The Awakening Heart and the Divine Abodes
With Rijumitra and Tejananda
November 21 - 30, 2025
Bodhicitta – the awakening heart – is both the heart–response of wisdom to the suffering of living beings everywhere and the urge to realise full awakening for the benefit of all. This retreat will focus on love, compassion, joy and equanimity – the four ‘divine abodes’ or brahmaviharas – in the context of cultivating bodhicitta.
To support this, we’ll also introduce tonglen, the ‘sending and receiving’ practice which opens the heart to universal compassion.
The divine abodes are also known as the ‘boundless states’,¬ because they are inclusive of all living beings without exception. The practices that we’ll explore together on this retreat are all ways of opening our hearts and responding to the joys and sufferings of living beings – opening to the inseparable wisdom and compassion of the awakening heart itself.
Leaders
Tejananda has been practising meditation and Buddhism for nearly 50 years and has been a member of the Triratna Order since 1980. He has worked in a vegetarian café in Croydon, helped establish the Bristol Buddhist Centre, worked for the Karuna Trust, written a book introducing the fundamentals of Buddhism (‘The Buddhist Path to Awakening’) and taught meditation and Dharma in many parts of the UK, Europe, the USA and Australasia. A member of the Vajraloka resident team from 1995 to 2023, he remains actively involved in teaching and leading retreats at Vajraloka, as well as at other Triratna centres…
Learn more about Tejananda