Date

10 - 24 Jan 2025

Time

5:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Stardust, Starlight with Bonni Ross

What’s a Human Being made of? What are we for?

This is a love song to the Star One,
and all the precious friends and worthy opponents
who hold Buddhadharma in their hearts to
nurture and protect islands of sanity
for the benefit of all.

January 10 to 24, 2025

 

On our planet, Sakyamuni Buddha declared that human beings are the only life form that is capable of enlightenment. This capacity in human consciousness gives us immense power, which supports selfish or altruistic activity. All the goodness and distortion we experience in this reality, on this world, is the result of values-based choices made by human beings, the alpha species on our planet.

We’ll start with singularity, a dimensionless point containing all the elements necessary for the creation of a Universe, some 13.8 billion years ago. We’ll travel at warp speed through Universe unfolding, culminating in 2025, our here and now. With experiential understanding through mind expansion — in the boundless states of meditation, embodied feeling and conceptual knowledge — we may glimpse the vast interconnected expanse from which human consciousness is woven.

This retreat will be predominantly silent. In addition to meditation instruction, individual and group practice and opportunity to ask questions, there will be time to immerse ourselves in the supportive natural environment of the Wangapeka.

The terrain is quite rugged and participants should be in reasonably good physical and mental health to enjoy the challenges, inner and outer, of life at Wangapeka.

About Bonni Ross

Bonni Ross has taught at the Wangapeka Study and Retreat Centre for 30 years and is a deeply respected Centre Elder. The Dharma teachings she shares, both in the community and through leading meditation retreats, stem from decades of meditation experience and intensive study with her main teacher Namgyal Rinpoche. Encouragement from His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, teachings from many great Buddhist masters, as well as innovative artists, scientists, philosophers and mystery writers have fuelled the quest. With her partner, Matthew Eades, she founded the Sunshine Coast Retreat Centre in 2002 before moving to Nelson in 2017 where she has initiated, guided and supported a wide range of innovative ways to share teachings of liberation. Bonni is a mother and grandmother with a deeply practical, integrated presentation of ancient wisdom.

Costs

Costs include accommodation in a single room, meals, cooks fee and resource fee. It does not include dana to the teacher.

Rooms and huts
Members: $1320
Non members: $1460

Camping
Members: $1026
Non members: $1068

The Sangha Support Fund may be able to help with accommodation costs in cases of financial hardship. Sangha Support information.

About dana

These priceless teachings can’t be quantified in monetary terms. Liberation teachings have always been given freely by Bonni.

An offering can be made to the teacher, traditionally at the beginning of the retreat, and is a profound practice in itself. Giving can help us open; and through an open-hearted state of receptivity, we can find ourselves more able to receive.

Giving as generously as you can enables Bonni to continue sharing the precious Buddhadharma for the benefit of all.

Information and Registration

For further information contact the course manager Jane jane.hobday17@gmail.com

To register please fill out our online registration form

Register now

If using Paypal please add 5% of the total cost and include with your payment to cover Paypal’s fees.

Please consider becoming a Wangapeka member – click here for details.

Welcome to the Wangapeka Study and Retreat Centre. People visit from all over the world to meditate and enjoy the peace of this remarkable destination. The Wangapeka is a purpose built retreat centre, with fresh, clean air and beautiful vistas. It is very quiet and ideal for respite, stress relief and deep meditation. Delightfully rustic, we have a meditation hall, solo retreat huts, a main hall for dining and community, and a fully catered kitchen and an onsite vegetable garden.

The Wangapeka Study and Retreat Meditation Centre is a Universalist centre home to a wide range of teachings, paths, and studies. Retreats are held on Mindfulness, Vipassana, Insight, Buddhism, Heart-based practices, Loving Kindness, Calm-abiding, Metta, Compassion, Conscious Movement, Nature, Forest Walks, Yoga, Dance, Feldenkrais, Wellness, Wellbeing, Archetypal Integration, Western Mysticism, Non-Duality, Zen, Dzogchen, Mahamudra, Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings with Empowerments and Sadhana Practice.

The Wangapeka Centre is located in the foothills of the Southern Alps overlooking the Wangapeka River, about an hour and a half drive SW of Nelson, in the South Island of New Zealand.

We have meditation retreats throughout the year, have huts available for solo retreats, and welcome bookings from external groups. There are also opportunities available to work on our land. Come and enjoy this uniquely vibrant and peaceful centre.

355 Wangapeka River Rd
R.D.2. Wakefield 7096
New Zealand
Phone: +64 3 522 4221
info@wangapeka.org


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