Jaya Ashmore Melbourne Visit 2014

If you would like to join the email list for Open Dharma in Australia please email Hazel on ozopendharma @ gmail.com

Jaya Ashmore is the co-founder of Open Dharma and has been leading retreats in India and Internationally for over 15 years. This will be Jaya's 4th visit to Melbourne.

Open Dharma offers teachings and retreats to encourage people from around the world to live a liberated life. Silence, nature, and deep rest are some of the basic human tools we offer to help each person deepen in her or his unique way. Since 1999, teachers have specialized in adapting meditation instructions to individual needs and in creating an atmosphere of gentleness and self-motivated exploration. Guided meditation; investigation of texts from diverse spiritual traditions; Jin Shin Jyutsu; and connected movement also enrich our retreats. However, we emphasize that the instructions we give are secondary to the instructions of one’s own heart.

Melbourne Itinerary

Summary of Jaya's Melbourne visit

Full details of the retreat are listed further down on this page

Date: October 30, 2014, Thursday 7.15pm-9pm,

What's on: Guided meditation and talk

Jaya will lead a guided meditation and then give a talk about how meditation and mindfulness is relevant to our lives.

Venue: 38 Urquhart Street Northcote 3070

Cost: $10 + Dana for the teacher

Date: November 1-4, Melbourne

(As at Oct 3, There are only 2 places available for this retreat)

What's on: Non-Residential Retreat

Venue:

"Diaz Designs Warehouse"

Unit 16/240 Sydney Road

Coburg

Cost: $320 + Dana for the teacher.

Date: Wednesday November 5th, 7.15-9pm

What's on: Jaya will lead a guided meditation and then give a talk. There will be time for question and answer afterwards.

Venue: 38 Urquhart Street Northcote 3070

Cost: $10 + Dana for the teacher

Talk and Meditation at Ceres

Please note: there was a talk at Ceres advertised for Nov 3 on the flyer but this has been cancelled.

Non-Residential Retreat with Jaya Ashmore

Update: As at Oct 3, there are only 2 places available for anyone wanting to do the whole 4 days.

Deep Rest and Meditation

November  1st - 4th (4 days)

7am-6pm daily (see sample schedule below)

Cost:

Includes breakfast and lunch

$320 + Dana for all four days 

$95 + Dana for individual days

Update: from Oct 3, if you want to do individual days, there are only places for Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th.

Venue:

"Diaz Designs Warehouse"

Unit 16/240 Sydney Road

Coburg

This Silent Deep rest retreat with Jaya is a chance to enter a space of radical transformation through rest at cellular, mental, and spiritual levels. Relaxing back behind the habit-energies that often rule our lives, we can discover who we really are. Our true potential can more easily unfold. Letting go of counterproductive ways of doing, we train in letting creative energy pour through in unexpected tenderness and clarity. The silence and the loving atmosphere of retreat facilitate radical experimentation and fertile, honest questioning: What brings ease and what overly accelerates or drains us? What hangs heavy on our hearts? What allows full participation in this life? What is life?

We have set a reasonably challenging schedule as we wish to support the deepening of practice regardless of where we are. During similar retreats held previously, some people have also decided to continue inner silence for the whole 4 days. So this means silence travelling to the venue, going home and at home. This is something to play with and optional. If this interests you then it can be supportive to set up your home so that there is a support for your choice.  

Sample Schedule (Start and end times are assured but other times may change)

7.00am - 9.00am Stillness and moving meditation
9.00am - 10.00am breakfast (provided)

10.00am - 1pm Stillness and moving meditation
1pm - 2pm lunch (provided)

2pm - 4pm Stillness and moving meditation
4pm - 4.15pm tea break

4.15pm - 6pm Stillness and moving meditation
 

Parking: The warehouse is at the rear of a complex. To find it, enter via the warehouse carpark entrance on Edward Street just off Sydney Road. Feel free to park in the reserved parking spaces on the weekend and on cup day, but not on the Monday. 

Public Transport for Urban retreat:

Stop 31 on the route 19 tram from Elizabeth Street on the corner of Reynard Street/Edward Street & Sydney Road takes you a one minute walk to the doorstop.

