Waking Up to This Life

“Waking up to who you are

requires letting go

of who you imagine yourself to be.”

~  Alan Watts ~


It is important to note that you do not have to be a ‘Buddhist’ (whatever that is) to practice kindness or forgiveness, meditation or mindfulness.  We are all ‘in recovery’ from something… people of all faiths or none are welcome on this retreat.


Everyone on the traditional ‘Buddhist’ path is struggling with three fires… the fire of cravings, the fire of aversions and the fire of confusions… EVERYONE! The Buddha’s very sound advice to all is that we should try to extinguish these fires, don’t add any more fuel to them; to let them go out and never relight them. Easier said than done!

Everyone on the traditional ‘Buddhist’ path is waking up – or in recovery – from greed, from hatred and from delusion; these are the inherent pre-conditions, biases and distortions of all human beings. For some individuals these factors manifest in our lives – to a greater or lesser degree – as particular cravings or aversions, or as a sense of unwholeness and disquiet; and always these mind-states are accompanied by an awful lot of confusion!

Waking Up” is a day-long retreat exploring some Buddhist principles and practices for waking up to everyday life; particularly – but not exclusively – for awakening from addictions and compulsions; and some practices for healing the Heart-Mind in everyday life.

This retreat will be a day of talks, sitting practice and (weather permitting) walking practice devoted to ‘recovery’ in the sense of recovering life’s possibilities and potentiality or the Buddhist sense of waking up to how things really are. We will practice some silent meditation; and some Loving-kindness and Forgiveness practice.

“There are to be seen beings who can admit freedom from suffering from bodily disease for one year, for two years, for three, four,​ five, ten, twenty; who can admit freedom from bodily disease for even a hundred years.

But, those beings are hard to find in the world who can admit freedom from mental disease even for one moment…” 

~ Buddha (Anguttara Nikāya Volume 2 – vii (157) Disease.)

This mindfulness-based retreat is offered as an opportunity to experience an ethically focussed, Buddhist-oriented approach to ‘recovery’ or ‘waking up’ from all forms of addictions; compulsions, and mental dis-ease.

Recovery_is_a_process_V5-1-commitment-harmlessness

Foundations of a Mindful Awakening

The essential practices of Loving-kindness and Forgiveness – for healing the heart-mind in everyday life – will be central to the day’s practice.

Free PDF download – The Forgiveness Workbook

The charge, if any, for the day goes towards covering actual retreat costs and the teacher’s expenses.  Vince does not get paid to offer these teachings (see Dana below).

For start and end times, lunch arrangements and booking details – please see the schedule.

Booking is essential, so to ensure a place, please contact the relevant retreat centre – please see the schedule.


“Don’t use Buddhism to become a Buddhist. Use Buddhism to become better at whatever else in your life you are doing already.”

~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

A Commitment to Harmlessness:

As for all retreats, retreatants are required to commit to the Five Universal Precepts (harmless conduct) for the duration of the day:

To refrain from harming any living being
To refrain from taking what is not offered
To refrain from sexual and sensual misconduct
To refrain from false speech (including idle gossip, harsh and divisive speech)
To refrain from taking substances which disturb the balance of the mind.

DANA: Vince Cullen offers this retreat freely in accordance with the Buddhist tradition of Dana (the cultivation and practice of the virtue of generosity) where you are invited to contribute financially to the teachings based on your individual income and the value that you place on what has been offered. Vince’s livelihood and the future of ‘Hungry Ghost’ retreats are dependent on the generosity of Dana. There will be more details of this during the retreat.


Download: Hungry Ghost Retreats Schedule [PDF]