Retreats

Open Retreat

Freedom to Grow: A Weekend Retreat for Fathers

On this retreat, we will explore how we can allow our minds to flourish in whatever conditions we find ourselves in our work, our families, our meditation, and our friendships. A retreat for fathers, grandfathers, stepfathers, surrogate fathers, fathers-to-be and father figures!

GFR Retreat

Ritual and Devotion

On this Going for Refuge retreat, we will ponder the profundity of the Puja through studying Sangharakshita's short work Ritual and Devotion in Buddhism.

Going For Refuge Retreat

The Mythic Context

Going for Refuge requires the activation of our strongest and deepest emotions. If we are to make any real progress in transforming ourselves, we must transform our emotional life through faith, imagination and an overarching Mythic Context.

Open Retreat

Men of Colour Weekend

Join us for this weekend on ‘the eight worldly winds’. These four pairs of opposing forces can bind us tightly to mundane life. But there is a way out.

Meditation Retreat

Essential Meditation

This no-nonsense retreat focuses on the core principles of meditation, helping you work effectively, renew motivation, and inspire your practice.

Open Retreat

Great Gathering: Padmasambhava in the Cremation Grounds

This will be a weekend evoking the mystery, wonder, and challenge of the Dharma life – where will you find the cremation ground? And will you survive it?

Order Retreat

Men’s European Mitra Convenors’ Meeting 1

A retreat for Mitra Convenors in Triratna to gather and deepen their inspiration and vision.

Open Retreat

Padmaloka Festival Day

The Padmaloka festival day offers a precious opportunity for all adults who practise within Triratna to come together for a day of Dharma, puja, friendship, and meditation.

GFR Retreat

The Ten Pillars

Each of the precepts is so precious that they can be likened to ten pillars made of precious substances – diamond, gold, crystal, pearl, etc. – which provide the essential foundation for the cultivation of higher states of consciousness and the development of transcendental insight.

GFR Retreat

Going for Refuge Weekend: Initiation in the Stupa

A retreat exploring the mythic and symbolic importance of the Private Ordination ceremony in building a life dedicated to Going for Refuge.

Order Retreat

UK & Ireland Men’s Area Order Weekend: A Word on the Mantrayana

Come on this Order weekend to explore and to dwell in the inspiration of our Sadhana practices.

Order Retreat

Padmasambhava Retreat

On this Order retreat for the followers of Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava, we will dwell in the world of the Padmasambhava sadhana.

Open Retreat

Sub-30s Retreat: The Turning About in the Deepest Seat of Consciousness

On this retreat, we will explore what it means to really turn about in the deepest seat of consciousness.

GFR Retreat

Spiritual Friendship

As well as studying Bhante’s teaching on spiritual friendship, we will explore and discuss the impact it has had on our own lives.

Open Retreat

Great Gathering: Padmasambhava Confronts the King of Tibet

When Padmasambhava eventually meets the king of Tibet in Lhasa, there is a great confrontation between a powerful worldly king of Tibet and Padmasambhava – the King of the Dharma. Which king do you serve? A worldly king, or a king of the Dharma?

Order Retreat

Men’s European Mitra Convenors’ Meeting 2

A retreat for Mitra Convenors in Triratna to gather and deepen their inspiration and vision.

GFR Retreat

Going for Refuge

Going for Refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is ‘the central and definitive act of the Buddhist life’ and ‘the unifying principle, therefore, of Buddhism itself’. The ordination process involves a progressive deepening of Going for Refuge until it becomes effective in all aspects of our lives.

Order Retreat

Post Ordination Retreat 2025

Having spent a year in the Order, this retreat offers the opportunity to take stock, reconnect with friends and explore how we deepen our practice, our life in the Order, and our Going for Refuge to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

Open Retreat

Padmaloka 50th Year Celebration

A retreat celebrating 50 years of Padmaloka in honour of the many individuals who have contributed to its development as well as celebrate what Padmaloka offers the world today and what could lie ahead for it.

GFR Retreat

The System of Dharma Life

This meditation retreat offers the opportunity to deepen your understanding and experience of Sangharakshita’s system of Dharma life, it also includes the added inspiration of Ordination ceremonies

Open Retreat

The Greater Mandala: A Weekend Retreat for Fathers

On this retreat, we will explore how we can allow our minds to flourish in whatever conditions we find ourselves in; our work, our families, our meditation, and our friendships. A retreat for fathers, grandfathers, stepfathers, surrogate fathers, fathers-to-be and father figures!

Meditation Retreat

Brahmaviharas: Gateways to the Sublime

This retreat explores the profound heart wish of the four Brahmaviharas; a set of meditation practices that have the power to utterly transform our emotional lives and relations to others.

GFR Retreat

5-Day Going for Refuge: The Religion of Art

We will explore Bhante’s vision that he laid out in his book 'Religion of Art' where he brings together the conflicting desires to study for the Truth, while also giving free rein to our wish to be in nature, cultivate friendship and aesthetic appreciation.

GFR Retreat

Going for Refuge Weekend: Turning to the Creative Mind

The mind is central to all Buddhist practice. Without training and taming the mind, there is no possibility of Going for Refuge and following the Path. We need, as Sangharakshita says, to make "the transition from reactive mind to creative mind". This is, he says, "the beginning of the spiritual life.” This weekend, we will look into this as fully as we can, through the study of Sangharakshita's seminal work, Mind – Reactive and Creative.

GFR Retreat

The Transcendental Principle

An intensive study of the first chapter of Sangharakshita’s magnum opus, A Survey of Buddhism is fundamental to deepening one’s practical understanding of the Dharma – the basic doctrines and teachings of the Buddha, such as conditioned co-production, the three marks of conditioned existence, the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.

Open Retreat

Sheffield Weekend

A weekend retreat for Men from the Sheffield Sangha.

Order Retreat

Men’s European Mitra Convenors’ Meeting 3

A retreat for Mitra Convenors in Triratna to gather and deepen their inspiration and vision.

Open Retreat

Great Gathering: The Building and Consecration of Samye – the Glorious, the Inconceivable

After much physical effort and magical activity, the Glorious monastery of Samye is built and consecrated, and the Dharma takes hold in Tibet. What is the monastery for us, and how do we build it?

Open Retreat

Men’s Open Retreat: The Advice and Admonition to the Revealers of Treasures

Padmasambhava, the Vajra Guru, concealed treasures throughout the land of Tibet. When we practise wholeheartedly, these treasures will naturally arise, liberating ourselves and others.

GFR Retreat

The Bodhisattva Ideal

This retreat will explore the Bodhisattva Ideal and how it can be ever more fully and deeply lived out in our Order and community.

GFR Retreat

Awareness of Reality: The Five Reflections

A retreat that penetrates deeply into these ageing, illness, death, separation, and the law of karma through meditation and reflection; dwelling on what the Buddha taught about them.

Order Retreat

Kalyana Mitrata

We’ll explore the qualities that enable us to become Kalyana Mitras and bring about the maturation of the heart.

GFR Retreat

What is the Order?

This study retreat communicates what it means to participate in the life of the Triratna Buddhist Order.

Order Retreat

3 Day Dharmachari Retreat: The Mandala Practice

Come on this retreat to explore the practice of Offering the Mandala, one of the Mula Yogas from the Tharpe Delam, or ‘Smooth Path to Emancipation’.

GFR Retreat

The Padmaloka Winter Retreat 2026/2027

This is the pinnacle of our retreat calendar, a special intensive meditation retreat that offers a unique opportunity to enter into deep stillness at a potent time of year.