The main retreat page explains the training itself. The Sutta-for-Retreats library provides the textual foundation. This guide is deliberately practical. It answers the participant’s questions from the moment of considering an application until the return home.
Read it before registration, read it again after acceptance, and return to the relevant section whenever a practical question arises. The aim is to reduce uncertainty so that retreat time can be used for cultivation rather than repeated logistical clarification.
01Before You Apply
Understand what you are applying for
This is an intensive residential Dhamma training retreat, not a general wellness break, spiritual holiday, social gathering, or programme in which the teacher continuously directs every hour. Participants are expected to sustain the assigned training independently for substantial portions of the day.
Complete the preparation first
- read the current retreat description and its training framework
- work through the seven preparation questions before applying
- be familiar with the regular sutta-based online training and the gradual training sequence
- review the Sutta-for-Retreats collection, especially the teachings relevant to conduct, sense restraint, moderation, wakefulness, sati-sampajañña, Samathā, Jhāna and Vipassanā
- consider honestly whether silence, timetable, correction and individual assignments can be maintained without repeated prompting
Application does not equal acceptance
Acceptance may take into account consistency of participation, demonstrated conduct, honesty in reporting, receptivity to correction, health and practical capacity, ability to practise without continuous supervision, and the effect upon the wider retreat environment.
Read the seven preparation questions →
02Before You Travel
Confirm the practical details
Before making travel arrangements, confirm that you have been accepted and check the current retreat notice for the exact dates, venue, language, arrival time, departure time and any retreat-specific instructions. Details can change from one retreat to another.
Confirm before leaving home
- acceptance has been received
- retreat dates and venue
- arrival and departure arrangements
- language of instruction
- travel documents and identification where needed
- any health or accommodation information already communicated
Prepare personal responsibilities
- necessary medication is sufficient for the full stay
- family or work contacts know that communication may be limited
- avoidable unfinished work has been settled before arrival
- travel is planned so that arrival is calm rather than rushed
- special practical needs have been disclosed in advance rather than on arrival
03What to Bring — and What to Leave Aside
Bring what supports simple living
- comfortable and modest clothing suitable for sitting and walking
- towel, bedsheet, covers and blanket as required for the venue
- necessary toiletries
- prescribed medication and medically required supports
- suitable footwear for walking practice
- notebook and pen for practice reporting
- identification and travel documents
- approved sitting support or medically required chair support if needed
Do not build a second household inside the retreat
- avoid unnecessary books, magazines and reading material
- avoid entertainment devices and nonessential electronics
- avoid bringing work that you intend to continue during retreat
- avoid unnecessary food treats or items intended mainly for stimulation unless medically required or specifically permitted
- do not bring materials for teaching, promoting or comparing other practice systems
The practical principle is simplicity. Bring what is genuinely needed for health, hygiene, clothing, sleep and practice. Everything else should be considered in terms of whether it supports seclusion or creates another stream of stimulation and concern.
04Conduct, Silence & Shared Space
Silence is a training condition
External silence reduces unnecessary social engagement, comparison, storytelling and proliferation. It does not mean that essential communication is forbidden. Communication remains appropriate with the teacher during interviews, for health or safety, for essential retreat duties, or when specifically permitted.
During the retreat
- maintain the agreed precepts and the stated timetable
- preserve external silence and avoid unnecessary social signalling
- keep phones switched off and stored as instructed
- avoid news, social media, entertainment and unassigned reading
- do not discuss meditation experiences with other participants
- do not advise, teach, correct or diagnose another participant
- do not compare practice assignments, retreat experiences or attainments
- care for accommodation, toilets, practice spaces and shared facilities
- protect the quiet conditions required by other participants
When the teacher is not physically present, the retreat continues.
The timetable, silence, conduct and assigned practice remain fully operative. The teacher’s absence is not free time.
05Daily Life: Sati-Sampajañña Beyond Formal Sitting
The retreat is not twenty hours of staring at the breath. Formal sitting and walking are important, but the training continues through ordinary activities. Sati remains established and sampajañña develops clear knowing of what is being done and what is occurring in body and mind.
