Bodhi Tree Vipassana Retreats

Available Year Round

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Bodhi Tree Vipassana Retreats
  • About
  • Gallery
  • Itinerary
  • Location
  • Things to keep in mind

Retreat Highlights 

• 2, 10, and 20 day Vipassana meditation course
• Silent
• Simple Vegetarian Food
• Introductory course to Vipassana Meditation where the technique is taught step-by-step each day
• Newly build beautiful pagoda on site understanding of the basics of insight meditation by attending an introductory

A meditation retreat is a serious undertaking which requires effort and self-discipline. A retreat is not merely a chance to escape the pressures of daily life, nor a means of overcoming a psychological crisis, nor time out in which to do your own practice. Rather, it is a unique opportunity to cultivate the Buddha’s way of liberation first taught two and a half thousand years ago through the practice of generosity, ethics, meditation and understanding. 

Vipassana Retreats

Residential retreats can run for two, ten or twenty days. Retreats are conducted in silence, which includes no talking (including no use of mobile phones or email), no communicating through body language, no listening to music, no reading, and no writing, except for brief notes recording your meditation experience. However, there are opportunities to discuss the practice with the teacher through individual consultations or group discussions. 

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About

  • Bunk style in dorm rooms
  • Vegetarian Food
  • Tour with wildlife and birdlife animals 
  • 2, 10, and 20 day Vipassana meditation course
  • Introductory course to Vipassana Meditation where the technique is taught step-by-step each day

Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery and Retreat Centre is on ninety five acres, five minutes north of Lismore in the Rainbow Region of Northern NSW near Byron Bay.

FOOD 

We serve simple, healthy, predominantly organic, vegetarian food, with the main meal of the day at lunchtime. Most retreats will also have a light supper served in the evening. Meals are often cooked by volunteers or donated, and due to the large numbers to be catered for, we are generally able to cater for special dietary requirements.

ACCOMODATION 

Accommodation at present is bunk style in dorm rooms separated for men and women. Some meditators may stay in tents or campervans. Mattresses, pillows and blankets are provided. Sitting mats, cushions and chairs are also provided in the meditation hall – although most meditators find it beneficial to bring their own equipment, particularly meditation stools. Ear plugs can also be beneficial for light sleepers.


A list of items to bring: 

  • Sheets or Sleeping Bag
  • Pillow Case
  • Towel
  • Torch Insect Repellent
  • Sunscreen
  • Personal Medicines or Vitamins
  • Hat, Umbrella
  • Slip On Shoes or Sandals
  • Watch/Clock with Alarm
  • Personal Meditation Cushion or Stool (optional)
  • Notepad and Pen, Toiletries
  • Ear Plugs
  • Water Bottle
  • Appropriate Clothing (modest,quiet, comfortable and warm or cool depending upon the season – nights can get cold in winter)

Wishes to have a total grounding in Vipassana and gain greator understanding of themselves.

All courses at Bodhi Tree are run on a dana (donation) basis.

The Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery and Retreat Centre is run by monks and volunteers as a part of the Buddha Dhamma Education Association, a non-profit organisation which also runs the website www.buddhanet.net. All of our expenses and running costs are covered by generous donations. They do not include any charge for the teachings, which are given freely in accordance with the Buddhist tradition. As the monks and teachers are not paid for their teachings and guidance, they rely solely on the generosity of their students for their livelihood and basic requirements. Similarly, the Centre relies on donations to cover its ongoing maintenance and future building programs.

Generosity, or dana, is the foundation practice of the Buddha’s way of liberation, and helps to break the mind’s tendency toward attachment. So we encourage students to make an offering to their teacher and/or the Bodhi Tree Centre. An offering to the Centre could also be in the form of volunteer labour, for example as a cook or cook’s assistant during the retreat, cleaning, general maintenance of equipment, or maintaining the property itself, requisites for the monks, or covering grocery bills and food for the retreat.

As we are often asked what a suitable donation might be, in the end this is always up to the meditator, however an amount, to at least cover your share of our costs and provide some sort of donation to the teacher and monks would be considered very kind and generous. Generally it costs Bodhi Tree about $25 per person per day and an offering to the monks and teacher is entirely up to you – the important thing is the act of giving.

1. To abstain from intentionally killing or harming living beings.
2. To abstain from taking what is not given or offered.
3. To abstain from sexual misconduct (abstention from all sexual activity on retreat).
4. To abstain from dishonest or harsh speech (noble silence while on retreat).
5. To abstain from intoxicants that clouds the mind.

1. To act with compassion and loving-kindness towards all sentient beings.
2. To be open hearted and generous.
3. To practice stillness, simplicity, contentment and self-restraint.
4. To speak with truth, clarity and peace.
5. To live with mindfulness.

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About The Host

Venerable Pannyavaro

Venerable Pannyavaro

Venerable Pannyavaro is an Australian Buddhist monk who has devoted his life to the meditational aspects of the Buddha's teachings.

During his meditation training, he practiced under several meditation masters in Sri Lanka and Burma, including Venerable Sayadaw U Janaka of Chanmyay Meditation Centre, Rangoon, who is the foremost disciple of the renowned Burmese meditation master, the late Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw.

Pannyavaro was involved in the beginnings of a number of the very early Buddhist communities in Australia. He later went to Thailand and received higher ordination at Wat Borvornivet in Bangkok under Venerable Phra Nyanasamvarva, the Sangha Raja of Thailand.

Since 1974, he has from time to time studied and practised Vipassana meditation in most of the major Theravada Buddhist countries, including long periods of intensive practise with teachers at the Mahasi Sayadaw centres in Burma.

As a Western meditation teacher, Ven. Pannyavaro naturally empathises with the concerns and needs of meditators in their own culture. His long training and life experience combine to bring a practical in-depth approach to the teaching of insight (Vipassana) meditation in contemporary life.

In 2005, Pannyavaro founded the Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery and Retreat Centre, near Lismore in Northern NSW, Australia, where he is the resident senior monk and teacher. He also gives retreats and meditation workshops from time to time in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and other Asian countries, but more regularly he conducts retreats and workshops at the Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery and Retreat Centre.

Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery and Retreat Centre have a regular schedule of retreats and workshops for beginners and long-term meditators throughout the year. You are welcome to come to Bodhi Tree to practice.

Itinerary

  • Day to Day

    A typical retreat day begins around 

    6 am (depending upon the teacher this may be 4:30 am) and ends around 9 pm, with a rest period in the middle of the day and Dhamma Talk every evening.The whole day is spent practising sitting and walking meditation, cultivating continuous attention to the changing nature  of our moment-to-moment experience. 


Location

Things to keep in mind

As we do not charge a deposit and rely on donations, there have been instances in the past of yogis abusing this tradition, either by not turning up at all, or cancelling at the last minute. This causes the centre many problems both with the ordering of food quantities, as well as the organisation of other yogis to fill the vacancy at the last minute. Please give us as much notice as possible if you need to cancel your booking, so that we can offer your place to another student, or amend catering requirements. Remember if you do leave early, there were probably several people on the waiting list who could have done the course in your place. Out of consideration for them, as well as your own practice, please make a commitment to attend the whole course.