Click here to see a pictorial description of what a Retreat can be

What to Wear/Bring to Urban Retreat:

Comfortable, loose, warm clothing is recommended.

Please bring any blankets, yoga mat, cushions you need for comfortable meditation (including lying down). Some cushions and mats will be available if you don't have your own. You may leave your supplies at the venue over the course of the retreat.

Bookings are Essential so we know catering numbers:

Enquiries and bookings:

Hazel Butterworth

0415 538 934

Email for inquiries

What to expect

Daily, Jaya will offer meditation instructions and guided meditations, Dharma talks and question and answer sessions. Along with sitting and walking meditation, we encourage you to experiment with breaking the mould of meditation as a competitive practice and try lying down for meditation. Deep rest turns out to be surprisingly, and delightfully, undemanding.

We emphasize the importance of tuning in closely to one’s unique path, of falling in love with one’s own awakening, including all its joys and rigors. Rather than promoting short-lived spiritual fireworks, we cultivate long-term friendships. We also continually experiment with different formats for teachings and retreats with the aim of bringing love and wisdom into “real” life.

Jaya Ashmore (pictured with son Gyan) has dedicated her life to spiritual awakening—both in her own meditation since 1986 and in helping spark breakthrough and depth for others since 1999. The main influences on her teaching are: her youth in a Christian family, Tibetan and Theravada Buddhist practice, her six years with Advaita master Sri Poonjaji, her fifteen years of practicing Jin Shin Jyutsu, and her long-time friendship with her colleague Ajay Singh. She has lived most of her adult life in India, and now also spends half the year at Dharmaloca in northeastern Spain.

Bookings and Questions

If you have any questions after reading this then please do call or email us. Jaya is being hosted in Melbourne by Hazel Butterworth and Anton. Hazel is the manager for all of Jaya's events in Melbourne and will be taking the bookings and all email enquiries.

Contact Anton 0412 018962 for all enquiries about the teachings and approach of Open Dharma

Bookings Email: Click here  To book your place

Volunteers Needed

Open Dharma is a not for profit organisation and we rely totally on the good will of organisers and volunteers to make a visit like this happen. If you would like to assist in any way with Jaya's visit, please send us an email and let us know how you might be able to help. Specifically we are looking for assistance with

- Flyer distribution and promotion of the visit

- Cooking for the weekend and residential retreat. For the residential retreat we envisage sharing the cooking between a few people so we can all enjoy the retreat.

- Lifts to Coburg for people without cars

If you are interested then please email us 

Thanks!

DANA ~ Dana is a Pali word (the language used at the time The Buddha lived) which means the practice of generosity, or offering. DANA is a completely different way of relating to what is offered. Rather than a commercial transaction, DANA expresses the love and appreciation for what has been received. The daily rate you pay for the retreat covers food costs, Airfares and travel costs, basic bills, organisational costs, printing and any other set up costs for the retreat. Nobody receives any kind of salary. The DANA boxes that are put out at the end of each retreat support The Teachers and The tradition itself. DANA is not tips, it is not a token gesture, it is the vital resource that allows these retreats and tradition to continue.

This is a living tradition that is thousands of years old and we are now the holders of this tradition. The generosity of countless people over the centuries has brought us to this point now where we can offer this retreat on the basis of Dana. In other words, when you come to our retreats you are being nourished by the generosity of people who came before you. Your generosity now is the resource that enables us to continue to offer retreats in the future so other people may also benefit and keep the tradition alive.

Be as generous as you wish.

Please, support those who support the Dharma.

Steps To Register

1. How to Pay

~ By bank transfer (direct debit) email us for our banking details

~ Cheque (AUD only) made payable to Anthony Eastick, send to 38 Urquhart St, Northcote, Vic

1. When making your bank transfer, please include

1. Your full name on the reference and date of retreat

2. Contact Hazel

1. Email us and let us know you've made the payment
2. and the method of payment

That's it!

Giving of service or Karma yoga ~ Opendharma retreats are fully run by volunteers, no one gets paid for the work they do. In this way we are able to keep the costs down. Therefore in the same spirit we ask that everyone who comes to our retreats contribute time each day towards the running of the retreat. This year with the non-residential retreat this will be simple and may involve cleaning or something else connected with running the retreat. We thank you in advance.