On this page we have a brief explanation of our next retreats with links to get more information. For the long retreats we have more information on the site, for the shorter (day or weekend) events please register your interest for more information via email.
In addition to SanghaSeva's own retreats we are also listing events we wish to promote that closely share our vision of an integrated practice. They are being offered by independent organisations we resonate with, and/or run by SanghaSeva facilitators. To make this as clear as possible they are listed under the heading SanghaSeva Supports. These are not adverts, and no money or favours have changed hands in creating this expanded listing.
“There Is No Way to Peace, Peace Is the Way” - A.J. Muste
This day retreat reaches out beyond the walls that separate Israelis from Palestinians; both walls
built by human hands and those built within us.
They are an opportunity to directly express our basic human goodness.
This is a chance to contribute to peace by offering acts of solidarity and hope.
We have been running Being Peace retreats in Israel and Palestine since 2006, and over nearly 15 years we have established a relationship of trust and friendship in the villages and communities we work with. These day retreats are a way of keeping this peace building process going. We're really overjoyed to be joining with Engaged Dharma how have been working in this area of bringing their social action and creative meditation practice to the front lines of engagement for many years.
On this day we will head into the olive groves and fields of Palestine and participate in some tree planting.
By not allowing ourselves to be limited by the constructed roles we have been taught to play, we can directly express our human goodness ourselves. This is a chance to experience the situation more directly; beyond stereotypes, media images and fearful projections. Although this can sound challenging we find this unfolds as a time of deep healing, inspiration, and hope.
Our wish is to bring support and understanding to all those living in this conflict, and to make the
meeting of Jews and Arabs, Israeli and Palestinian, an easy reality.
We hope to bring more understanding, more compassion and more peace, both to the moments of the retreat
and to the situation as a whole.
We see this on one hand as a shortened version of the Being Peace retreat that normally happens during the olive harvest. Yet in another way this is a brand new happening that we hope you will join and help co-create and shape with us.
The retreat days will be facilitated by Nathan Glyde and Zohar Lavie from SanghaSeva, and Aviv Tatarsky and Shlomit Lapid from Engaged Dharma.
If you are interested in exploring what it is to "Be Peace":
להרשמה ולקבלתלהרשמה ומידע נוסף על יום העבודה בעברית
Register your interest for the Being Peace retreat day to receive more information in English.
To more easily accommodate everyone we will have a group that meets and practices from 8am Central time in US and Canada, and another that starts at 8am UK time. The retreat days will have the same form, but please register for the one in your most convenient time zone.
“There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.” -
Wendell Berry
This retreat is an opportunity to meet together online to support working for good in our
locality.
By tuning into the feeling of sangha as a community of support, we can go beyond what we feel is
possible alone.
This is a chance to experience being empowered to act from our heart’s deepest wishes, and go beyond the
human habitual norms of care in our actions.
The first style of Sacred Places retreats will be a clean up. We will have a day of action in each of our local areas, perhaps you’ve already noticed a nature spot you would love to see cleaner than it is right now.
If you’re near an ocean or a waterway, a woodland or fields, or a scrubland or a side of road, you will have noticed and can feel how our human nature is living in mother nature. This living planet is home to countless other beings, and it is time to act for them too.
Human lifestyles generate quite a lot of waste, some of this escapes the waste collection system and collects instead in areas of natural beauty. We're not just talking about the countryside – even a flower by the side of the road is beautiful and natural.
During the time of Covid we have seen a slipping back from the progress we’ve made in recycling and plastic reduction. This is understandable, thinking of the environment is hard when we’re in a panic or a pandemic. Yet when plastic isn’t taken care of well it finds its way through our streets towards the sea. It's not hard to see the impact of our decreased care and consideration around plastics along our shorelines and riverbanks.
Let’s work together remotely yet deeply connected to each other and to great nature to make these desecrated (neglected) places sacred again for all beings.
We'll meet in the morning via a Zoom call to establish our connection as a community of actors. We’ll have a meditation session together and a time for sharing our intentions. Then spend the day with the activity of cleaning. In the afternoon/evening we’ll meet again to share how our day has been: what we’ve learned, achieved, and transformed. Then we’ll close with a meditation.
This is the fifth in a series of retreats that will take place remotely yet supported with a feeling of togetherness. If this works successfully we will later open to humanitarian issues and activities in other fields. Each event will be treated as an individual event, and registration for each day of action does not require former attendance on other Sacred Places days.
The Sacred Places retreat in European time zones will be facilitated by Julia Wallond and Gareth
Fysh-Foskett.
Register your interest in Sacred
Places European time zones to receive more information.
The Sacred Places retreat in North American time zones will be facilitated by Deanna Burkett.
Register your interest in Sacred
Places North American time zone to receive more information.
Read more about SanghaSeva's facilitators.
Visit DependentOrigination.org for more information about Zohar and Nathan's silent retreat schedule.