Living Life On Life's Terms: The Four Ennobling Tasks

This six-day silent meditation retreat in Castletown, Co. Laois, Ireland, is led by Martine Batchelor and Bernat Font and follows the theme of their new book, written with Stephen Batchelor, Living Life on Life's Terms: Turning the Wheel of Secular Dharma. It offers Insight and Metta practice within silence, and suits experienced meditators who want a contemporary, secular Buddhist approach to the Four Noble Truths, reframed here as four practical tasks. It is held at the De La Salle Pastoral Centre and is an annual retreat.

What to Expect

The teaching is organised around the Four Ennobling Tasks, which the book presents as things to do rather than doctrines to accept: embrace life, let reactivity be, see reactivity stop, and actualise a path. The guiding question running through the book is a direct one: what matters today? The retreat explores it as a way of meeting experience, living ethically and responding wisely to the realities of life.

Each day follows a sustained schedule of formal Insight and Metta meditation, talks and instructions, and group meetings with the teachers, all held within an underlying environment of silence. Sitting and walking meditation are joined by periods of guided mindful movement every day. The retreat runs for six days.

About Martine Batchelor

Martine Batchelor was a Buddhist nun in Korea for ten years, studying Seon Buddhism under the late Master Kusan, whose book The Way of Korean Zen she translated. After his death she returned her nun's vows and came back to live in Europe, where she also studied mindfulness meditation. She is a faculty member of the Bodhi College and the author of several books, including The Path of Compassion, Meditation for Life, Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits and What is this? Ancient questions for Modern Minds. Her teaching is warm, embodied and practical, making complex teachings accessible and applicable to daily life and relationships.

About Bernat Font

Bernat Font met the dharma at an early age and has been influenced mainly by Stephen Batchelor, Sayadaw U Tejaniya and the Thai Forest tradition. He is a Bodhi College faculty member, the founder of Espai Sati, and holds a PhD in Buddhist Studies. He translates Pali texts and is also a jazz pianist. His book Early Buddhist Hedonism: The Role of Spiritual Pleasure in the Pali Discourses was published by Bloomsbury. This is his third time teaching the annual Castletown retreat, after earlier visits with Christina Feldman and John Peacock. He teaches with scholarly rigour, everyday examples and a playful sensibility, drawing on stories from real life to show how the Dharma supports day-to-day living.

The Setting

The retreat takes place at the De La Salle Pastoral Centre in Castletown, Co. Laois. Accommodation is offered in a shared twin room, a standard room or an ensuite room, and all meals are provided.

Before You Go

This retreat is for people who have already completed a silent retreat of at least three days. Some experience of silence on a shorter retreat matters before taking on six days. Teachers and trainee teachers of Mindfulness-Based Interventions are welcome, and the retreat fulfils the requirements of the MTAI.

The fee covers meals, accommodation in the room type chosen, and teaching and administration. An application form is part of the booking process, and the organisers can be asked about paying by instalments or applying for a reduced fee.