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

12 – 19 March 2021

21 Tara Practice, a retreat with Amnyi Trulchung Rinpoche
31 March – 5 April 2021

Creative Awakening Community Led Retreat
8 – 12 April 2021

Advanced Shamanic Training & Vision Quest with Dr Broomfield & Dr Sanson
16 April – 14 May 2021

Inner Wisdom and Penetrative Insight the Practice of White Manjusri
21 – 24 May 2021

Harp Meditation and Intuitive Development Retreat
4 – 6 June 2021

The Mindful Teacher Weekend with Jaime Howell
7 – 13 July 2021

Saraswati & Athena: Goddesses of Wisdom Retreat with Mira Riddiford
20 – 27 November 2021

Foundations of Samadhi: Düntün (Seven-day) Retreat with Jakob Leschly
28 December 2021 – 4 January 2022

Garden of Mindfulness Family Retreat: Star Wars & Lucid Dreaming

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Recent News

The Wangapeka on Instagram

**Happy New Year**

**Happy New Year**

Part 2 of 2 **The Earth's Deep Breathing** (contin

Part 2 of 2 **The Earth's Deep Breathing** (continued)

May we meet together to breathe in unison for the sake of our planet and all the people in it, delighting in our differences
And exploring them together
Determined to be a small part in the wholesome healing, breathing of this beautiful planet.
And we remember and are grateful for Buddha and Mohammed, and Jesus and Ghandi and Martin Luther King and Emily Pankhurst and Thic Nhat Hanh and Mother Theresa and Greta Thornburg and Whina Cooper and the greenies and those who work for refugees and crippled children
And all those who teach and nurture and love and give themselves for others
And we pray in our own way
“Give us the sight to see You in everyone
To see their beauty, their love their loss.
To let go of our need to be superior
and comfortable and have it all
So that we become love like you,
Servants like you
Bringers of peace like you
Until we see all others as our neighbours, as our family, as one of us.
So that we all, the mountains and the rivers , the seas and the lakes, the forests and the cities, the rich and the poor, the able and the disabled, the old and the young all breathe together with you in the deep rich breathing of the earth”

Marg Schrader is a Christian Minister who has been attending, and deeply influenced by, retreats at the Wangapeka since 2012

Photo: Ross Inness-McLeish

** Pilgrimage November 2017 ** # Maya Devi Temple

** Pilgrimage November 2017 ** # Maya Devi Temple - Lumbini
This photo brings out big smiles from practitioners.

On return from pilgrimage I often got the question "Did you meditate? Where?" The answer "Often in public places" was not what people expected. Here we are meditating near the Maya Devi Temple. It's a normal thing there. <smile>

# Wikipedia Says "It is the place where, according to Buddhist tradition, Queen Mahamayadevi gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama in 563 BCE"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumbini
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Devi_Temple,_Lumbini
# What's This?
A few photos from pilgrimage with Bonni and Matthew

# Photo Credit
Sarju

“Life As It Is – A Reflection” Wangapeka Fam

“Life As It Is – A Reflection”
Wangapeka Family Friendly Retreat 11 – 13 October 2019

Kia ora koutou katoa. It was with much anticipation that James and I travelled with our 9 year old daughter Lily from Wellington to Wangapeka for this family oriented retreat. Lily had been asking to return to Wangapeka, and this was the perfect opportunity.
On arrival we were greeted by the blossoms, trees, birds – the whenua/land was literally Springing to life. Kereru swooping, tui and bellbirds calling and singing, kea and weka up on the tracks.
Fortuitously there were 6 other girls of a similar age there too, and within a short space of time they were all running and playing in the courtyard together. Early on Nyima and Louise Petzold introduced us to a helpful practice that became a touchstone of the retreat – “pause (feel your feet upon the earth), breathe, smile”. The children were led by Mark Schrader into experimenting with the sounds of the different bells – feeling the resonance, tuning into our senses. There were so many fun and interesting exercises over the 2 days led by the organisers. Jane Hobday invited us all to trace the outline of our feet and colour them in with pastels and coloured pencils then cut them out. Lily traced around my feet and then her own. We then each chose places on the Wangapeka paths to place our feet as a reminder ‘bell’ for us all to pause, breathe, smile. So lovely and whimsical, whilst reaffirming the theme of becoming present. We made mandalas from sand, flowers, leaves and stones – many had been collected by the children – the sandtray mandalas were so creative, exuding life and colour. ... Overall a rich, enjoyable shared experience. Lily is now saying that Wangapeka “feels like my home”, the seed of belonging firmly planted. ... ... Catherine Gilberd (& James Herdman)

Full Text at https://wangapeka.org/life-as-it-is-retreat-a-reflection-by-catherine-gilberd/

**20/20 A Year Of Clear Vision – Poised in the P

**20/20 A Year Of Clear Vision – Poised in the Present**
Feb 14, 2020 – Feb 16, 2020
# Announcing A Wonderful Guest

We are delighted that Rob McGowan (Pa Ropata) will join us for this special time on our land. Rob is nationally respected and loved as one of the foremost authorities on rongoā Māori.
# A Wangapeka Community Event

Wangapeka has changed so many times . . . from a windy, neglected hillside to abundant forest and bush and bird life . . . from young idealists building with whatever material came to hand to skilled labour, building permits and safety rules . . . from spacious weekends where a handful gathered around the ﬁre in the Main Hall, sharing stories, to a streaming of focused activities that brings hundreds of people from all over the world every year.

From unpaid volunteer caretakers to increasingly skilled roles. An aging population of students and Teachers. Younger people ﬁnding their place in the world and at Wangapeka. Our tamariki turning into rangatahi. From the vision of Namgyal Rinpoche, the steady presence of a Tarchin and a Mike, a coming and going of visions, and caregivers, both spiritual and material.

