Week retreat with Victor von der Heyde – 2024

Emptiness and the Mysteries of Imaginal Perception: 7 day silent Insight Meditation Retreat

This retreat is an introduction to imaginal practice, sometimes called soul-making dharma.

The practices and understandings will follow the teachings of the English meditation teacher Rob Burbea (1965 - 2020). He wrote the book Seeing That Frees and gave around two hundred talks on imaginal practice.

Soul-making is most likely a new area for many people. It starts with exploring aspects of our personal experience or images that may have some sense of sacredness, or meaning for us.  Or where we feel some sense of reverence, or an unfathomable quality, or a sense of beauty. It uses the  quietness and discernment that can happen in meditation to explore the realm of the soulful or meaningful. Many people find this realm enlivening and nourishing and find it broadens their understanding of what meditation can be about.

Imaginal practice is based in part on the Buddhist understanding of emptiness. Put very simply, emptiness is the understanding that what we think of as real or unreal is dependent on the way of looking.

The retreat will begin with mindfulness and samadhi meditations. We’ll spend time with practices that can help with an understanding of emptiness and feeling less bound up, and then we’ll move on to imaginal practices.

People will have the choice of spending more time with images or more time with practices they might be more familiar with, like those that lead to calmness and insight.

There will be talks giving an understanding of what we’re doing and what to look out for and periods for Q&A.

Accommodation

The Gathering Place has 12 simple, comfortable bedrooms and retreat facilities, a large beautiful garden and is close to the Dickson wetlands and bush walking areas of Mt Ainslie and Mt Majura. You can choose between residential or non-residential options (participate fully in the retreat and go home to sleep at night).

Each bedroom has a single bed, cupboard, desk, chair, lamp, mirror and sink. All beds have electric blankets, doonas, pillows and 2 spare blankets. There are shared unisex bathrooms and toilets.

Cost

There are limited spaces on this retreat due to the size of the retreat centre, so please book early to avoid disappointment. We will keep a wait list for anyone who misses out. Cancellations do occur, and we will contact anyone on the wait list as soon as possible.

Residential: for all meals, and accommodation $1140 (GST inclusive)
Non-residential: for all meals, sleeping at home or in Campervan at night $615 (GST inclusive)
Optional linen hire: $20 per person for the entire retreat (top and bottom sheets, pillow case, towel and face washer), or bring your own linen for no additional fee

Additional Cost: Dana
In keeping with a 2,500 year old tradition no fee has been charged for the teachings. At the end of the retreat you are invited to give a donation (dana) to express your appreciation and to support the teacher to continue their work.

Program

The retreat program consists of sitting, walking and guided meditations, meditation instruction and dharma talks, group and individual meetings with teachers and daily gentle yoga/exercise sessions and unscheduled time to meditate, rest, walk.

The retreat will be in silence apart from necessary communication.
There'll also be a 45 minute work period each day to help with food preparation, washing up and general cleaning.

Daily Schedule

In approximately two sitting periods each day there will be some instruction from Victor.

• Early morning yoga/exercise period, followed by silent sit
• Breakfast
• Work period (food prep, cleaning or gardening)
• Alternating sitting/walking
• Teacher interviews/groups on some days
• Lunch
• Rest/free time
• Alternating sitting/walking
• Possible short yoga before dinner
• Dinner & clean up
• Dharma talk and practice

The Teacher

Victor von der Heyde has been practising meditation for thirty five years. He's spent over two years in total in silent retreats and has taken dharma teaching roles since the mid 1990s. He was co-founder of Sydney Insight Meditators and of the Bodhgaya Development Association. He was a student, friend and supporter of Rob Burbea (1965 - 2020) from 2012 to 2020. Visit Dharma.org.au

Your health and Covid protocols

We follow ACT and federal Health Guidelines. Please consider the well being of other participants, and take a RAT test before coming if you experience covid/flu like symptoms or are in close contact with someone with COVID.

Cancellation policy

Cancellation prior to 4 September: full refund minus $75 admin fee)
Cancellation after 4 September: 50% refund (minus $75 admin fee) unless someone takes your place. This cancellation policy is applied because suppliers and caterers must be paid well in advance and it is often difficult to fill retreat places at short notice due to the time commitments involved.
Cancellation after 18 September: no refund unless someone takes your place

All cancellations incur an admin fee, this is a non refundable amount charged to partially cover admin costs.