Getting started

Welcome to our quick guide to the International Urban Retreat 2011. On these five sections (use the arrows or dots to navigate) you'll find instructions for taking part at a Buddhist Centre near you or for joining in online. View all participating Centres. Or get started now...

The Urban Retreat is designed and run by the Triratna Development Team, funded by Buddhist Centres around the world. It's completely free to take part, and it's contents are only accessible to members of the retreat.

This year's theme

Our theme for 2011 is 'Sailing the Worldly Winds'. The 'worldly winds' is a Buddhist teaching about how we can all get blown about by changing circumstances in our life. When things don't go the way we want we can get anxious, irritable, or we can just lose initiative. The urban retreat provides teachings and practices to help recognise these situations and respond to them with greater equanimity. Read more about how an urban retreat works.

Course materials

We'll offer full instruction for the retreat online, but you can also buy Vajragupta's new book: 'Sailing the Worldly Winds'. It’s not essential to read it to be able to take part, but it's a great guide to the material we'll be dealing with and will help you make the most of your retreat. You can download a sample chapter, or read it here (it's also embedded for easy reading on the last panel here).

Online resources:

• You'll be able to take part in our online practice group and post comments and questions, as well as images, quotes and videos inspired by your own experience on retreat.

• Listen to short talks on the worldly winds. Each day of the week there will be a ten-minute inspirational talk, and each speaker will be from a different part of the world.

• You can also post or email us a picture of your shrine for the Metta Wave and we'll add it to the map!

To join in the online urban retreat, this is what you'll need to do:

• Log-on each day, Saturday 8th to Saturday 15th, and get the 'teaching' for that day. This will be a short video talk, or a short text, followed by some questions and reflections, and then suggestions for how to practice that day. The reflections and suggested practices are designed so that you can keep them in mind as you go about your day – at work, home, college – wherever you are.

• Each day you log-on you'll be asked to review how you got on with your practice the day before, and then be given a new 'teaching' for the day to come.
• You can log-in from anywhere in the world and at any time of day. The first two days there is a bit more input, during the week daily input will be simpler.
• On or before the second day, Sunday, you'll also need to print out six copies of the urban retreat practice diary.