Joyfully Together

A Weekend Retreat with PlumVillageMonastics

 

Friday evening October 16 to Sunday afternoon October 18, 2009 at
The Kadoorie Institute - Shek Kong Centre, The University of Hong Kong
Yuen Long, New Territories, Hong Kong

Ven. Thich Chan Phap An led a walking meditation in Hong Kong, June 2008

Online registration for the Joyfully Together Retreat at Kadoorie - October 16 - 18, 2009

Dear friends,

We are happy to invite you to join us for the regular quarterly weekend retreat organized by Plum Village Hong Kong. We are happy to have Ven. Thich Chan Phap An, Head of the European Institute of Applied Buddhism, Germany (EIAB) to lead the retreat.  Five monks from Plum Village Hong Kong and two nuns from Plum Village Vietnam are joining him to conduct the retreat. There will be a transmission ceremony for those who would like to receive the 5 Mindfulness Training.

In this retreat, we will have a chance to deepen our practice in a tranquil environment.  We will be surrounded by beautiful and serene nature and have the accompanies of many fellow practitioners like ourselves, who have made big efforts to slow down our busy life for two days in order to look at the state of our happiness.  We will practice mindful breathing, sitting, walking, eating, talking ... in the here and now.  We will really take time to do our daily activities without hurry but with joy, being aware of what is happening inside and around us, being aware that we are alive.

Love and understanding are what we need to live joyfully together. The seeds of love and understanding are already in us. But most of the time,forgetting that they are there, we dwell in hatred and misunderstanding. What we need to do is to bring our love and understanding back into our daily life, so that we can offer a shoulder for our loved ones to cry on when they need one and a sympathetic ear to listen to their problems.  How do we reconcile with our spouses, parents, children, friends or colleagues if there are difficulties in between. We will refer to "The Discourse on Love (Metta Sutta, Sutta Nipata I) in the Plum Village Chanting Book for these topics.

The tentative program for the retreat is as follows:

Time	Friday October 16	Time	Saturday October 17	Sunday October 18
16:00	Registration check-in	5:30	Wake up	Wake up
18:30	Dinner	6:15	Sitting and chanting	5 MT Transmission
20:00	Orientation	7:30	Walking meditation	Walking meditation
21:30	Bed time	8:30	Breakfast	Breakfast
		10:00	Dharma talk	Dharma talk
		12:30	Lunch	Lunch
		13:30	Rest - Total relaxation	Rest - Total relaxation
		15:00	Dharma Discussion	Tea meditation
		17:00	Free time	Fare well
		18:30	Dinner
		20:00	Beginning anew presentation
		21:30	Bed time

Accommodation and cost

The Kadoorie Institute - Shek Kong Centre is situated on 11 hectares of land near Shek Kong, Yuen Long in the New Territories.  The quarterly retreat is non-profit making.  It is organized for Sangha members to practice together, and the fee is just enough to cover the costs of venue rental, meals, expenses for monastics (air fares, rooms and board)  and some overhead expenses . All volunteer Sangha members are paying the full cost to help in the retreat. Due to an increase of overall expenses, the cost per person is slightly higher than previous retreats.  The cost for rooms and board, facilities and other expenses per person is as follows:

Room Type	Expected #	Cost per person (HK$)
6-Person Dormitory (8 rooms),	48	830
5-Person Deluxe Guest Room (3 rooms)	15	900
3-Person Deluxe Guest Room (6 rooms)	18	1020
2-Person Guest Room (3 rooms)	6	1250
2-Person Deluxe Guest Room (3 rooms)	6	1300
2-Person Guest Suite (2 rooms)	4	1400

For more information about The Kadoorie Institute - Shek Kong Centre, please visit its website: http://www.hku.hk/kisk/

How to register:

Registration is available online at http://www.plumvillagehk.net/hk/HKWeekendRetreat.asp on a first-come-first-served basis. Young people aged six and above can attend retreats with their parents. There will be a children's program. Registrations are not final until we receive your payment. Please make payment within one week after you register. If payment is not received within one week, we will put your registration on the waiting list.

For means of payment, please refer to the online registration webpage.

Closing date for registration: October 1, 2009. Cancellation after October 1, 2009 is not refundable. For enquiries, please contact us at retreats@pvfhk.org.

We are looking forward to seeing you at the retreat!

A lotus to you,
A Buddha to be

For the Weekend Retreat Registration Team
Camilla, Corrin and Grace