Steve & Rosemary's retreats and teachings are based in the skilful meditation techniques and path to Insight of Theravada Buddhism. The main aim of the practice is to help us develop Vipassana or Insight into Reality and the deepening of unselfish emotions.
Vipassana is an ancient Indian Pali word that does not mean a specific technique, but the resulting Insight and Wisdom which comes from skillful methods. This unfolding wisdom helps us understand the underlying characteristics of ourselves and life. With the strengthening of mindfulness and wisdom, the unselfish emotions, that are the key to our inner well being, are strengthened.
The techniques taught include the developing of:
- Concentration and mindfulness.
- Moment-to-moment awareness.
- The investigative quality of clear comprehension which helps to discover the deeper laws of cause and effect, and dependent arising nature of body and mind.
- Unselfish emotions such as compassion, lovingkindness, sympathetic joy and equanimity. These help to transform our intentions and develop our emotional well-being. Also they help evolve the mind sufficiently so it is capable of understanding.
- Yonisomanasikara, or Wise Reflection, which helps to develop the faculty of analytical investigation into the deeper truths and laws governing the body and mind.
Rosemary & Steve believe that the path of meditation and mind development is more fruitful and fulfilling if treated as a whole.
Rather than a few limited techniques, the focus is to develop a path that can nurture us in the multifaceted nature of our experience with the world and our relationships with others.
If we develop a mindful and compassionate way of living, all of life experiences, whether pleasant of unpleasant, can be seen as a way to deepen our compassionate understanding, thus helping to liberate us from problems and difficulties and find more inner peace.
The Buddha is recorded to have given appropriate ways of practice to people from all walks of life. This ranged from people actively involved in the everyday world with home, relationships, and work responsibilities to those devoting their life full-time to the inner journey.
Steve and Rosemary have been greatly inspired by the varied examples of how the Buddha taught, thus they try to teach what is appropriate and beneficial for their students
They follow a simple principle: "You have to use the right medicine for a particular disease. No matter how good the medicine is, if it is not the appropriate one for the disease, then the disease cannot be cured."
With long experience from their own practice and teaching people from all over the world, from a multitude of occupations, religions, cultures and walks of life, the young to the old, they have developed a deep understanding of the human mind and human relationships. This has given rise to many skilful techniques that help their students overcome the obstacles and challenges in the practice and have enabled thousands to lessen the problems they face in their lives.
With the help of these techniques, the meditator is able to develop beneficial mind qualities such as Compassion, Patience, Lovingkindness, Acceptance, Equanimity, Joy, etc. At the same time lessen attachment to unbeneficial qualities such as anger, hatred, greed, worry, frustration, self-pity, envy, etc.
If we learn a balanced practice, we are able to use whatever is appropriate to deal with the often complex and difficult experiences in life.
Through an overall and balanced mind development practice, we may be able to gain Insight into our own nature and the laws of Nature; developing deep Compassion and Understanding of the origins of difficulties and stress, and how to end them. This Compassionate Understanding may enable us to deal more successfully with all of life's situations, whether pleasant or unpleasant, helping us to react to the arising and passing of experience within ourselves and the world in a more balanced way.
As we learn to react in a wise way, Peace, Balance and Strength start to be experienced within the purification and development of the mind.
If you are interested, you may read or listen to our first three days of talks from our regular retreats: 3 days of teachings.