Sydney

Level 3, 822 George St, Sydney
Entry on Little Regent Street, across from Mercure Hotel on Railway Square

Rigpa Sydney

drop-in meditation

children's program

contact Rigpa Sydney

2008 retreat program for children and teenagers

Rigpa warmly welcomes children and teenagers to our Australian summer retreat at Myall Lakes. We have a daily program for children and teenagers and a caring and supportive environment for all families. The retreat is held in a beautiful location, with a lake, beach and the bush. The beach is unsafe for children's swimming but the campsite itself has a swimming pool.

Dharma

We provide dharma sessions for all age groups, with a different focus each year. In 2007 the focus was inner peace and in 2008 it will be compassion. The sessions typically consist of meditation, stories, discussion, art & craft, and drama.

Last year we started the day early with a half hour toddler dharma session, followed by one hour for the 4-7 year olds, one hour for the 8-11 year olds, and one hour for the 12-14 year olds. The older teens had study group in the afternoons.

Family Activities

These run in the afternoon for about one hour, some of the activities are dharma related (such as making meditation cushions, ikebana, aikido) and some are just for fun (such as a trip to the beach, hiring boats at the boatshed). We encourage parents to come along and participate with their kids, to spend time together as a family. Younger children must be accompanied by their parents.

Child-care

We provide child-care every morning, for school-age children -between 10am and 2pm, during Sogyal Rinpoche's live teaching.

The children must have already attended one year of school. Last year, child-care mostly offered indoor art and craft activities. We are including more outdoor activities for the 2008 retreat.

Family Listening Tent

If you have very young children who cannot attend child-care, you can watch Rinpoche's teachings in a family tent, which has a live feed from the main teaching tent. The evening teachings can also be viewed from here. Some parents bring their kids' sleeping bags in the evening, and the kids fall asleep while the parents listen to Rinpoche's teachings.

Parents' Study Group

We have a parents' study group every afternoon (poolside), so that parents can discuss the morning's teachings, while their children are happily playing in the pool. This is also a good opportunity to share some of the challenges parents face in practicing the dharma, and in raising children in the dharma.

A typical day at retreat

A typical day for school-age children would start with breakfast, dharma for kids, child-care, lunch, hang out at the pool with parents and other families, late afternoon family activity, dinner, lots of evening play with the other kids, while parents eat and chat, and perhaps fall asleep in the family listening tent!

We cannot provide child-care for under school age young children as the camp-site premises simply aren't suitable. However some of the older teens are keen to babysit to earn holiday money. Another option is to hire a nanny from an agency in Forster. Where there are two parents, they tend to share the care of their kids so that each has an opportunity to attend the teachings. Some single parents also support each other in attending the teachings.

For details on the Rigpé Yeshé Retreat program please contact Isobel Harding on isobel90@gmail.com

For general information on the retreat see Annual Retreat at Myall Lakes.