Name: The Barn Retreat
Item: The Barn Retreat
Author: Send an Enquiry

Set in a stunning hillside location overlooking the River Dart, the Barn has been a popular retreat centre since 1986. Retreatants reconnect with themselves and the natural environment, and are able to develop a mindfulness practice for everyday life.

Listed in The Sunday Telegraph’s ‘Eight of the best retreats in Britain and Europe’, our six-day community retreats run every week of the year for up to 10 people. Accommodation is all in single, comfortable rooms in a friendly atmosphere of fellowship.
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Retreatants usually stay for one week and live as a community of 12 people, sharing household tasks, cooking and meals together. Through teacher-led inquiry and working meditation in our organic garden they develop a mindfulness practice for everyday life.

The 6-Day Retreat structure is based on the following:

- Three 40 minute meditation sessions a day in our meditation room.

- Outdoor walking meditation.

- Meditation and mindfulness guidance.

- Mindful work practice in the organic garden and woods.

- Community living and fellowship in a small group.

- Daily periods of silence, and one full day's silence.

- Inquiry led by Buddhist teachers.

Retreatants usually stay for one week, although many stay for longer.
Accommodation and Community Living

Every retreatant has a single room. Living as a small community of up to 12 people, we share household tasks, and cook and eat together. In the afternoons there is time to practise individually, relax, use our library and enjoy the peaceful scenery. Evening meals are prepared individually or in groups.
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Meditation

Meditation can bring a deep sense of calm and awareness. We provide guided meditation sessions and also offer further basic instruction in meditation practice for beginners, on request. Our regular visiting teachers come three times a week to help deepen your experience of meditation and answer any questions you may have.
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Organic Gardening

We grow most of our own vegetables in our organic gardens. When on retreat you will be eating produce grown by previous retreatants, and being kept warm by the wood they chopped - the house is heated by a wood furnace. We therefore spend our mornings gardening and working in the woodlands. This is a chance to practise bringing the awareness cultivated in our meditation into meaningful activity, and to ensure that future retreatants enjoy fresh organic produce.

Barn retreats are suitable for new and experienced meditators who wish to:

Follow our weekly schedule, balancing mindfulness and enquiry, work meditation in our organic gardens and quiet personal reflection.
benefit from Western Buddhist contemplation and discussion.
develop a compassionate, appreciative and generous approach to life.

The Five Precepts

Knowing they would lead to a happier and more fulfilling life, the Buddha suggested his lay followers take the following Five Precepts, and we ask our retreatants to do the same for the duration of their stay:

"I undertake the training to refrain from..."

harming any living being
taking what is not offered
sexual and sensual misconduct
false speech (including idle gossip, harsh and divisive speech)
taking substances which disturb the balance of the mind (and may lead me into committing any of the above)

The Barn Retreat

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