Welcome! The Wangapeka Study and Meditation Retreat Centre in New Zealand

The beautiful Wangapeka Study and Retreat Meditation Centre runs retreats and events throughout the year. We welcome external bookings and solo retreats.

View our Programme

Upcoming Events

March - May

Wangapeka Centre re-opening 5th June. (updated May 20)
5 – 12 June 2020

The Wisdom of Angelic Archetypes: A Meditation Retreat with Mira Riddiford
19 - 21 June 2020

Simple Goodness - Loving Kindness with Kath Mitchell
26 - 28 June 2020

The Heart Sutra - A Weekend with Matthew Eades
3 - 5 July 2020

A Ritual Fasting 1,000 Armed Chenreizig Retreat with Bonni Ross
17 - 19 July 2020

Life as It Is 2020, a Family Friendly Community Retreat - New Dates
31 July - 4 August 2020

Chenrezig Meditation Retreat with Mark Schrader
14 – 16 August 2020

Every Precious Moment - Mindfulness of Death, Impermanence & Uncertainty
21 - 23 August 2020

Explorations and Mindfulness on the Nature of Wangapeka
28 - 30 August 2020

Don't Just Do Something. Sit there! 2020
15 - 21 October 2020

Coming Down to Earth - At Home in the Body, At Home in the World
29 October – 2 November 2020

Advanced Shamanic Training & Vision Quest with Dr. John Broomfield
28 December 2020 – 4 January 2021

Garden of Mindfulness Family Retreat: Alice in Wonderland Edition

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Recent News

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** Wangapeka Elders ** Keith Rowan enjoying a beau

** Wangapeka Elders ** Keith Rowan enjoying a beautiful day.

** Mindfulness and More - A Retreat Review - by Ja

** Mindfulness and More - A Retreat Review - by Jamie Howell** --- I am animate.
I am an animal.
I am born from life and living
And so, dear friend, are you.
Everything we experience reverberates with these truths.

Tarchin Hearn --- Words shared with us in the intimacy of land, love and learning. Mindfulness and More, a three week retreat with Tarchin Hearn at Wangapeka Study and Retreat Centre.

Do the cicadas know we are on retreat? Alas even their riot of life bringing rhythms began to slow down and on occasion pause as the weather cooled. We too began cooling, slowing, finding pauses, agendas dissolving in natures initiation to presence.

Words do not easily convey the magnanimity of a view offered during these days and weeks. Hints and feelings for an impossible possibility to open into everything, a state of deep listening and inquiry. For those who have experienced retreat, you know something about the wonder that happens when we human creatures slow down. A process of noticing as if for the first time ordinary miracles of the natural world. Between the microscope and the star blazing dark skies, we rested, inquired and began to reconnect with a capacity for appreciation.

At the beginning Tarchin said something like… “A lot of people enter a retreat operating as if in a world of things.” The statement gave rise to the question, how can we sometimes busy humans get a feeling for living in a seamless, ceaseless, multi-realmed dynamic of relating? And so it appears we all signed up for a relationship retreat, apprentices to the knowing/doing kinaesthetic arts of intimacy with life and living.

# Link To Full Article

This article has been shortened per Facebook and Instagram limits. The full article can be found here https://www.wangapeka.org/mindfulness-and-more-a-review-by-jaime-howell/

**Retreat in a Time of Covid 19** by Karenza “Re

**Retreat in a Time of Covid 19**
by Karenza “Resting in Shelter”
As Lama had to leave in a hurry I felt really disappointed and sad. However.....
... Jonathon rose to the occasion with a steady, calm confidence. The five days we had were very settled and got into retreat mode quickly. It was really valuable.

A huge thanks to the Wangapeka community for keeping us informed and for their quiet non-intrusive presence.

