Humanity in Action: Supporting a Safe Haven (Calais, France)

Humanity in Action: Supporting a Safe Haven is a five-day retreat of compassionate service in Calais, in the Pas-de-Calais region of France. Led by the Insight Meditation teacher Nathan Glyde, it brings Buddhist practice into direct contact with the refugee crisis, working alongside Care4Calais and Refugee Community Kitchen. It suits meditators who want their practice to take the form of practical care for others.

The retreat is offered through SanghaSeva, whose gatherings emphasise wisdom and compassion in humanitarian and ecological service. The theme is embodying a compassionate response, so the days are about acting from the heart as well as reflecting on it.

What to Expect

The retreat is built around two partnerships. Participants spend time with Care4Calais and with Refugee Community Kitchen, two organisations responding to the needs of people displaced and living in and around Calais. Meditation and the Insight tradition's emphasis on wisdom and compassion frame the service, so that the work and the practice inform one another.

The retreat runs for five days. The material does not give a daily timetable, so there is no fixed schedule to describe beyond that shape: a short, focused period of shared practice and service in one place.

About Nathan Glyde

Nathan Glyde is an Insight Meditation teacher recognised by Gaia House in the UK. He has practised and studied meditation since 1997 and has shared teachings on retreats since 2007. In 2004 he co-founded SanghaSeva, whose retreats emphasise wisdom and compassion in ecological and humanitarian service, which makes this Calais retreat a natural expression of that work.

With Zohar Lavie, Nathan writes the materials and runs every part of DependentOrigination.org, a body of work on the Buddha's teaching of dependent origination. The teaching holds that all things arise reliant on other causes and conditions. Nathan and Zohar describe it as a practical exploration of how everything leans, looking at how stress depends on thirsting and how seeing such dependencies opens a path to freedom. Their aim is to make this deep teaching accessible to all. Together they offer retreats, online drop-in groups and meditation sessions.

The Place

The retreat takes place in Calais, on the northern coast of France. Calais has long been a point of arrival and waiting for people seeking safety, and that context shapes the whole retreat.