Jan Deckers writes from Metta Vihara, Triratna’s new and beautiful retreat centre in the Dutch countryside. He says - “We had a wonderful working retreat at Metta Vihara, one where we learned again that Buddhism teaches us that everything is subject to change - including our retreats…! What had initially been announced as a youth retreat eventually turned into a working family retreat, and as many as 30 people (aged between one and seventy!) came over to Metta Vihara in order to play, to work, to meditate and mostly to live with each other. While the grown-ups played with sand paper and paint brushes, the children painted beautiful Buddhas and mandalas.

We built and carpentered a shed, while the children built wooden constructions and shrines. We searched and dug for a lost water well for a whole day, we made music, told stories, shared rituals, cooked lovely meals and ate … And throughout all activities adults and children supported and inspired one another in order to do all of this in attention, care for oneself, energy and harmony.

At the end of the week we looked at all the work that had been done with great pride and joy and both sheds were inaugurated by the women who so skilfully guided this retreat, Dayapadma and Vajramayi. It was a gem of a week!!

And a lot of great pictures: https://plus.google.com/photos/104696516234718550423/albums/5901232149027696145

Kind regards! Jan”