Join Michael Lobsang Tenpa for a six-day retreat in which we explore Loving-Kindness (metta, or maitri) practice – learning to cultivate stable and intelligent benevolence towards ourselves, others, and, eventually, all beings.
About This Course
This pre-recorded retreat, held in 2023 at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in Lampeter, explores loving-kindness (Pali: mettā, Sanskrit: maitrī), one of the key practices of the Buddhist contemplative system, equally important in the Pali and Sanskrit textual traditions. In the second half of the 20th century this practice also became largely popular within the context of secular mindfulness methods, and is now widely used for its calming effect, its ability to help us in cultivating prosocial skills, and its health benefits (established through medical research).
In gradually mastering this method, practitioners are learning to cultivate stable and intelligent benevolence towards themselves, others, and, eventually, all beings. This meditation style is traditionally used both to cultivate concentration and to change emotional and perceptual patterns.
“It is extremely important to train your mind in the Four Immeasurables of which you should principally practice immeasurable loving kindness. If you do not give rise to a mind of loving-kindness, then your recitations of the Four Immeasurables are only empty words. If you do give rise to a mind of loving-kindness, all Four Immeasurables are essentially included in it.” – Garchen Rinpoche
What's Included
- Lifetime access to the course
- Six days of teaching & practice (32 hours of video)
- Downloadable audio version of the teachings
- Guidance on the meaning of being in retreat and the advisable way to do so
- Suggested retreat schedule for engaging in retreat at home
- Sessions of guided meditations
- Notes & further materials for the retreat
The Teacher
Michael Lobsang Tenpa (he/they) is a Tibetan Buddhist translator, meditation instructor, Cultivating Emotional Balance (CEB) teacher and student of EcoDharma. Born in Siberia, he earned BA and MA degrees in South Asian studies, worked in social media and eventually received ordination in Nepal, spending nine years as a Tibetan Buddhist monastic before switching to the path of a lay teacher/practitioner.
In addition to years of Buddhist studies and translator work, he also trained as a secular ethics and mindfulness instructor in the Netherlands, the UK and the US.
