Chapter 20

Surveying (Almost) Ten Inspirational Places to Visit

In This Chapter

Visiting inspirational locations

Attending mindfulness retreats

Just as negative places can bring you down, so positive locations can be a huge encouragement on your mindfulness journey. As I describe in Chapter 4, setting up your own dedicated meditation space in your home is vitally important, but visiting specially designed and prepared environments is a great help too.

In this chapter I introduce you to several places that run courses and hold retreats that can deepen your connection to mindfulness and to mindful communities. I know this to be true, because that’s precisely what they did for me!

Plumbing the Heights of Mindfulness at Plum Village

Mindfulness master Thich Nhat Hanh (see Chapter 19 for a brief biography) lives in Plum Village in the Dordogne, southern France (www.plumvillage.org). It's open to visitors from around the world who want to attend a mindfulness retreat. I can certainly recommend that you visit to hear what Thich Nhat Hanh has to say. The proceeds from the fruit of hundreds of plum trees are used to assist hungry children in Vietnam.

If you want to experiment and try Plum Village out you can stay for just a day, but most people visit for at least a week. You practise mindfulness throughout the day and in all daily activities: eating, walking, working, meditating, studying, exercising, and so on. If you hear a bell ring, you stop (along with everyone else), relax and focus on your breathing.

Plum Village has one so-called lazy day per week, without any planned activities or scheduled meditations, when you can just see how everything unfolds naturally. You can forget about time and be mindful in whatever occurs. You could write or do some light reading. It can also be a time for contemplation – giving you room to think about how your practice is developing. Often, you find insight and new inspiration on this day. Alternatively, you could just hang out with the friends you’ve made at Plum Village.

How much you donate for one day at Plum Village is largely up to you, though £50 seems to be the minimum amount most people give.

Attending Quiet Days at the London Insight Meditation Society

The London Insight Meditation Society (LIMS: www.londoninsight.org) offers one-day retreats (often in North or Central London) and you don't need to be a Buddhist to attend. Often, you're joined by over a hundred co-students. LIMS invites incredible speakers such as Rick Hanson (check out Chapter 19 for more information), Stephen Bachelor, Christina Feldman and Sharon Salzberg.

The days start at a reasonable time and don’t finish too late. If you attend, you do a lot of sitting and walking meditations and invited guest speakers give a couple of talks. The low course fees (a day course costs around £17 to £25) only cover the hiring of the room, so you’re requested to give a donation of between £10 and £50 for the teacher before you leave.

Everybody brings something vegetarian for lunch, which is put out on a buffet table and shared with all. The days remain in silence apart from the questions directed to the teacher and the whole day is an enriching experience.

Finding a Home from Home at Findhorn

My wonderful spiritual guide and teacher Astrid told me about the Findhorn Foundation in the late 1970s (www.findhorn.org). She'd been diagnosed with breast cancer and was convinced that regularly visiting Findhorn helped keep the disease at bay. To be honest, Findhorn mesmerised her.

Nobody asks you for your religious denomination or why you’ve come: you’re just expected to help run the place and take good care of the gardens and land mindfully. For example, before cutting a vegetable for dinner or lunch, you thank it for feeding you.

Founded in 1962, Findhorn, located in Scotland, really does talk the talk and walk the walk – it is a mindful community that respects the Earth and all beings. The place itself is stunning, and so are the people you meet. You can visit for a week, a month or a year – the members of staff try to accommodate your preferences.

Findhorn offers many different courses. One such course run here is called Coming Home to the Garden, where you’re invited to learn hands-on gardening over a week. The meditations on the course explore the connections between our inner and outer gardens. You can pay anything between £95 and £295, which covers all costs (including accommodations and meals) for courses such as this. Another course is Music Experience Week, which weaves music through the whole week, celebrating different spiritual traditions and introducing you to the dances of universal peace and sacred harmony songs. This course is more expensive and ranges between £475 and £800 (all inclusive).

Channelling Your Inner Bruce Lee at Shaolin Monastery

If you want a truly exotic mindfulness journey, and have the time and money, you can visit the legendary Shaolin Monastery in China (check out www.shaolin.org.cn/EN/index.aspx). Founded in the 5th century, this monastery is the birthplace of the famous martial art of Shaolin Kung Fu. The monastery practises Buddhism and asserts that you need to conquer the mind before you conquer anybody else.

When I visited in 1991, I expected to see the monks breaking bricks or metal rods with their bare hands. Instead I found 400 or more men and boys in yellow robes sitting in deep meditation. The senior monk explained, ‘When you can control the mind you will also know when you need your body, a potentially lethal weapon, for defence. You never attack, only defend; and only if this is the last option.’

Visiting Shaolin, which lies in a beautiful valley, was certainly one of the experiences that propelled me into my meditation practice. Various holiday tour companies can arrange for you to spend periods of time at Shaolin, where you can meet the grand monks, practice deep meditation, find out about traditional Shaolin medical practices such as massage and cupping, attend lessons and discussions, watch Kung Fu shows and Shaolin monks training, and a variety of other activities. Accommodation is fine, but not splendid, though in general my experience is that the organisers try very hard to make your experience extraordinary.

If you want to make the most of your visit, April is the best time to go.

