in Kreivilä course center, Matku (Forssa), Finland
”Just as literal rest allows the body and mind to renew themselves, so deep rest also drops us into direct and non-conceptual awareness. This contact with aliveness feeds a natural opening to deep meditation, where old habit-energies are resolved without the intense drama that occurs when we are forcing things. Life beyond ideas leaves room for spacious joy and powerful shifts that make a real difference in our lives.” —Jaya Ashmore
In a Deep Rest meditation retreat one is guided to give up trying to be “a good meditator”. Participants are encouraged to try lying down for meditation, but sitting is also fine. The posture can be adjusted freely before and during meditation. In a relaxed posture we are more able to let go of deep contractions of body and mind. Also, as we are not so dominated by our greed to try to get it right or try to be someone, we can find and develop a more authentic relationship with ourselves, the world and others.
Thinking about the theme of the retreat, Noon has written the following words:
Listening inside, in between, into the space between us & beyond…
Resting into our bodies, allowing spaciousness, & attunement to be here, without effort…
Feeling our sensitive skin as a flimsy frontier, our bone’s weight sinking into the earth, our heart as worth listening to.
Deep Resting into Friendship:
intimacy with our self, our inner movements & energies,
intimacy with others, finding our way to belonging in connection with friends & strangers,
intimacy with the world, our surroundings, nature or just the air around us, water on our eyelashes, fire in our bellies & earth under our feet.
We will explore this theme of three friendships or three intimacies & ways of tuning into being best friends with ourself, at ease in connection & disconnection with friends & others,
finding each person’s own way to healthy boundaries & awakening to expansiveness in ease & in difficulty…
off the beaten tracks & wide.
Many other themes may emerge or branch out from the above during this retreat: it’s a light stepping stone.
Who is teaching?
Noon’s ongoing fields of exploration are connecting with curiosity, energy, and a sense of embodying spiritual practice through grounding meditations, into the natural kindness in our sensual human bodies, beyond concepts. He enjoys how the traditional and open spirituality practices meet as one in his heart.
Noon has been practicing with Jaya Ashmore from Open Dharma since 2008. He’s a transsexual man, intrigued by freedom from suffering through form and formless resonances.
Noon is an ex circus artist and street performer who retired from the circus in 2004 to dedicate his life to spiritual practice and Dhamma centers. Currently Noon lives at Ekuthuleni, an ecological retreat place near the French Pyrenees, rooted in the tradition of Ajahn Chah whilst also listening deeply to spiritual currents of all sorts.
What happens on the retreat?
The retreat starts on Monday, June 5th at 6 pm and ends on Sunday, June 11th by 2 pm.
The daily schedule consists of silent and guided meditations, contemplative walking and movement, dhamma talks, and breaks for rest or own practice. There is also space for one-to-one sharings and some sacred chanting. Each practitioner is asked to participate in one hour of working meditation a day, such as vegetable chopping or basic cleaning in the house.
The retreat is held in silence. All teaching will be in English. The retreat is appropriate for people at all experience levels or with no meditation experience.
Price and registration
The standard cost for the retreat is 340€ (not including possible donations for teacher and managers). We are willing and able to support your practice regardless of your financial status at the moment. This means that it is possible to pay less than the standard cost. If you would like to support someone else with some extra payment, that is also possible and greatly appreciated.
Here you can find more information about practicalities and instructions on how to register.
You can ask more from retriitit@syvalepo.fi, or by phone from Ulla Sillanpää (+358 40 536 4181, application and payment) or Havu Pellikka (+358 50 499 1131, other questions).
From participants of previous deep rest retreats:
”My own practice has been deeply insprired by the deep rest meditation approach. For me this has offered a deep way of opening body, heart and mind; an escape from extensive doing and trying to achieve in meditation; encouragement in finding my own path; and trust in a more intuitive way of guiding my practice and my life, and in letting processes unfold by themselves.”
– Anna Backholm, Finland
”I don’t even know what happened to me during only 5 days – was it the meditation, silence, the deep rest, Jaya’s teachings, chanting, food, nature, the community or everything that happened to me before that lead me to that place? I know, separation is illusion – it was everything, it was life. But something opened inside of me and made me feel like I arrived home, so happy, light, relaxed and sometimes heavy, drowsy, anxious, emotional and processing things, sometimes ecstatic, always full of gratitude. I can say the retreat changed my life and was one of greatest things I’ve experienced. I was relieved of so much pain, some of it something I carried with me since childhood. … It’s like I was a piano that was out of tune and now someone came and tuned me.”
– Lari Miikkulainen, Finland
Everyone is warmly welcome!