We try to make the monastery and the teaching we offer as accessible as possible to everyone, so please contact Rev. Berwyn or Rev. Elinore in the guest department if you feel you may have difficulty taking part fully in a retreat. If you are unable to come for the whole of any specified retreat, please contact the guest department when making the booking to discuss this, as we encourage people not to miss part of the retreat by arriving late or leaving early.

We offer introductory retreats, weekend and 3-day retreats, dharma weekends, and week retreats.

Please note: It is necessary to attend an introductory retreat before applying to come to stay at other times, although if you are a member of one of our meditation groups or have received meditation instruction at another temple of the Order this may not be required.

Please register at the latest one week before the start of introductory, weekend and three-day retreats, two weeks before any week-long retreats and one month before Jukai (The Ten Precepts Meeting).

We are unable at present to cater for young children, although children are very welcome to come for our Sunday festivals when there will often be special events organised for them.

All our retreats include Dharma classes, question and answer sessions and the opportunity for spiritual counselling. See our calendar for details of forthcoming events.
Booking a Retreat

If you would like to come on a retreat, please read the section on booking retreats and then fill in a registration form.
Residential Stays

After attending an introductory retreat you are welcome to stay at the Abbey when you have the opportunity. Many people find coming outside of scheduled retreat times to be a helpful and supportive setting for a second visit. Staying at the monastery outside of retreat times provides an opportunity to experience the day to day life of the monastery. This can help you to discover how to practise meditation in your daily life. Residential stays are open to anyone who has attended an introductory retreat.

Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey is under the spiritual direction of the Abbot, Rev. Master Daishin Morgan, a senior disciple of the late Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett. The senior priests at the Abbey are experienced in teaching people how to meditate and how to establish a spiritual practice. Anyone who wishes to practice Buddhism can benefit greatly by sharing in the contemplative life of the monastery for a while; during their stay they will learn how to establish and deepen their own practice in daily life. One of the joys of Buddhist training is that all activities are an expression of our true nature if approached with the compassionate awareness of meditation. Our programme of retreats aims to help people establish a practice of meditation and then to support them in their subsequent training in the Buddhist way.The contemplative life of the monastery forms a valuable background for these activities; the resident community, most of whom have been living and working together for many years, provide the teaching and a sense of stability. We are always here and try to be available whenever people have need of advice or just a friendly ear. The Abbey is one of the main centres for a congregation spread throughout the UK and beyond. All are warmly invited to join the Abbey’s programme of lay training. The purpose of spiritual practice is to realise our true nature, which is also the true nature of all of existence, and to express this with our body, speech and mind. Meditation and daily training enable us to see and let go of the clinging which causes suffering, thus allowing the compassion and wisdom within our hearts to enrich our lives.
Soto Zen

Within the Soto Zen school there are many teaching lines and each has its own particular flavour. Zen literally means meditation and zazen or seated meditation is the heart of our practice. All beings already have the same enlightened nature as the Buddha but we obscure it by believing that we are separate, isolated beings. This makes us very needy and we spend our lives trying to get what we believe we lack, through acquiring possessions, power or relationships. It is as though we are trying to fill a void inside but however much we get, the void always seems to remain. From the Buddhist viewpoint this happens because we misunderstand our own nature. To practice zazen is to learn how to see beyond one’s thoughts and feelings and realize this true nature. There is a deep sufficiency in all of us and we all have a great capacity to give. These virtues and all the fruits of enlightenment are already within us but they can only be manifested when we see through our mistaken perceptions. This is a matter of discovering what we already possess;rather than seeking what we believe we lack. This approach is both affirming and challenging, requiring us to look intently at the reality of the present moment – excluding nothing and grasping nothing. We need the willingness to see ourselves as we are; rather than judging what we find, we can develop the capacity to neither indulge nor suppress emotions, thereby freeing ourselves from the forces that drive us to act unwisely. Compassion, both for oneself and all beings, is at the heart of this process.

Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey

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