A Mind at Ease – Buddhist meditation for modern life

A Mind at Ease
Buddhist meditation for modern life
A meditation retreat with yoga hosted by Susan Allen

Deepen and refine your meditation practice with this retreat led by one of NZ’s most experienced meditation teachers, Susan Allen. All levels welcome including complete beginners.

This retreat offers 6 days of meditation practice and discussion, both indoors and in the beautiful open spaces that Mana offers. An opportunity to begin a daily practice for life or to deepen an existing practice with fresh strategies and insights. There will be optional yoga classes also offered.
Meditation develops a calmness of mind, a poise of character. It provides a foundation for flourishing and the fulfilment of your highest potential. These will be practices from the timeless Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

There will be three main areas of practice:
1. Concentration and tranquility practices to calm the mind
2. Insight practices – cultivating freedom by developing an understanding of how we identify with thought, self and emotions
3. Creating a new way of operating in this world – resting in a non-reactive, open and spacious awareness.

Our program

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Morning and afternoon meditation practice with supporting discussion

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Q & A where you can get personalised suggestions for your meditation practice – Morning and afternoon optional yoga sessions

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Free time for bush walking, resting, reading, sauna and nature nourishment – Full set of meditation audio practices to take home

Your teacher

The retreat is hosted by one of NZ’s most experienced yoga and meditation teachers, Susan Allen. Susan has been teaching meditation for over 20 years and has an authentic passion for sharing this transformative practice with other.

The Meditation Path

1. Refining concentration, increasing cognition of when the mind wanders. Almost all meditation techniques have a concentration component. When we become skilful in paying attention, then the tendency to get lost in thought reduces and the mind begins to quieten. These are often called tranquility practices. Concentration objects include the breath, mindfulness of body sensations and sound. On this retreat you will learn refinement techniques to improve the stability of your concentration or mindfulness. Stability of mind means peace of mind, we are more able to focus in our daily life, we indulge less in negative thought patterns, our stress levels decrease, and we feel more at ease. These include intensifying practices which are used to bring greater awareness to background thoughts as well as to the dullness that can develop in the mind when meditating. If your meditation progress is stagnating then this improvement in looking more closely at the object of your concentration will enable you to start progressing again. It is through this increased focus that we experience a stilling of the busyness of the mind; a tranquility and clarity arise.

2. Insight practices; moving beyond identification with self, thoughts and emotions. Emptiness practices are a central component of Buddhist meditation. Emptiness means ‘a construction of mind.’ In our meditation, and of course in our daily lives as well, we get caught up in, and strongly identified with our thoughts and emotions. The more identified we are, the more reactive we will be.
On this retreat we will introduce emptiness of self, emptiness of thought and emptiness of emotion practices. This does not mean having no self, thoughts or emotions but rather realising experientially how our thoughts and emotions are things that the mind is constructing. When we learn this, we become less emotionally reactive in our relationships and with ourselves, we tend to be more open and less rigidly entrenched in our views and opinions. These practices are liberating and freeing, and most importantly they bring ease and joy.

3. Resting in awareness; a new basis of operation
Much of our daily life we tend to be busy thinking, we operate a lot out of thought, and for some of us many of these thoughts are repetitive and negative. However when we learn to still the fluctuations of thought we are able to shift to spending more time in awareness, an awareness that is beyond the busyness of thinking. When we operate out of awareness there is no reactivity and we feel less self-centred and more connected to others; We will investigate and examine the characteristics of operating out of awareness as opposed to thought – exploring qualities such as spaciousness, connectedness, and the tendency to fabricate experience. On this retreat we will then practice taking this off the cushion as we interact with others and the nature around us.

4. Receive personal guidance around your meditation habits so you keep progressing Each of us have habits that we develop in our practice, some serve our meditation and others don’t. On this retreat Susan will encourage you to be observant and disciplined in the habits that support your practice and bring more awareness to those that don’t, both on and off the cushion. Personal suggestions will be given to each student so that you can be inspired to develop this life changing and abundant practice.

Investment:
Single private room – $2,150
Twin share room – $1,740 per person

REGISTER NOW

What others have to say
“Mana is a hidden gem, one of those retreats you feel so incredibly lucky you stubbled across. Susan Allen and her 6 day Meditation Retreat has set me up on a beautiful trajectory towards a very ancient practice. Meditation for me now is as important as taking your first breath, it’s revitalising and life changing and who better to introduce you…Susan. Her ability to teach such a complex mind blowing tradition – it’s an incredible gift. Thank you so very much, I highly recommend trying it – you wont regret it!” (Lucy R.)

For more info contact Susan Allen
https://retreats.nz/coromandel-meditation-and-yoga-retreat
ph: +64-21-222-6550
email: [email protected]

Terms and conditions from Susan Allen
1. Full payment is required to register a place. This policy is necessary so we can secure the venue and meet prepaid expenses.
2. If you cancel your booking before 15th April 2026 your payment minus a non-refundable $500 deposit will be refunded.
3. If you cancel your booking after 15th April 2026 no refund will be given but you are able to transfer it to someone else of your finding.
4. If topheavy Government regulations cause the retreat to be cancelled, or you personally not be able to travel due to Govt. imposed travel restrictions such as lockdowns, then full refund will be given. If you are unwell and not able to travel then the cancellation terms outlined in points 2-3 apply.