Winter Mindfulness Retreat
Winter Mindfulness Retreat
in the wilderness of the lakes region of Finland
Led by Stephan Pende Wormland
Saturday, December 29th, 2012 – Saturday, January 5th, 2013
Time for reflection, meditation, walks in the snowy forest, warming up in the sauna, sculpting a sparkling ice-stupa and a beautiful fire ceremony by the lake: What a great way to start the New Year! We hope you will join us for this remarkable retreat opportunity.
The Center for Wisdom & Compassion, Copenhagen and the Tara Liberation Study Group, Helsinki will host a week long mindfulness retreat with one of our favorite teachers, Stephan Pende Wormland, at the Metsäkartano nature center in the lakes region of Finland.
Mindfulness
We will train our compassion, attention and concentration through guided exercises while standing, sitting, walking and lying down. The guided meditations, presence of the group, and the beautiful wilderness surroundings will be wonderful supports to the process of letting go of worries about the past and the future, as well as our conditioned stressful attitudes and will help us to connect with the natural clarity, beauty and joy of our minds. There will be short and longer periods of silence. The teaching, exercises and guided meditations will be given in easy-to-understand English.
Engaging the elements with the body and the mind
We can treat our bodies to the feeling of the brisk, fresh air and untouched snow or crisp, clear lake water as well as damp heat in the sauna. We can also participate in building a large outdoor stupa, an ancient, sculptural form for a mandala, out of ICE and a participating in or witnessing a FIRE puja, a buddhist purification ceremony, by the lake. The ice-stupas sparkle beautifully in the landscape, and are fun to work on together and the fire-puja will be a great opportunity to get a clean start for the new year.
Details
Accomodation
We will stay at a beautiful wilderness resort next to a lake in the middle of the nature preservation areas in North-East Finland. There will be wonderful possibilities to experience silence and connection with the winter nature. Metsäkartano has a peaceful room with lake panorama called ”Chapel” which we will use as a meditation space. The accommodation will be in a wilderness hotel, in comfortable rooms for 2-4 persons. Each room has its own bathroom. All the meals are included during the whole retreat. During free time, we will have free use of skis, snowshoes, kick-sledges and other outdoor equipment, as well as a gym. There is also a sauna by the lake that we will be welcome to use. More information about Metsäkartano here.
Transport
The participants are requested to reserve their own flights to Finland. Please book a morning flight to Helsinki on 29th of December, and an evening flight on 5th of January. At the moment, the cheapest connection is by SAS via www.momondo.dk, price 943 DKK:
29.12.12 at 08:10 from Copenhagen and arriving at 10:10 to Helsinki
05.01.13 at 18:35 from Helsinki and 19:15 in Copenhagen
We will collect the information from all the participants’ arrival and departure times after the registration deadline to the retreat.
There will be organised a bus transfer from the city center of Helsinki via Helsinki-Vantaa airport directly to Metsäkartano, and back after the retreat. This will be the easiest and cheapest way to travel to Metsäkartano. We will know the exact price for the bus transportation when we will know the amount of participants to the retreat. If there are 23 participants leaving from Helsinki, the bus transfers will be about 745 DKK/100 EUR for return ticket per person. This cost is not part of the retreat fee.
It is of course possible to arrive also by your own means directly to Metsäkartano. In that case, we will inform you about the preferred arrival time to Metsäkartano.
Teacher
Stephan Pende is educated as a psychologist and has studied and practiced Buddhism for over 20 years. He has a wonderful way of presenting Buddhist philosophy, psychology and practice that is accessible and inspiring. Read more about Stephan here.
Price
A. Pay all at once: 3.915 DKK (528 €)* due anytime before November 11th
B. Pay in two steps this option is available until November 1st
1. Deposit 500 DKK (66 €)*
2. Balance 3.415 DKK (462 €)*
If you would like to have a single room, please add 500 kroner (67 €) to the above prices, see registration possibilites below.
Registration: here before November 11th, 2012*
Price includes: Retreat program with Stephan Pende, accommodation with full-board (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and evening snack) for 7 nights, coffee/tea during the whole retreat, guided ice-sculpturing, a fire puja and free use of outdoor equipment such as skis and snowshoes.
Location: Metsäkartanontie 700, Rautavaara, Finland
*The 20% Discount for Full and Extended Members does not apply to retreats. Your payment covers room, board and a donation to support our teacher, but transport is not included. Any funds in excess will support the center’s operational costs.
If you have questions, please feel free to contact us at: kursus-cvm@fpmt.dk.
We hope to see you on the retreat!
Date/Time
Date(s) – Saturday, December 29th until thaturday, #January #5#th
18:00 – 10:00
Location
Metsakartano Nature Center
Category(ies)
Bookings
Bookings are closed for this event.