Dear Friends, Starting 10th May 2025, Burgs will be offering the second part of our journey into the "Art of Concentration". Having developed the preparatory skills in concentration practice through anapana (meditating on the breath), session 2 will move on and develop further the subtlety and stability of our concentration as well as the flexibility and malleability of our mind through learning a whole series of detailed meditations on the body. These wonderful practices not only serve as a training ground for deeper concentration but also give a wonderful opportunity to heal the body through our meditation. The mechanism for this is something we will also discuss as the course progresses.
To join this programme, there is an initial registration fee of £50 after which you will be invited to make a donation at the end of the session according to your means. The suggested donation at the end of the session is £150. This is at your discretion and we ask that you give according to your means. In this way we hope that each of you will feel able to participate for as long as is appropriate for your own needs. It is an enormous field of endeavour and some of you may want to take breaks between its various modules so that your actual practice might keep pace with the teachings being shared. Registration is now open and the first lesson will be published on the weekend of Saturday 10th May 2025. It is not required that you have completed Session 1 to join session 2.
Learning to Deeply ConcentrateWithin the context of our modern daily life, the ability to concentrate is finally being seen as the counterpoint to the scattering of our ability to pay attention. This is something that Burgs has been highlighting since he first started teaching. Building concentration is the point at which we turn meditation from being a daily practice into an art. It's the point at which we turn our meditation into a craft, and it's the practice that opens the doorway to the deeper states of consciousness that we might have read about but which may have eluded us, even after meditating for many years. Concentration is the mechanism by which our mind goes from an ordinary pair of eyes into a magnifying glass, gradually into a microscope. It allows us to turn inwards more deeply and discern in more detail what actually is going on within our experience of life. For those of you who missed out on joining the Art of Concentration Session 1, you can join this rerun of the course now. This uses meditation on the breath (anapana) to start developing deeper concentration. To join this programme, there is an initial registration fee of £100 after which you will be invited to make a donation at the end of the session according to your means. The suggested donation at the end of the session is £100 but this is at your discretion and we ask that you give according to your means.
Registration is now open and you can start immediately as this is a self-paced course. The course material will remain available to you until September 2025. We will be writing again soon with more information about in-person retreats to be hosted later this year. much metta The AoM Team |
Dear friends, I thought would write personally to you this month with a brief update on what's been happening and what's coming up at AoM. We have just finished our first Thangka Drawing and Devotional practices retreat in Portugal. It was a really special and unique event and something I will definitely be repeating next year as it gave me an opportunity to share teachings that I don't often have the chance to share. The combination of devotion, art and meditation proved to be a profoundly...
Dear friends, Now that summer is in full swing, we would like to update you on our schedule for the rest of the year at our amazing new retreat venue, Brahma Vihara, in Portugal. One aspect to the vision behind opening this dedicated retreat centre is to create new opportunities to work in a more intimate environment than our large UK based retreats can offer. In particular we are hoping to appeal to those wishing to connect and develop a deeper connection to their practice and the healing...
Dear friends, This September we will be hosting a very special and unique retreat experience in Portugal. Retreat date - 4th - 13th September 2025Venue - Brahma Vihara, North PortugalGroup size - max 12 people During his rehabilitation from brain trauma over the last few years, Burgs found that engaging in art, calligraphy and various other crafts extremely helpful in resetting his system from a 'fight or flight' mode to one which was more settled and grounded. His experiences with this has...