Tergar Australia 3-day residential retreat
The Union of Wisdom and Compassion
The Buddhist path to calming the mind and opening the heart focuses on the practice of wisdom and compassion. These ancient practices are helpful for anyone who wants to find a healthy way to relate to the world around us, and discover an inner resiliency that can meet the challenges we face. Ultimately these practices awaken the love, compassion, and wisdom that is already within us.
In this 3–day residential retreat, we will explore Buddhist meditation practices that cultivate bodhicitta–the intention to help all beings realize their awakened nature–and analytical meditations that help to awaken wisdom. Suitable for beginners and experienced meditators.
Offering a unique opportunity to gather together with the encouragement of fellow practitioners, this retreat can strengthen and refresh our practice while exploring the meditation teachings of Mingyur Rinpoche.
The schedule includes six to eight hours of meditation per day. These meditation periods are practiced in 30-minute sessions and include movement, periods of silence, video teachings by Mingyur Rinpoche, and presentations on the key points of meditation by Tergar Guides Edwin Kelley and Myoshin Kelley. Optional group discussions and individual interviews will be available. The retreat will include periods of silence. Please see the schedule here.
Qualifications
This retreat is open to anyone with an interest in meditation. Whether you have never done a retreat before or are a seasoned practitioner, it provides an opportunity to taste the benefits of sustained meditation practice. It is also a good follow-up for anyone who has done a Tergar Joy of Living or Path of Liberation program.
This retreat is for adults only. You must be over the age of 18 to attend.
Location
Brahma Kumaris Peninsula - 83-99 Stotts Lane, Frankston South, Victoria 3199
Located approximately one hour from Melbourne, at the gateway to the Mornington Peninsula, the Centre is accessible by car and train/bus.
Dates & Times
Three Days - 10am April 12 — 6pm April 14.
Full Schedule to be announced soon.
Registration costs
Base, Shared Twin Room: $590.00 AUD —This covers the cost of the program.
Sponsor, Shared Twin Room: $850.00 AUD — This level allows us to offer a reduced price to those on a limited income.
Reduced, Shared Twin Room: $400.00 AUD — Reduced fee for those with limited income. Limited numbers available.
Non-residential: $300.00 AUD — For those commuting but still able to maintain retreat conditions, including attending all sessions promptly. Includes all meals.
All residential fees include on-site accomodation (including linen) and three vegetarian meals per day, plus coffee, tea and drinks throughout the day. Sponsor rates will go towards subsidising concession rates and those in need of financial assistance to attend.
We strive to offer programs like this one as broadly as we can, regardless of ability to pay. Please consider adding an additional donation during registration or at the event to help share these teachings with as many people as possible.
If the admission fee creates an obstacle to attending this event, please email us at info@tergar.org.au and we will try to make attendance feasible for you. Please note however there are a limited number of reduced tickets and please ask you only select this option if it is truly needed.
Spaces are limited to 50 participants.
About the Venue
The Brahma Kumaris Centre for Spiritual Learning is a peaceful oasis of gardens and bushland and is accessible by car, bus, and train. Accommodation is in comfortable twin rooms with ensuites. The rooms look out over serene gardens and bushland surrounding the meditation centre. Tergar Australia thanks Brahma Kumaris Australia for making their beautiful retreat centre available to them for this retreat.
Accommodation
All accomodation is in shared twin rooms with ensuite bathrooms. A small number of single rooms may be available but cannot be guaranteed. If you wish to share a room with a specific person, please note this in your registration form.
Other Information
Meals and other Inclusions:
All retreat fees are fully inclusive and include linen and vegetarian meals. A full list of what to bring/not bring will be provided closer to the opening day. If retreat participants wish to bring additional food for some special reason (e.g. dietary requirements) at no time is non-vegetarian food to be brought onto the property. Most special dietary requirements can be catered for and any dietary needs should be communicated as early as possible via your registration form.
Accessibility:
There are limited accessibility options for wheelchair users. Please email us at info@tergar.org.au before registering for more information.
Noble Silence:
Noble silence will begin shortly after registration on the first day and continue through the closing session.
Meditation Cushions and Chairs
A small number of meditation cushions will be available for use but we strongly suggest bringing your own. Chairs will be freely available.
Cancellation Terms:
Full refunds will be available up to 30 days before the start of the event. 50% refunds up to 15 days. No refunds are available if cancelled within 7 days. If the event is cancelled for Covid or other aspects out of our control, full refunds will be available at any time.
About your Instructors, Myoshin and Edwin Kelley:
Myoshin Kelley
At a young age, Myoshin decided that school could not teach her what she wanted to know and decided that life would be her teacher. This led her to a lifelong journey of living in spiritual communities while exploring the inner terrain of being human.
Myoshin received dharma instruction from renowned Buddhist teachers Chanmyay Sayadaw, Sayadaw U Pandita, Sayadaw U Tejaniya, and Hogen Yamahata. She also developed a great love of retreats and at one point temporarily ordained as a nun in Myanmar.
Myoshin’s training as a meditation teacher began with Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in 1994. She was appointed the teacher in residence at the Forest Refuge, the long-term practice center at IMS, in 2003.
In 1998, Myoshin was introduced to Mingyur Rinpoche. Twelve years later she moved to Minneapolis to help Rinpoche and others with the formation of Tergar Meditation Community. For a decade she led the team to oversee the formation of Tergar meditation groups and the training of Tergar community leaders. As a Tergar instructor, Myoshin leads programs that experientially explore how the practice of meditation and the wisdom of an open heart support the path of awakening.
Nature has been a strong teacher and support for Myoshin throughout her life. She loves to do solitary retreats in nature as well as hike, bike, cross-country ski, and now swim in the ocean on the beautiful Sapphire Coast in Australia, where she lives with her husband Edwin.
Edwin Kelley
Edwin Kelley attended his first meditation retreat near Perth, Australia in 1975. He later pursued a career as a public accountant and in 1992 went to Burma to undertake a six-month period of intensive meditation practice with meditation master Chanmyay Sayadaw. While practicing in Burma he ordained temporarily as a Buddhist monk.
In 1994 he was hired as Director of Operations by one of America’s best known meditation retreat centers, the Insight Meditation Society (IMS), in Barre, MA. Eighteen months later he was appointed Executive Director of IMS and served in that capacity until 2003 when he resigned to pursue further long-term intensive meditation practice.
Edwin first encountered Vajrayana Buddhism in Dharamsala, India in 1993 and became a student of Mingyur Rinpoche in 1998. He has a post graduate diploma in Buddhist Studies from the University of Sunderland in the UK.
In 2009, Edwin and his wife Myoshin, moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota to help establish the global Tergar Meditation Community, where he then served variably as Executive, and Co-Executive Director, and CFO, until retiring from his administrative role with Tergar International at the end of 2022. He now lives on the Sapphire Coast in southern NSW, Australia.