Retreats
with Dharmagarage
Ethos
Our ethos is grounded in working hard on making genuine progress towards clear intentions for practice and having a lot of fun along the way.
We run small retreats with a maximum of 15 people, which include lots of one-to-one time, to make sure you get the most out of your practice time.
We share a deep love for dharma and a passion for inspiring and guiding people on the path. All of our events are offered on the basis of Dana.
Our wide range of skills and experience come together very harmoniously. From clear mindfulness to rich heartfulness and deep states of joyful concentration, we weave it together into a retreat experience that supports you to deepen your practice.
We use a mix of traditions, tools and techniques. The main practices we bring to retreats are:
- Vipassana practice
- Heart practices
- Imaginal practices
- Self enquiry, question-based and koan practices
- Jhana and absorption practices
- ‘Do-nothing’ or Zazen
We see these practices as strengthening and intimately connected to one another. Our teaching is always based on designing a retreat that will be most helpful for you, rather than any dogma.
Our retreats aren’t about us sitting at the front, talking at you. Using a favourite analogy, it’s not about you coming to see us play a music concert, it’s about us giving you the guidance for you to play in the orchestra.
We aim for you to leave every retreat having deepened your practice and with a clear idea of how you can carry what you have learned forward into your own practice.
Awakening or deepening of experience is not something that happens on your own. We help to create a supportive and rich group container that includes group sharing, Q&A time and interpersonal practices. We think that showing up for each other and feeling the support of a committed and friendly group of fellow practitioners is one of the best things for fast-tracking your practice.
Having some fun together along the way is also half the point.
We encourage wholeness. Everything is welcome in the container, including the darkness, difficulties and frustrations. We explicitly create space for people to vent and air challenges honestly, which makes it easier for people to recognise them and move through them in practice.
As well as increasing our capacity for awareness, part of the process is reintegrating these challenging parts of us, moving through difficult experiences and learning the skills to weather the storms that can come up in practice.
We offer full support for any dark night experiences that arise during or after the retreat.
We like to keep it front of mind that our practice is in service of cultivating the intentions you most want to manifest in life; increasing your capacity to connect more meaningfully with yourself and others; and embodying the true nature of your being for the benefit of yourself and all beings.
Previous Retreats
Recorded Retreats – You can listen to the guided meditations from previous retreats here
November 2021 – Jhana & Flow In-Person Weekend Retreat, Netherlands
April 2021 – Becoming an Imaginal Practitioner Online Retreat – read more
February 2021 – Winter/Spring Online Vipassana Retreat – read more
January 2021 – New Year’s Online Vipassana Retreat – read more
Teachers
Rosa Lewis is a mystic who has a background in a wide range of meditative, spiritual and therapeutic practices. She is passionate about the importance of human connection and embracing the full range of thoughts and emotions in practice to transform our relationship to life.
You can find out more about her on her website, here.
Joost Vervoort is the founder of the Dharmagarage. He has a background in Rinzai zen practice (shikantaza and koans/self-enquiry), but has deeply embodied an eclectic range of practice approaches.
Joost is also a sustainability researcher and is interested in how Buddhist conceptions of interdependence relate to ecological thought.
You can find him on Twitter.
David Lassiter has a deep love for exploring the mind and consciousness. He has spent over 18 months on intensive meditation retreat, primarily in the Theravada Buddhist tradition.
David recently returned to the West after five years practicing and studying meditation in Nepal, India, and Thailand.
You find out more about him on his website, here.
Feedback About Our Retreats
“I felt properly guided and supported, by the teachers and by the group. I particularly enjoyed the combination of Vipassana with the heart-centred and inquiry practices, and the emphasis on compassion and playfulness. I feel excited and confident about my practice going forward.”
“A really great and supportive container for continuous practice – perhaps 2021 confinement is no bad thing after all! Thanks to you all”
“It was so much easier to dedicate myself to practice with the support of the group and knowledge that everyone was sitting. I particularly enjoyed the setting of intentions, the reminder of our shared space in the sharing sessions and learning from other people’s questions and practice.
I’ve returned to my regular practices and found that there is more clarity of sensation and natural calm/mindfulness present, which is encouraging. It feels like my intention to ‘know what I’m doing’ is flourishing.”
“My retreat experience was very good. Particularly helpful for me was the intention setting session with Rosa, that guided meditation touched me deeply. I remember using my 3 intentions in between sessions to recenter. Also the awesome guidance by David in general and in particular the preparational practice videos and the one-on-one interviews.
This practice helped me to focus my attention on one thing at a time, which seems very valuable for me. It has helped me to know bodily sensations more deeply and to be aware of more mind states. It has also helped my attention to follow and see more clearly the moment-to-moment stream of sensations.
Thanks for doing this. It means a lot to me.”
Photos
Recorded Retreats
You can listen to the guided meditations from previous retreats here >