Buddhism offers a radically different approach to happiness than most of the world around us. Rather than consume, polarize and fix samsara, it speaks of happiness as a different kind of freedom, openness and ease, arising out of love and insight.

Yet, what does this actually mean in direct experience? This is what we will explore on this retreat.

Using both traditional Dharma teachings and more modern understandings from neuroscience, psychology and myths, we invite you to join us in an intensive meditative exploration of how to be happy the Buddhist way.

We will play with what happens when we step out of our usual habits and ways of being in the world, into an invitation to explore the gap between experience and our reactions to it and learn to cultivate awareness, love, curiosity, and above all, wisdom.

Can we choose something wiser, more loving? Can we become more free? Can we really learn how to be happy in the way the Buddha has told us about?

Having this human condition as our starting point, honoring our embodiment and respecting the modern lives we live here and now, we will open to love and curiosity with a particular focus on cultivating happiness and ease.

This gives the perfect soil for looking directly at experience and how the Dharma teaches us both about conditioned and unconditioned ways of cultivating happiness and freedom, and ultimately invites us to let go of all we have previously held on to in our search for happiness.

The teaching style is informal and will be more interactive at the start of the retreat, allowing for the teachings to be applied individually and dynamically. As the retreat proceeds, we will move into a deeper silence where new insights can unfold and -perhaps – even great happiness can arise!

Join us for this exploration of happiness, held with the support of our retreat community and the beauty of Vajraloka in summer.