Warmth,
Karenza

Lunch #retreat #dharma #meditation #food

Lunch

#retreat #dharma #meditation #food

** Summer Sitting Spots ** The deck at Namgyal hut

** Summer Sitting Spots ** The deck at Namgyal hut. The picture says it all.

Birdie Sattva A great Wangapeka photo <heart> cr

Birdie Sattva

A great Wangapeka photo <heart>

credit: Jaimie Howell

** A Review of "Poised in the Present" ** by Diane

** A Review of "Poised in the Present" **
by Diane Johnstone

February 14th 2020, Valentines Day for many, saw our whanau of four travelling to the wonderful Wangapeka for a very heartfelt and community centred retreat - "Poised in the Present." Expertly crafted by the 2020 Year of Clear Vision Team along with special guest Rob McGowan, one of the foremost authorities on rongoā Māori, 35 + people gathered for an incredible weekend that continues to flow and unfold in unexpected and delightful ways. Many voices were heard within nourishing sharing circles and a very deep connection to the land was quickly established as we walked the whenua together. Rob introduced us to several medicinal plants which were then prepared in the Wangapeka kitchen and shared with all who were present. Unexpectedly delicious!

The Wangapeka community was gifted the story of "Tiwaiwaka". In essence: healing the spirit of the land and the much needed reminder of "mahi tahi" - working as one. Rich storytelling, deep listening and new connections made with both each other and this incredible earth created a very special weekend that our whanau will long remember.

** All Space is Pervaded by Love** by Elli Yates

** All Space is Pervaded by Love** by Elli Yates

Closer to the ground than I’d expected and burrowed deep in the trunk of the body, the heart centre was revealed to me slowly over the course of the two week Boundless Embrace retreat with Bonni Ross. Beginning to work with this space was challenging for me at first; the words ‘strained’ and ‘constricted’ came up. It turns out I was more tightly closed than I thought. Who knew?

And that was the first gift of Boundless Embrace: beginner’s mind. This was a process of recognising and allowing all the tightness in my being, the result of seeds planted (mostly) well before this little life began. Here I was invited to sit with sensation at the centre - my newly found heart - and get friendly. A big ask! But as I reconciled myself to the instruction, I began relaxing into the beautiful sangha and multi-layered support of the whenua beneath. I started at the start and I didn’t cut corners. I let the newness of each sit be real. And I found that no matter what arose, however uncomfortable, the ground stayed there. Returning to the relationship between body and ground over and over and over, each time as if it was my first discovery of it, enabled me to sit alongside the pain and greet it like a new friend. Employing friendliness, I watched pain change into new and interesting sensations. I expressed the sensations using colour and form, and started again. Sometimes I felt very shy about doing this, but ultimately I had the feeling that underneath the flux of sensation was someone worth getting to know. ... The whole article can be found at - https://www.wangapeka.org/all-of-space-is-pervaded-with-love-by-elli-yates/

photo by Iain

Covered in rainbow light Sometimes caretakers nee

Covered in rainbow light

Sometimes caretakers need caretaking ❤️ Photo by Amber

**A Circle of Blessing** I pray to the wetlands, I

**A Circle of Blessing** I pray to the wetlands,
I pray to the deserts,
Include me in your embrace.

I pray to the rainforests,
to the grasslands,
to the tundra and the boreal forests,
Bless our families with health, curiosity, and great compassion.

I pray to the coral reefs,
to the tidal fringes,
to estuaries, deltas, benthic depths and the great oceanic empty zones,
be firm in the midst of our extending human madness.

I pray to the volcanic hot zones and the boiling mud pools
to the icy caps and mountain peaks,
to rolling hill country,
rills and rivers, creeks and braided waterways,
pray care for this adolescent tribe.
Heal our rambunctious self infatuation,
our tunnel vision and above all,
our blinkered pride.

I pray to the living wind and rain,
to the sun, moon, planets and stars,
all my cousins near and far,
pray wrap us in your solicitude.

My eyes are moist,
a vulnerable striped bareness,
remembering this communion deep and wide.
How to name it? . . .
joy? sadness? frustration? awe? confusion? reverence? gratitude? love?
We belong with each other.

Feeling your feeling
Sensing your sensing
We are woven intimacies, through and through.
We are alive.
We are blessed.
We are spacious and luminous.
We gaze at stars and empty vastness, and feel our fluid bones;
a great symphonic cry of longing and joy,
a dancing of solidity, flux and knowing,
histories revealing, stories concealing,
I care for you all
Each and every part,
and every moment of every part,
all included,
nothing ignored.

We are life,
praying with life,
to life,
for life,
in all its abundance –

We are a circle of blessing.
We are suchness
beyond words. © Tarchin Hearn, Aug 17/12 – Orgyen Hermitage

https://greendharmatreasury.org/2013/02/06/a-circle-of-blessing/

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