retreat which I ran last year in Cambridge, UK. Let me say first of all that I am indebted to a friend of mine in Sheffield called Vajratara who sent me her notes and suggestions on how to run it. She has done them in Sheffield with great success. The Cambridge venture was also a success. They are setting themselves up right now to run another one over the New year. I won’t be there. But more importantly I don’t need to be there because they know the basics of what helps and how to set one up.

Next step?

Use the ‘Urban Retreat’ tab at the top of the page to read about our Cambridge urban retreat.

You want to try it?

Wonderful! My experience there has left me with the wish to spread the idea further afield and encourage people elsewhere to try it out. In the last couple of years, the idea has taken off and Triratna International Urban Retreats are run all over the world. Have a look at the Urban Retreat site for info about that and how to join in.