Why not come and join us for a long weekend away in the Lake District on a walking meditation retreat at Easter 2018?

The retreat will consist of two full walking days on the Saturday and Sunday with a shorter walk on Monday. During the walks we will spend sections of the walk in silence (around 30 to 45 minutes) to more fully appreciate the beautiful countryside, fauna and flora etc.

The Saturday/Sunday walks will be around four to six hours long with the shorter walking on Monday being around three hours giving you time to get back to Ulverston station for around 3pm. Paths generally good but maybe steep in parts. Height gain on the walks will be between 300 and 700 metres and distances between five to eight miles.

Dates: Friday 30th March 2018 (6pm) to Monday 2nd April 2018 (2.30pm).

Venue: Rookhow Center, Rusland, Ulverston, Cumbria, LA12 8LA. For more details about this charming historic Quaker meeting house please see this link. The nearest railway station is at Ulverston, nine miles away (with hourly trains from London). We can arrange lifts from the station if you are arriving by train.

Cost: £120 for the long weekend. This includes all food and accommodation. If the cost prevents you from participating for financial reasons, please contact us to discuss concessions, giving brief details of your financial position.

Who is the retreat for? Anyone aged 18 or over who is interested in walking and the outdoors, socialising and learning along the way perhaps a bit more about the Middle Way and how to practice it. We welcome people from any background or tradition, as the Middle Way begins wherever you are now and leads on from there. You will need to be relatively fluent in English and have a decent level of fitness. You do not necessarily have to be a member of the society, though we hope you will consider joining. If you have a physical or learning disability, or other health issues, please contact us before booking to discuss whether or not the retreat can meet your needs.

Retreat Leader: Barry Daniel, who has been practising meditation for around seven years and a member of the Middle Way Society for four years. Barry’s love of walking started with family walking holidays as a kid. He’s been a keen walker ever since and has walked in many parts of the world. He spent 10 years running his own walking holiday company in Northern Spain and is a fully qualified mountain leader. He currently lives in the Lake District and very much enjoys the company of other people on the fells but also often walks alone which he feels gives him space to reflect, be more mindful about his surroundings and gain a wider perspective.

Retreat Programme: Friday evening will include a short introductory talk and meditation. On Saturday and Sunday we’ll start the day with a meditation then following breakfast we’ll head off for our first walk. In the evenings, we’ll have a shorter meditation followed by the evening meal then the rest of the time is yours to relax, play music together etc. On the Monday we’ll do a shorter walk and come back for a light snack and a final feedback session Meals are taken communally, and everyone on the retreat is asked to contribute to cooking and washing up (unless they have physical difficulties with this).

Accommodation: The youth-hostel style accommodation will be in dormitory spaces, with bunk beds and some single beds, and shared bathroom facilities. We will separate the sexes in the two main dormitory areas. We regret that we cannot provide any single rooms on this retreat, but if privacy is vital for you it may be possible to camp outside (please let us know that you want to do this when booking).

Retreat conditions: To help maintain a retreat atmosphere without distractions, participants are asked not to use mobile phones or other electronic devices on the retreat, except for urgent personal reasons in private or for the purposes of the retreat programme. There is in any case no TV, radio, telephone or internet at the venue. You are also asked not to initiate new sexual relationships with other people on the retreat.

To book: Please fill in the online form below, then pay a non-returnable deposit of £40 to secure your place. You can pay this either online, by bank transfer or by cheque. The balance of your payment is due one week before the retreat begins.

• To pay online, please use the Paypal facility that should load automatically after you have submitted the form. This Paypal facility also allows you to pay by credit or debit card.
• To pay by bank transfer, close the Paypal facility page and pay through your bank to Account: Middle Way Society, Co-operative Bank, Sort Code  089299, account number 65711376. Please use your name as a reference. For international transfers, use IBAN GB50 CPBK 0892 9965 7113 76, BIC CPBK GB22.
• If you need to pay by cheque, please contact barry (at) middlewaysociety.org

To pay your balance online please go straight to the weekend retreat booking payment page and select the appropriate option from the dropdown menu. If paying by bank transfer, please see the details above.

Contact: For all questions about the retreat please email barry (at) middlewaysociety.org. Substitute @ for (at).

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