Vipassana Retreat

With Ven. Lobsang Zopa

August 17-27, 2023

10 day retreat at Nalanda

Venerable Lobsang Zopa is a Spanish monk who was ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. He is a recognized teacher by the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Buddhism (FPMT) and was a residential monk at Nalanda Monastery from 2006 to 2021, where he studied the fundamental texts of Tibetan Buddhism.

Venerable Zopa has a Master degree in Mindfulness in the context of health and research from the Complutense University of Madrid. And certified in MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction).

He currently lives in Spain regularly teaches meditation courses in several countries around the world.

Registration closes 1 August 2023

About

The registration for Vipassana Retreat 2023 is not open yet. We plan to open it in April 2023.

Vipassana is an ancient Buddhist meditation technique that goes back to the Sathipatanna sutra in the Pali Canon. Literally, it means ‘higher’ or ‘special seeing’. Based on a mind of meditative stabilization, Vipassana is a meditation practice which carefully investigates the essential aspects of our body and mind; their impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and lack of a master-self.

The wisdom and mindfulness that is generated through the practice intends to liberate our mind from mental disturbances that cause ourselves and others suffering. It reduces and potentially eliminates our grasping to a false self, our clinging to fleeting experiences and our unhelpful emotional reflexes of anger, craving and so on. When practiced correctly and over a long time, vipassana helps us to live our live with more mental spaciousness and calm and love for others and ourselves.

Overview

During the Nalanda Vipassana Retreat you will learn:

How to practice Vipassana meditation and calm abiding (concentration) meditation
How to do walking meditation
Strengthen and refine your meditative practice if you already have one
How to develop a daily meditation practice which you can bring with you home

Please be aware that a 10 day Vipassana retreat can be intensive. It involves many sessions of sitting meditation, strict silence and sharing a relatively small space with other participants for a prolonged time.

Translations

Venerable Zopa instructs in Spanish. Interpretations in English and French will be available. Please bring your own FM radio with earphones if you need translation to English or French.

Schedule

Here’s the final schedule for the year 2022. It might be different this year.

Retreat Conditions

In order to create the best possible conditions for a fruitful retreat we ask all participants to be mindful of the following rules:

Silence: After the first session until the last session all participants must observe strict silence. Speaking is only allowed in the ‘Question and Answer sessions’ and in case of emergency.
No cell phones or other electronic devices (like tablets): Cell phones will be collected at the beginning of the retreat and returned at the end.
Sessions: Participants must try to attend all sessions.
Food: All meals are vegetarian or vegan. We offer breakfast, lunch and a light dinner.
Karma yoga: Participants must perform a light task every day, for example, cleaning or dishwashing.
Punctuality: It is very important to arrive on time for all sessions. A wristwatch or something similar will be useful.
No books: Don’t bring books with you, not even if they are related to Vipassana. The fewer distractions the better.
The five basic precepts: We ask you to refrain from killing, stealing, lying, taking intoxicants (including cigarettes), and engaging in sexual activity while staying at Nalanda.

The registration is not open yet.