The Armour of Joy Retreat

Do you sometimes feel that we are living in a nightmare, a dark age, a time of collapse? How can we protect ourselves from harm and resource ourselves to face difficulty? What would it take to cultivate the presence and vision to invite in transformation?

The ancient teachings on the Four Immeasurables offer everything we need to armour ourselves with joy and return to our radiant brightness. During this 5-night retreat, we’ll explore the fierce and gentle aspects of loving kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. Our ability to cultivate these qualities, first for ourselves then others, sends out ripples, creating a loving world. Through movement and stillness, time alone and together, we’ll practice how to put them to use in daily life.

We’ll begin by returning to the wisdom of the body, which can hold us steady in the present moment. Communities have long known that to come together and move in harmony allows for healing of the individual and the collective. Utilizing breath, rhythmic movement, and a direct sensory experience of the embodied mind, we learn to regulate emotion, and become a safe haven for ourselves, for others and for the earth itself.

By working with somatic meditation practices, including gentle yoga, qi gong and expressive movement, we will return to this miraculous home of ours. Our bodies are treasure troves for self-reflection, insight, and freedom, filled with wisdom and worthy of our deepest devotion and care. Care for ourselves and for others is not different, but rather two sides of the same coin. Once the body feels settled, the sitting practices of mindfulness and compassion allow us to access the heart-mind, the place where love, compassion and joy reside.

“Your armour of joy, a radiant brightness,

removes every nightmare and calms every quarrel.”

~ from 21 Praises to Tara

About the Facilitator

Dr Lucy Draper-Clarke is a retreat facilitator, mindfulness mentor and researcher-practitioner in the fields of awareness and compassion. After obtaining a doctorate in mindfulness and teacher education, she is now an Associate Researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. With a focus on compassionate activism and somatic meditation, she works with those engaged in social transformation and healing, to alleviate stress, increase resilience and cultivate wise, compassionate action. She runs workshops and retreats around Southern Africa. As a practitioner with the Karma Kagyu School of Buddhism, she attends regular meditation retreats to deepen her own practice. Nothing gives her more joy than supporting others to develop their own, life-enhancing, contemplative practices.

Bookings

RSVP here and receive information about how to book through the Harare Buddhist Centre.