Where are we? Where might we be going? Is it enough to rely on the resilience of the community, and the wholesome karmic strength of 40+ years of navigating the challenges and opportunities? Is it even possible, with the powerful, unpredictable changes happening to our world, to wonder what might emerge from what we are now?

Let’s see! A weekend of reﬂection, of sharing, of exploring the forces of change, imagining and dreaming–crafted by the Clear Vision Team and the Board of Trustees, and everyone who shows up. Everyone connected with the Wangapeka is welcome.

# Costs

This is a Wangapeka community event, and the Wangapeka Educational Trust Board would like to offer accommodation by dana / Koha.

There is a $60 charge for this weekend to cover food and cooks fee. Please bring dana for accommodation, and for the 20/20 A YEAR OF CLEAR VISION Project.

# Contact

Course manager: Jane Hobday jane.hobday17@gmail.com

# Register

https://wangapeka.org/registration-form/

View from unit # 6 on December 7, 2019 A spot of

View from unit # 6 on December 7, 2019
A spot of sun just after the storm ❤️ Credit: Iain

Teamwork #retreat #dharma #lovingkindness #medita

Teamwork

#retreat #dharma #lovingkindness #meditation

**A Fruitful Springtime of Community** by Jaime an

**A Fruitful Springtime of Community** by Jaime and Juliana

Excerpts from A Fruitful Spring Time Of Community… The Immeasurable School in Brazil by Jaime Howell and Juliana Griese “My wish is that more young people have the opportunity to be supported and uplifted by this type of work. It is good medicine for our whole world.” Kushla 2019 Participant

Here you find yourself on the threshold of mingling with a story. We think this is a good story to know and share. It is about young people finding refuge in a contemporary way, wrestling the questions of how to live well on an arguably troubled earth.

The Immeasurable School is supporting capable, creative, compassionate, confident young beings with standing and voice. During our time in Brazil we danced and cried as we were stretched to include it all in the embrace of love, clear seeing and patience. It was wonderfully fresh and enlivening to leave the shore of the known and journey into the heart of dharma in this foreign land.

What is the school about? Why Brazil? Who came? What did we do? What are the outcomes through the voices of the participants? What next?

For more information about the School please visit www.openingminds.co.nz/blog

I’m leaving this school with a felt sense understanding of belonging within life, a sense on how to live and commune well in the world, a confidence on how to face the challenges of our time, an aspiration of meeting everything with kindness and interest. A deeper appreciation for life and friends on the path – Julian Schwob 2019 participant

**Mindfulness and More** with Tarchin Hearn Feb 21

**Mindfulness and More** with Tarchin Hearn
Feb 21, 2020 – Mar 15, 2020

A fusion of wisdom, compassion and healthy community

Three Weeks of Contemplative Exploration with Tarchin Hearn

The heart of mindfulness – love and clear seeing – arises out of the life and living that we are. Everything interconnects. Relationship is the foundation of beingness and in this we are simultaneously ancient and timelessly fresh. Continuously gestating, a womb of thusness, this world and universe is our primordial mother.

Mindfulness is far more than a meditation technique, it is a way of wisdom that flowers naturally from the earth of a healthy world. Cultivating mindfulness we reconnect with the wider life of the planet and realise our true home.

It begins as a stirring, a breath of wonder, a moment of intuition,

a quiet knowing of rightness

an insight you didn’t know you always knew.

Everything is interdependent with everything.

Awesome.

We sit with the implications.

We collide with the world not seeing this.

And through that painful tragic crashing

A yearning for refuge and a desire to live meaningfully becomes strong.

Details proliferate; generosity, wholesome relating, patience, skilled use of energy,

A blossoming of caring and enquiry,

an inherent inquisitiveness, precise and playful

And we discover a new way of life and living.

Exploring embodiment

Exploring en-mindment

Dancings of knowings responding to and with dancings of knowings,

Glimmerings of understanding, mind and knowing, and the interbeing nature of experience.

Dawnings of confidence and capacity

Solid in beingness

Perfumed with loving, wise relating

A life-long journey of maturing into humanness, as we release into the mystery,

striding beyond paths and pathways

Seamless, ineffable, spacious and open, this body of dharma,

compassion unfolding

celebrating the ordinary with lightness and wisdom

we realise true home.

# Course manager

Juliana Griese: jugriese@gmail.com

Part 1 of 2 ** The Earth's Deep Breathing** Marg S

Part 1 of 2 ** The Earth's Deep Breathing** Marg Schrader

The earth’s deep breathing and I am part of it.
Lying flat on the solid ground, feeling myriads of life forms moving around me, under me, about me, above me.
Feeling the trees swaying, the birds singing, the wind gently blowing.
Seeing the beautiful blue sky with the fluffy cumulus clouds
So lovely. Stretching out to north and south and east and west
Noticing arid deserts
Snow-capped mountains
Wooded fields
Beautiful lakes.
The places where we have devastated the land, the seas, the lakes, the forests.
The shining gems of people working to call us back to fullness of life.
The wars, the killings and lethal devastation over religion, over land, over our rights and not yours.
The Trumps and the Putin’s and the Johnsons Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un those who follow because it suits them best.
Those of us who cry with pain and frustration
Those whose lives have been devastated by others.
Those who give their lives and their love and their breathing for others, for peace, for the saving of the earth, for the unity of Spirit.
And the earth still breathes
And I am part of it for good and for evil.
And God is: whether called Yahweh or Allah or Attah or Vishnu or Ganesh or…

Photo: Ross Inness-McLeish

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