ADVANCED HRIDAYA RETREAT

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This new retreat was eagerly requested for several years and was a great success when it was held for the first time in 2010.

Meditation teacher Sahajananda (formerly Claudiu Trandafir), an advanced Agama Yoga teacher (25 years) who has led the Hridaya Retreat for thousands of people since 2002, introduces for the first time an Advanced Hridaya Retreat. This retreat intends to take a more profound approach to meditation and the depth of practice. It creates the premises for even deeper insights in which Awareness, Compassion, Beauty, Love, Bliss, and Freedom will be revealed. This retreat will generally include less speaking and less introduction of techniques, etc., with more and deeper meditation periods, plus special elements that apply only to this retreat.

Some of these elements include:

• Tonglen, a Buddhist practice of compassion

• Presentations about Advaita and Christianity: the affirmations of Jesus considered from the Advaita perspective (commentary on some passages from the Gospels)

• Walking meditation

• More commentary about mental void

• Stories and narratives that detail the enlightenment of great masters: inspiring stories from inside the process

• 3-2-1-0 Method

• Beauty as a means and Reality

• Selected methods from Vijnana Bhairava Tantra

• More

One condition must be met in order to join the Advanced Hridaya Retreat:

Participants will need to commit to attending the standard 10-day Hridaya Retreat directly preceding the Advanced Retreat. This purifies participants and prepares the ground for advanced levels of meditation; it is absolutely necessary and non-negotiable. Thus, this retreat is considered 17 days in length and all participants of the Advanced Retreat must join all days.

There is no further prerequisite. Anyone - even someone wholly unfamiliar with meditation or someone who has not previously joined a meditation retreat - is welcome to join if committing to the full retreat of 17 days. (Of course, all are welcome to join only the regular 10-day retreat which is held 22 - 31 July and overlaps the Advanced Retreat.) It is important that participants prepare themselves and commit from the beginning with a determination to attend the complete 17-day retreat. Attendees should not take a "wait and see" approach, leaving a decision to join to follow their evaluation of the 10-day retreat.

Participants will realize that the energy and depth of the retreat builds up naturally through its extended duration. This period of practice will bring by itself some important transformations to all participants.

Dates: 22 July - 7 August, 2011

Daily program: 07:00-12:00 / 15:30-20:30; see Hridaya Retreat overview for general program and guidelines

Fee: 5,000 Baht

Registration: Thursday, 27 May, 16:00, at Shiva Hall, Srithanu Campus. All participants, regardless of whether they have previously attended a Hridaya Retreat, must attend the registration session which takes place at this time. This session will consist of payments and registration, going over the retreat guidelines, and a short meditation followed by Q&A with Sahajananda. The entire session should last no more than 1.5-2 hours.

Agama Yoga arranges a vegan buffet on-site at Soma Restaurant twice daily for the convenience of participants. Cost is 120 Baht for lunch (12:00) and 80 Baht for a lighter supper (20:30). All meals (17 days, therefore 34 meals), will cost 3,400 Baht. Lunches only will total 2,040 Baht; Ohsawa option available. Please bring your meal payments to the registration session.

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