Keep Calm and Know the Change - A Gender, Sexuality & Relationship Diversity Retreat.

We warmly invite you to join us for a retreat for the Gender, Sexuality & Relationship Diversity (GSRD) community at Rivendell Retreat Centre. It will be led by the GSRD team from Brighton Buddhist Centre: Aryajnana, Morgan, and Priyachakshu.

Our team has been involved in supporting the GSRD community for many years, running groups and retreats that bring about inclusion, connection, and deep, meaningful spiritual friendship. Whether you are new to retreats or already experienced, you will find a safe, welcoming, and supportive environment in which to explore and practice the Dharma.

This retreat will focus on the Satipaṭṭhānas (Four Foundations of Mindfulness) as the Buddha’s direct path to realization. We will work with these teachings to examine craving and aversion—how they arise in a world that constantly invites us into desire and distraction, and how they contribute to division and polarization, especially around marginalized identities.

Through meditation, reflections, talks, and exercises, we will look at the hindrances that block our clarity and freedom, and explore why the cultivation of loving-kindness (mettā) is a key ingredient in our practice.

At the heart of this retreat is the creation of a spiritual community rooted in the Buddhist tradition, ethics, and the spirit of friendship. Together, we will practice, share, and support each other in discovering the possibility of calm, Insight, and transformation—both personally and collectively. We will explore Buddhist texts together, practice meditation and Buddhist ritual.

Our use of the phrase Gender, Sexuality & Relationship Diversity (GSRD) reflects our current understanding of marginalized identities, including:

People on the gender spectrum (trans, agender, bi-gender, crossdressers, genderqueer, gender fluid, non-binary)

Sexual orientations/identities (lesbian, gay, bi-, pansexual, and those on the asexual spectrum)

People on the aromantic (aro) spectrum

People in multi-partnered relationships, as well as those in ‘monogamish’ forms of partnership.

🏡 Accommodation: Shared rooms are available for male, female, or gender-diverse retreatants, according to the retreatant’s choice. A single room is reserved for those with medical needs (allocated on a first-come, first-served basis).

RETREAT CATEGORY:TRIRATNA

This retreat is suitable for those who have a regular meditation practice and who regularly attend retreats, a centre or a group within the context of the Triratna Buddhist Community. You will also need to be familiar with, and happy to participate in, Triratna Buddhist devotional practice and ritual (puja), be comfortable with extended periods of sitting meditation and the possibility on some retreats of periods spent in silence.

Please read our booking and cancellation policies and FAQs before booking.