| Activity | How it becomes training |
|---|---|
| Waking | Know waking, bodily condition, intention to rise and the first movements rather than immediately entering planning or memory. |
| Washing face / bathing | Know standing, bending, touching water, temperature, pleasant or unpleasant feeling, haste, resistance and unnecessary mental proliferation. |
| Dressing | Know reaching, bending, choosing, fastening and the mind’s relationship to appearance and comfort. |
| Walking | Know going, stopping, turning, pace, bodily movement and whether the mind is being pulled into stories. |
| Eating and drinking | Know hunger, taste, chewing, swallowing, satisfaction and the point at which bodily need gives way to desire for continued stimulation. |
| Cleaning / duties | Know the task, bodily movements, irritation, reluctance, pride or comparison without turning routine duties into unconscious time. |
| Breaks | Rest without automatically seeking stimulation. Know whether rest is genuinely needed or whether the mind is searching for entertainment. |
| Formal sitting | Follow the assigned cultivation precisely rather than mixing methods or chasing previously remembered experiences. |
| Speaking when necessary | Know the intention to speak, what is necessary, the tone used and the mind after speaking. |
| Preparing for sleep | Know tiredness, lying down, bodily posture and the intention to rise, rather than ending the training by entering entertainment or uncontrolled mental wandering. |
Study Sati-Sampajañña in detail →
06Practice Assignments, Interviews & Honest Reporting
Individual practice is not a ranking system
Different participants may receive different assignments because different conditions are present. One may need continuity of foundational Samathā; another may need to work with thīnamiddha; another may need to reduce excessive effort; another may be ready to stabilise a collected state or investigate after emerging from it. Different assignments do not imply superiority or inferiority.
During practice
- begin the assigned practice without waiting to be personally called
- follow the assignment as given
- do not mix techniques without consultation
- note recurring hindrances and important changes
- continue during periods when the teacher is absent
- ask for help when there is a genuine difficulty
During interviews report
- what the assignment was
- what was actually done
- what occurred
- what the dominant hindrance was
- what response was made
- what changed
- what remains uncertain
Distinguish observation from interpretation
A useful report separates direct observation from the story built around it. “The breath became very subtle and bodily sensation faded” is different from “I entered the fourth jhāna.” “There was no anger during that period” is different from “anger has been permanently eradicated.” Precise reporting makes correction possible.
Do not improve the report to make the practice look better.
An honest record of a missed, shortened or careless period is more useful than a perfect-looking record based on concealment.
07Food, Sleep, Health & Safety
Bhojane mattaññutā — moderation in eating
Food supports the body and the training. Eat sufficiently to maintain health and energy without turning meals into the principal sensual event of the day. Notice when bodily need has been met but taste continues asking for more. Moderation is not starvation and is not a performance of austerity.
Jāgariyānuyoga — skilful wakefulness
Wakefulness is not deliberate sleep deprivation. Walking, sitting, posture, appropriate rest and mindful preparation for sleep are used to keep the mind clear. If dullness repeatedly appears, look at its conditions: excessive food, insufficient sleep, posture, passivity, overstimulation before retreat, or other causes.
Health and medication
- continue prescribed medication unless your qualified healthcare professional has instructed otherwise
- disclose relevant health information before acceptance
- report significant pain, panic, disorientation, extreme agitation, persistent inability to sleep, or another serious difficulty promptly
- do not conceal serious symptoms as a test of endurance
- the retreat is not a substitute for medical or psychological treatment
08How the Training Progresses
The retreat intensifies the same connected training cultivated before arrival. It does not replace the gradual training with a calendar-based promise of attainment.
Readiness determines the next instruction
The timetable can provide periods for Samathā, Jhāna and Vipassanā, but a participant should not assume that the arrival of a particular day proves readiness for a particular state. Foundational training may need to continue longer. That is not failure; it is the correct response to the causes and conditions actually present.
Useful signs of progress
- greater self-discipline
- less dependence on supervision
- stronger hiri and ottappa
- clearer recognition of hindrances
- greater continuity of practice
- more accurate reporting
- less comparison and spiritual status-making
What is not guaranteed
- Jhāna because a retreat day has arrived
- identical experiences for all participants
- noble attainment within a fixed number of days
- confirmation merely because an experience felt powerful
- progress through attendance duration alone
Read the full retreat training framework →
09Leaving the Retreat and Continuing at Home
The retreat ends; the training does not
The most important test begins when the protected environment is removed. Noise returns, phones return, family and work responsibilities return, meals become less regulated, and the sense doors meet ordinary stimulation again. The question is whether the capacities cultivated during retreat travel with the practitioner.
Before departure, clarify
- what practice should continue at home
- which hindrance or weakness requires particular attention
- what daily discipline should be maintained
- whether any practice should be reduced, changed or postponed
- when further guidance or review is appropriate
After returning home
- resume ordinary responsibilities without immediately abandoning sense restraint and sati-sampajañña
- avoid turning retreat experiences into social status, public claims or comparisons
- do not teach another person from a brief experience merely because it felt profound
- maintain the agreed practice and observe its effects in ordinary conditions
- return to the suttas and compare understanding with direct cultivation
Registration
Apply only after reading the retreat information and this guide.