Vipassana Meditation:
Changing Lives Since 500BC

Vipassana means “to see reality as it is”. It is the primary meditation technique that the Buddha taught to help humanity become liberated from suffering. Despite its Buddhist roots, it is an entirely non-religious meditation technique, and guides meditators with practical, explicit steps to do exactly what it says on the tin - liberate humans. It’s been doing this for the past 2,600 years to much success for millions, if not billions of meditators.

You may not have heard of Vipassana, but you definitely would have heard of one of its derivatives, which include: Zen Buddhism, Chan Buddhism, modern mindfulness, CBT, and many of the practices in Tibetan, Thai, and many other forms of Buddhism.

It is, in our humble opinion, the most powerful meditation technique ever gifted to humanity. And you never need to step away from your common sense and practicality to use it. Enjoy the beginning of a long and fruitful journey. We’re excited for you.

We have a few different schedules for you to choose from, but our most intense and classic schedule is at least 12hrs 30mins of practice a day in full silence. It’s a good time.

If you don’t feel quite ready for that or have other commitments, we’ve created a few options for you. Sign-up to one of the courses on our app and check out the options.

This live Open Vipassana course is 8hrs of guided practice in silence a day from 12:00-20:00. We’ve intentionally left the gap from 04:00-12:00 to give you the choice of how much to practice, distract yourself, or pick up necessary responsibilities. This schedule is specifically designed to help you govern your own practice, and learn how to navigate meditating whilst also being in charge of your own time - which is one of the classic challenges meditators face when leaving full-time retreats.

No, Vipassana meditation is a comprehensive practice, and you will learn everything you need on the course. It can be challenging, because by its very nature Vipassana points you directly in contact with yourself and allows you to go as deep as you’re ready for. But this is the same challenge that everyone will face, and it’s for each of us to decide how deep we want to go.

Be ready to face yourself and everything you could possibly feel, and you’ll be fine. In fact, it could be the beginning of the deepest and most transformative experience of your life.

Yes, it is a silent retreat for all students while they are on-site. For full-time students, this will be all day. For part-time students, you will have your own schedules, and it is intentionally your choice how much you engage with the silence when you are not on-site.

It’s important, because silence allows you:

 1.⁠ ⁠To become sensitive to yourself.

 2.⁠ ⁠To process the internal habits you’ve accumulated without flooding yourself with more noise.

Silence is the container that will allow you to dive deeply into yourself quickly in a condensed period of time. Use it effectively.

For residential students, accommodation and food are provided. For everyone else, we recommend you stay within walking distance of the site, or an easy drive away. We will have a meditator buffet provided for the residential students twice a day. Other students can choose to join these buffets too. Speak to the on-site staff to arrange this.

Yes, you are of course your own master. But if you have any doubt over whether you will complete the retreat, then do not apply for one of the full-time options, as we only have a limited number of spaces and these are reserved for meditators who want the full, immersive experience.

It is also worth noting that the retreat will most definitely feel difficult. It is part of the nature of Vipassana that over time we will be placed in direct contact with the totality of ourselves. This can include the aspects we find confronting. If we face these, we can dissolve deep-seated habit patterns and truly transform a lifetime of what we’ve been carrying and has been holding us back. So, after the difficulty comes a massive reward. To say that it would be a shame if you gave up at the difficulty phase is a vast understatement.

Also, you might be interested to know that my sixty-something-year-old mother, who can have trouble walking and sitting, has done 4 Vipassana retreats. She didn’t quit once.

Open seats are meditation spots available to be reserved by part-time students. They will be behind the seats of the full-time students to stop any meditators coming in and out from disturbing their practice.

If you apply for the part-time course and are accepted, you will be sent information on how to book your space and time.

For full-time students, reading, writing, electronic devices and other forms of stimulation are all prohibited. This is to stop the students from being tempted to engage with anything other than the meditative process.

For part-time students, when you leave the site you are your own master and can do whatever you want. This will give you the opportunity to see how you can blend meditation into the life you have chosen.

Enough clothes, toiletries, and willpower to see you through the 10 days.

A lifetime of disciplined practice and a well-lived life exposed to all the flavours of the world and aspects of yourself would be preferable. However, one common misconception is that you need prep to do this. Actually, all the prep you need will be given to you on the course - it is the beginning of what will be an amazing lifelong journey for you.

There are some basics it is good to prep with that might help you have the best experience, though:

 1.⁠ ⁠A desire to genuinely connect with yourself and untangle the knots and habit patterns made over a lifetime.

 2.⁠ ⁠A baseline level of flexibility.

 3.⁠ ⁠No coffee, tea, stimulants, alcohol, drugs, or meat for two weeks before the retreat.

 4.⁠ ⁠A will to face whatever comes up and deal with it within the framework of the practice.

Arthur C. Clarke said that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Vipassana is one such sufficiently advanced internal technology. If taken to completion, it will start to look like practical steps to magic.

To get there, you will need to face the habit patterns you have hardwired into yourself. The technique will teach you how to let these unwind and stop repeating them. This will allow you to come to a point where you are released from the habit of being “yourself”. That on the other side, you will see was actually a construct you created through repeated mental, emotional, and physical action - eventually imprisoning you. Once liberated from even a few habits, you will realise that these were never truly you, but simply actions you consistently repeated. What you find underneath will be a version of you free of one layer of self-imposed chains.

The methods you will learn to be able to do this will give you other side benefits; focus, creativity, pattern recognition, peace, competence.

It’s a beautiful path. I’m excited for you, and I truly hope you enjoy the journey as much as I have.