Middle Way Society Retreat

This retreat provides the opportunity to combine hill-walking with other integrative practice (including meditation, and some discussion or arts activity in the evenings). It is suited to anyone with a reasonable level of fitness, who enjoys walking, and would like to put it into a wider context of practice with like-minded people. It will be …

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This weekend is an opportunity to share the appreciation and creation of poetry in the context of wider practice. Participants will have the chance to share some of their favourite sources of poetic inspiration, and to work on their own poetry as a form of practice. Along with poetic discussion and workshops, there will be …

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The Middle Way approach can both arise out of meditation experience, and help us to shape meditation practice. There is probably no better way of recognizing how absolute assumptions lie in wait for us at every turn than to meditate - for every distraction, every hindrance, assumes an absolute viewpoint. We think we have the …

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At Tirylan House, we’re in the process of creating a forest garden: that is, a sustainable and low-input garden designed to produce food for the retreat centre using a diverse mixture of mainly perennial plants. Some of the plants (trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials) produce food directly, but many of them have a range of …

Continue reading "Permaculture, Forest Gardening and the Middle Way"

The Middle Way Society has now run several walking retreats both in the Lake District and here in the Brecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog) National Park. We aim to combine walking in the hills and woods with meditation and the arts, treating walking as a practice that can be both mindful and social, and can put …

Continue reading "Walking and the Middle Way"

Getting caught up in looped states - sometimes called proliferation or rumination - is a central problem for human beings. These can take the form of powerful fantasies or feelings of hatred that keep going round our minds, or of dogmatic beliefs that keep us bound to recurrent ways of thinking. Middle Way Philosophy is …

Continue reading "Getting out of the Loops: Middle Way Practice and Obsessive States"

At Tirylan House, we’re in the process of creating a forest garden: that is, a sustainable and low-input garden designed to produce food for the retreat centre using a diverse mixture of mainly perennial plants. Some of the plants (trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials) produce food directly, but many of them have a range of …

Continue reading "Permaculture, Forest Gardening and Meditation"

The Buddha offers the earliest and fullest source of inspiration for following the Middle Way. In the story of his early life moving beyond the limitations of both the Palace and the Forest, in his many metaphors and parables, and in his practical teachings, the Buddha depicted in the early Buddhist scriptures can provide a …

Continue reading "The Buddha’s Middle Way"

The Middle Way Society has now run several walking retreats both in the Lake District and here in the Brecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog) National Park. We aim to combine walking in the hills and woods with meditation and the arts, treating walking as a practice that can be both mindful and social, and can put …

Continue reading "Walking and Meditation"

Robert M Ellis has been developing Middle Way Philosophy as a practical approach for around 25 years now, in a series of books, talks and retreats and in conjunction with the Middle Way Society. It owes much to Buddhist practice, whence the term 'Middle Way' comes, but does not necessarily involve commitment to the Buddhist …

Continue reading "Introduction to the Middle Way"