True Grit – Buddhist Practices for Transforming the Mind

The Contemplary is delighted to announce the return of one of the west’s most renowned meditation masters.

“If you can dream – and not make dreams your master,
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,
And treat those two imposters as the same.”

~ Rudyard Kipling, from ‘If’ 1895

These days in education, in health, in business, in sport, and even in the arts, there is an ever-increasing emphasis on what has been termed “resilience training” or grit. Whether it is a “growth mindset” or an attitude of “what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger”, it is all about building up our emotional strength and mental fitness. Grit describes the ability to persevere with long-term goals, and to sustain our interest and energy over month and years. Research suggests that gritty people are more likely to succeed in a range of challenging situations. Gritty people don’t give up and they don’t get bored. Research also suggests that grit can be learned.

This focus on resilience is not a new fad, or even a modern invention. In fact, resilience training has been an integral part of the Buddhist path for at least a thousand years.

“Mind training” (or Lojong) refers to methods for changing how we view situations so as to make our lives more durable and our enthusiasms more sustainable. The “training” is all about transforming our negative attitudes and cultivating more fruitful ones. All of us have things we’d change about our attitudes. Mind training in Buddhism is an advanced practice that allows us to see every feeling, emotion and experience in a different light, so that every situation becomes the path to enlightenment.

Within the rich body of teachings of Lojong or “cultivating the mind” in Tibetan Buddhism, the most widely taught and practised is the “Sevenfold Cultivation of the Mind.” This was composed about a thousand years ago by the renowned Indian Buddhist master Atisha. The essential theme of this training is to transmute the joys and sorrows of life and death into one’s spiritual path to awakening. This is a kind of spiritual alchemy in which one transforms all that life brings into nourishment for our spiritual growth and maturation.

During this 7-day non-residential retreat, Alan Wallace will give commentary and guided meditations on these ancient Buddhist teachings. Contemplative, Dr Eva Natanya, will complement these teachings with instructions on the four sublime qualities of the heart: loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and impartiality. While the instructions on these four sublime qualities are drawn from Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, they are universally applicable to everyone. The retreat will comprise of lectures, guided meditations, and discussion periods.

Who is this retreat for?

The non-residential ‘urban retreat’ format is designed to facilitate access to profound teachings in a central Melbourne venue and is priced to optimise participation.

As indicated above, each day will involve periods of meditation alternating with periods of teaching. No previous meditation experience is required and people of any and no religious persuasion will find this retreat beneficial.

“A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”

1928 John A. Shedd, from ‘Salt in My Attic, 1928

Centre for Contemplative Research

If you are interested in Dr Wallace’s Centre for Contemplative Research – currently being built in Italy – you can read about it here and track the progress of this remarkable initiative.

Alan Wallace Retreat

1 St Heliers St, Abbotsford VIC 3067, Australia

Rosina Auditorium

Where

This non-residential retreat will be held in the Rosina Auditorium, Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Heliers St, Abbotsford, Melbourne Victoria 3067

When

2020 November 16th to 22nd, 2020, 9.00 am to 5.00 pm

Cost

Special Launch Fee: $495 (available until March 31st)
Early Bird Fee: $595 (available from March 31st to June 30th)
Full Fee: $695 (from July 1st)

A members discount of 10% applies to those who are members of The Contemplary or the Vajrayana Institute, or the Khacho Yulo Ling Buddhist Centre. The discount code for members of The Contemplary is ‘member’. The Vajrayana Institute and Khacho Yulo Ling Buddhist Centre will each provide discount codes to their members.

Catering is not provided

Participants may wish to bring their own food, alternatively, vegetarian food is available from Lentil as Anything on a donation basis or there are a number of other cafes and restaurants on the grounds of the convent providing easy access to food and drinks.

Bursaries

A number of bursaries will be available to ensure that, where possible, people with financial difficulties are not prevented from participating in this retreat. If you require assistance please write to charles@thecontemplary.

Cancellation policy

Cancellation received in writing more than 30 days before the start of the retreat will receive a 50% refund of the registration fee. We regret that no refunds can be made if the cancellation is received within 30 days of the start of the retreat.

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Dr. Alan Wallace

A prominent voice in the emerging discussion between contemporary Buddhist thinkers and scientists who question the materialist presumptions of their 20th-century paradigms, Alan Wallace left his college studies in 1971 and moved to Dharamsala, India to study Tibetan Buddhism, medicine and language. He was ordained by H.H. the Dalai Lama, and during fourteen years as a monk he studied with and translated for several of the generation’s greatest lamas. In 1984 he resumed his Western education at Amherst College where he studied physics and the philosophy of science. He then applied that background to his PhD research at Stanford on the interface between Buddhism and Western science and philosophy. Since 1987 he has been a frequent translator and contributor to meetings between the Dalai Lama and prominent scientists, and he has written and translated more than 40 books. Along with his scholarly work, Alan is regarded as one of the West’s preeminent meditation teachers and retreat guides. He is the founder and director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies and is the motivating force behind the development of the Centre for Contemplative Research in Tuscany, Italy.

Dr Eva Natanya

A scholar of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, an academic lecturer, writer, translator, and retreat leader, Eva Natanya had a nine-year career as a professional ballet dancer with both the New York City Ballet and the Royal Ballet of England. She earned an MA in Christian Systematic Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, and a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. For more than twenty years, she has studied meditation, yoga, and philosophy in both the Christian and Buddhist traditions with master teachers in the United States, England, and India. She is the editor of Open Mind: View and Meditation in the Lineage of Lerab Lingpa (2018) and co-editor of Fathoming the Mind: Inquiry and Insight in Düdjom Lingpa’s Vajra Essence (2018), both by Dr. B. Alan Wallace. Her own work explores the deep connections between Christian and Buddhist thought at rigorous levels of theology, ethics, mysticism, and contemplative prayer. Eva has spent more than thirty months in solitary meditation retreat, and will soon return to full-time meditation practice, living in the remote mountains of Colorado.