Life As It Is 2025

Date

05 - 07 Sep 2025

Time

5:00 pm - 2:00 pm

“Natural Goodness”

 

Life As It Is offers families a unique chance to pause – to carve out intentional space in busy family lives, to feel into and attend to what is most important for us, and to enjoy being supported by a place and a community that have been dedicated to spiritual enquiry for 50 years.

How can meditation practice and a deep commitment to contributing to a healthier, saner world share space with the joy and chaos of family life?

Together we will practice weaving our inner and outer lives together, infusing them with our deep heart of aspiration for ourselves and for our world. We will be supported by the teachings of Buddhadharma – insights and methods that help us build confidence, contentment, and the capacity to meet with whatever arises with our whole being.

This year we will be exploring the theme of ‘Natural Goodness’. All beings are born with natural goodness and the same innate potential for deep unfolding. Children naturally demonstrate this to us! They can be such wonderful reminders of what we have all had since birth, but may lose touch with from time to time. How can we nurture this potential in ourselves, our own children, and in all beings? Together we will explore and enjoy being reminders and reflections for each other, of goodness, kindness, joy, and love, for the benefit of all.

The weekend will consist of group practice time, fun and explorations, children’s activities, and space to be immersed in the oasis of calm that the Centre and the whenua offers.

The weekend is facilitated by Louise Petzold and Chani Grieve, both committed practitioners weaving the deepening enquiry of dharma with family and community life.

Children’s activities will be facilitated by Nyima Petzold.

For more details contact louise.petzold01@gmail.com

Costs

Members: $204

Non-members : $224

Children:

4 years and under – free

5-13yrs : $61

14 years and over adult prices

For any assistance with accommodation costs please email info@wangapeka.org

Costs include all food and accommodation, cook’s fee, and a small resource fee. Costs do not include Dana for the facilitators. Louise and Chani offer their time and skills freely. You are invited to make a Dana offering, from the heart, according to your means.

 

Information and Registration

To register please fill out our online registration form

Register now

 

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

Category

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


Sign up for Master list

©2024 The Wangapeka Study and Retreat Cenre