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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Yielding by Zoe Buchanan On Lama Mark / Jonathan

Yielding by Zoe Buchanan

On Lama Mark / Jonathan Chambers retreat 2020

** The Heart Sutra – A Weekend with Matthew Eade

** The Heart Sutra – A Weekend with Matthew Eades ** Friday 26th June to Sunday 28th June 2020
The Heart Sutra is one of the most profound and influential teachings of the Mahayana Path. In its many variations it lays out the essence of the path to full awakening. So profound is the environment that is envisaged that it is often referred to as “ the Mother of the Buddhas”. In this short weekend we will touch on some of the ways of encouraging the conditions that will help this environment flourish by exploring some of the meditative pathways that have been developed over the last two millennia. This weekend is accessible to all practitioners. It also acts as a seal on the four week study course on the Heart Sutra that will be offered in Nelson in June.

# Course Costs

This includes food, accommodation & resource fee.

Wangapeka Members – $164

Non-members – $184

The Teaching is given freely although you are welcome to offer dana “a gift freely and joyfully given”, to Matthew

For more information please contact Mark Schrader (Course Manager) schrader.mark@gmail.com

# Matthew Eades

Matthew is a seasoned practitioner who has been weaving the principles of Buddhadharma into his life for over 45 years. His formal training came primarily under the auspices of the Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche, culminating in a three year dedicated teacher training program in the mid1980’s. Since then he has structured his life to support and sustain the teachings of awakening in a more directed fashion, working primarily with his partner Bonni Ross to expand the experience of transformation in everyday life for all beings.

# Register

To register please fill out our online registration form
https://wangapeka.org/about/registration-form/

** April Colours ** The Whare photo credit: Lily

** April Colours ** The Whare

photo credit: Lily Redgrave

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

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

** Wangapeka Elders Lunch by Mark Schrader ** *L-R

** Wangapeka Elders Lunch by Mark Schrader ** *L-R Mary Jenkins, Tarchin Hearn, Shelley Szybowski, Mark Schrader, Bonni Ross, Matthew Eades, Keith Rowan*
On Thursday 19 March 2020, a unique occurrence involving a small group of dedicated Dharma folk with strong links to the Wangapeka Study & Retreat Centre met in Nelson.

This was the first time this particular configuration of Wangapeka Elders had met with all seven being present, including the three relatively new Elders (Matthew, Shelley & Mark). It is unknown if the opportunity for all seven to meet again will happen, so it was great that the planets and stars aligned up to allow this to occur this time.

There was no great agenda set for our meeting, just the opportunity to meet, share some ideas and simply be together for a few hours.
The role of Elders began about a decade ago with their primary role focused on providing support to the Centre and Wangapeka members as the need or cause arose.

It is pleasing to know that what did evolve from our gathering on 19 March was the affirmation of this commitment to continue this support for Wangapeka and its Sangha.

**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/

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

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

My feelings about the weekend spent at the Wangapeka weekend are the following: * Gratitude and wonder at the chance to hear Rob McGowan speak. A wonderful but hard lesson given by a supremely well informed, inspired man of true humility. * A yearning feeling, bordering on exclusion, that I cannot be a "regular" at the Wangapeka, because of dividing my year between the Netherlands and New Zealand... Yet an awakening feeling of Community, to be taken and experienced wherever I am. Tribe is where the heart is, I have discovered. * Because of living not only locally, I longed for more guidance of how to face the radical changes to come elswewhere than in the Wangapeka. I got some answers, for which I am grateful.
Thank you so much!

** 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

**A ‘What If?’ Poem** By Ross Inness-McLeish

**A ‘What If?’ Poem** By Ross Inness-McLeish

What if your attention was a love song?
Your awareness a holy offering.
Indeed, the most holy of all offerings.
What if your attention was the greatest gift you have to give? Great enough to transform your humble breath
And your simple footfall into a passionate kiss for the wild Earth. And what if loneliness was just a dream
And lovelessness an illusion?
For what if the sun had forever been loving you
With each moment of light, and the moon,
And even the darkness too.
And the earth and her million glories had always been holding you In a seamless embrace.
And what if you loved like that also?
Loved this life so fiercely you saw beauty in the ugliest of places? And wounds became wonders.
If you loved so much that even pain had a purpose.
If even the most terrible of things would find a place to rest
At last in your heart.
What if all this earth really needed was for us to remember?
For us to be here,
Really be here.
For our hearts to open like the spiralling arms of a galaxy.
For us to surrender our tight bones into turquoise seas
And to gather together in the high mountain pass
And circle around the fire
And beneath the mandala of the trees.
And for our tears to rain freely on all the seeds patiently waiting. What if our attention was a love song?
Our awareness a holy offering
And this moment and every moment
A kiss for the passionate Earth.

photo:unsplash

Birdie Sattva A great Wangapeka photo <heart> cr

Birdie Sattva

A great Wangapeka photo <heart>

credit: Jaimie Howell

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