Exploring the Buddha’s Teachings at Gaia House

Gaia House (www.gaiahouse.co.uk) is one of the loveliest meditation retreat centres in the UK, located deep in the Devon countryside, and is amongst the best-known Insight meditation retreat centres (a community for laymen rather than monks) in the UK. The retreats are to a large extent held in silence, though you're invited to speak and ask questions after the daily Teaching Talk in the evening.

Gaia House has a strong connection to the environment and green issues (Gaia means ‘living earth’). The main meditations you experience are sitting and walking.

At Gaia House, you can go on a personal retreat (which costs approximately £37 per day) or on one of the many special topic retreats such as Meditation and Yoga, MBCT, Buddhism without Beliefs, Loving Kindness, and many more. A normal day starts with a practice before breakfast and ends with the last session at 9.30 pm. During the day, you receive full instruction regarding the practices, and in the evening you listen to a Dharma talk, during which teachers invite reflection on the teachings of the Buddha in relation to everyday life and your retreat experience. Usually you share a room with one or two other people and you’re also asked to offer one hour of your time for keeping the lovely place clean. Duties can include bathroom and toilet cleaning, washing-up, cooking, gardening, and so on. The food is simple, and vegetarian.

Gaia House offers five different rates: a four-day retreat, for example, costs between £100 and £200. The fee you pay to go on the retreat covers only the costs of running the retreat. In addition, at the end of the retreat you’re asked to give a voluntary financial contribution to the teacher.

Gaia House is in great demand, so I recommend that you book a year ahead. My favourite time is the late spring/early summer when hundreds of baby bunnies are hopping about all over the place!

Retreating to the Countryside at Trigonos

Trigonos (www.trigonos.org) is a beautiful retreat centre situated in the village of Nantlle (pronounced 'Nant-lay' in case you have to ask directions!) in Snowdonia, North Wales. Although quite remote, the journey itself offers immense beauty and tranquillity. You can book single or double rooms and the vegetarian food is simply amazing. The lake surrounded by the land is beautiful and you can even swim in it (in the summer).

You can hire the whole place in order to run your own retreat – Trigonos can accommodate 29 people in a mixture of single and twin rooms. Full board includes breakfast, lunch and dinner, morning coffee or tea with biscuits, and afternoon tea with homemade cake and a fruit bowl.

The cost of a room ranges from £64 to £88 per night.

Enjoying the Food (Mindfully!) at The Abbey

The Abbey (www.theabbey.uk.com), near Oxford in the village of Sutton Courtenay, England, is an astonishing venue – a Grade-1 listed building whose earliest parts date from the 13th century. The spiritual life here began in the ecumenical Christian tradition and has evolved to embrace other traditions as well. Core values at The Abbey are compassion, inspiration, creativity, contemplation and prayer. The residential community expresses these values through living together and they make you feel welcome, at home and at ease.

The Abbey offers a wide range of courses that change annually – check their website for a calendar of events. One attraction is their special collection of material relating to the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi; The Abbey hosts a yearly gathering of his followers.

I’ve attended a number of yoga and compassion retreats here. My favourite course is the annual Yoga, Pilates and Mindfulness weekend retreat with Helen Stephenson and Dr David Brown (a scientist and Buddhist practitioner). Both teachers weave together the teachings of yoga and meditation by the open fire in the Great Hall. Then, after lunch you have a couple of hours to yourself so you can venture out into the village or explore the numerous fine paths nearby that are good for the walking meditation.

The Abbey offers a number of meeting rooms, a meditation room and single and double accommodation. Full board ranges from £100 to £170 per day.

The vegetarian food provided is so delicious that you don’t want to stay here while trying to lose weight!

Getting the Best of Both Worlds: West-Östliche Weisheit, Benediktushof

This beautiful centre for spirituality, near Wuerzburg in Germany (see www.willigisjaeger-foundation.com for details), was founded by Willigis Jäger, who's a Benedictine monk and a Zen master. The centre offers different types of retreats throughout the year. Its particular focus is on combining Eastern spiritual practice with the wisdom of Christianity, although you need have no religious affiliation to attend. West-Östliche Weisheit means 'Western and Eastern wisdom'.

The breadth of courses at West-Östliche Weisheit is praiseworthy. Zen and Contemplation, Paths of Judiasm, Paths of Yoga, Meeting Your Voice and Sufi Mystik are just a few of the courses on offer at the time of writing.

Three years ago I attended a week-long retreat led by Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli. The centre was in the process of completing a traditional Zen Garden and I had the great privilege of observing the gradual transformation from my balcony. The experience is still deeply etched into my heart.

If you’re considering spending a guided retreat here, please check which language will be used for instruction, because most are held in German.

Single room and all meals cost £60 per day. The cost for teaching is not included.

Visiting The Well at Willen

The Well at Willen (www.thewellatwillen.org.uk), near Milton Keynes in England, is a multi-faith community surrounded by stunning grounds. The Well welcomes all visitors, irrespective of their beliefs and traditions, and the community includes Quaker, Catholic and Buddhist traditions. The Well offers retreats and prayer meetings. Residing at The Well is Helen Stephenson, an experienced and fully trained MBCT teacher and trainer. She teaches with myself on advanced mindfulness trainings, but also offers yoga and pilates courses.

Five guest rooms are available at The Well, but most participants stay at nearby hotels or come for the day, which costs £50.