Silent Meditation Retreat: Stillness & Mind Training

This seven-day silent meditation retreat at the Mahamudra Centre for Universal Unity in Colville, on New Zealand's Coromandel Peninsula, offers a week of stillness and mind training in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. It is open to newcomers and experienced practitioners alike, and it brings together two complementary practices: shamatha, which calms and stabilises the mind, and lojong, which trains the mind to meet life with more compassion and perspective.

What to Expect

The retreat runs for seven days, beginning with an afternoon arrival and ending at lunchtime on the last day. The first day is for check-in, settling into your accommodation, an opening session and an orientation to the practice schedule.

The middle days form the core of the retreat. Each day includes shamatha meditation sessions, lojong teachings and contemplative practice, silent meals and walking practice. Individual guidance is available. The aim is steady attention, along with a more constructive way of working with thoughts and emotions. Rather than avoiding difficulty, you learn to meet it with awareness, patience and kindness.

The final day holds closing meditation sessions and teachings on integration, so the quiet of the week can carry into ordinary life. The whole retreat is held in silence. That silence is meant to let you rest deeply, gain insight and experience a more spacious way of being, whatever your background or beliefs.

About Mahamudra Centre

Mahamudra Centre for Universal Unity is a Tibetan Buddhist retreat centre and charitable trust affiliated with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an international organisation in the Gelugpa tradition. It operates under the guidance of FPMT's Spiritual Director, Kyabje Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.

The centre began in the early 1980s, when Colville locals Roy Fraser and Sally Barraud saw the chance to build a retreat place and bring Tibetan Buddhist meditation teachers to the area. On the advice of their teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, they bought a local farmhouse and land. With the help of many volunteers and community members, it grew into the retreat centre it is today.

The Setting

The centre sits on 8 acres in the Colville Valley, surrounded by native bush, farm land and the hills of the Coromandel range. It is a rural setting, well suited to quiet inner work.

Several ways of staying are offered:

- Day retreat, joining during the day with your own accommodation off-site
- Camping in the grounds, with your own tent or camper van, unpowered sites and shared bathrooms
- A bed in a shared triple room, with shared bathrooms
- A private single room or a private double room, both with shared bathrooms
- A single cabin, a single deluxe cabin or a double cabin, each private and self-contained

Three vegetarian meals a day are served, along with refreshments and tea breaks, and they are included in every option.

Before You Go

No previous experience is needed. The structure supports people at different stages of practice. The retreat is taught in English.

Included are all meditation sessions and teachings, vegetarian meals and refreshments, retreat materials and guidance, and access to the retreat facilities. Transport to the venue is not included, and neither are personal meditation cushions or props, so plan to bring what you need for comfortable sitting. The centre is at 2183 Main Colville Road, Colville.