FWBO International Urban Retreat: June 20-27th

Coming up very soon is a major new FWBO event: the movement's first ‘international urban retreat’.

Vajragupta, who works for the FWBO's development team, explains -

This year we are running the first ever FWBO international urban retreat. All over the world, over 40 FWBO centres in 12 countries will run ‘urban retreats’, all during the same week in June. On an ‘urban retreat’ you carry on living and working in your normal circumstances, but with a difference...

The week starts on Saturday 20th June with a day retreat at your local centre. During that day you'll be helped and encouraged to set up the conditions to take your practice deeper.

During the week, to support you there'll be talks, led meditations, and other resources available, both locally and on-line.

The retreat ends with another day event on 27th June – this will include the opportunity to reflect on how it went, and where you want to take your practice next…

It’s simple enough but the benefits are many –

* you can gain confidence in your practice... The urban retreat shows you how you can create positive states of mind in the midst of everyday life.
* you can go deeper... Link-up with other people at your centre and help each other to practice more intensively for a week.
* you can be inspired... You'll be part of an international event, practising with people from fwbo centres all over the world.

For those who can't attend the urban retreat at an FWBO Centre, there is the chance to do the retreat on-line - for details check the website www.theurbanretreat.org  or via the FWBO page on facebook .

As part of the retreat we’ll be collaborating with various FWBO projects – Wildmind , Free Buddhist Audio , and Videosangha .

FWBO gains 1,000 fans on Facebook

The FWBO page on Facebook  has recently gained its 1000th 'fan'. The page was created late last year to give the FWBO a presence on Facebook - since then it's multiplied!

There are now FWBO groups acting as contact points for the FWBO in Denmark, Finland, Karuna, Vajraloka, Padmaloka, Buddhafield, New Zealand, Scotland, San Francisco, and even India - and probably quite a few more we haven't found yet. There's a special group for young FWBOers which now has nearly 150 members (147 to be precise!).  To access any of these you'll need to join Facebook if you haven't already - then simply click the links above. 

It's also proving a rich medium for interaction between individuals - friends old and new - in the FWBO Sangha around the world. This looks set to expand yet further when the FWBO's International Urban Retreat comes around in June, when a special version of the retreat will be offered via Facebook.

Anyone wanting to participate in the Facebook version of the retreat is invited to visit the Facebook page, become a 'fan' (sorry about the terminology - not our choice of word!) and click through to the International Urban Retreat event.

From there, just follow the links… The retreat will run from June 20-27th and we'll be posting more information soon.

Wildmind hits a million!

Bodhipaksa, founder of the FWBO’s Wildmind meditation teaching website, reports on Twitter –

“My meditation site, www.wildmind.org had over a million page views last month! Looks like April will be about the same”.

FWBO News says, Sadhu Wildmind!

They’ve been branching out, and now have an active presence on Facebook, Twitter, and, most recently, YouTube. 

Of YouTube, Bodhipaksa says “Wildmind has started putting mantras and guided meditations on YouTube as part of an effort to reach more people with what we're doing, and maybe you could do a story about that on FWBO News as well. There's not much up there yet, but we'll be continuing to add more video over the next few weeks”. 

The YouTube page provides a tantalising glimpse of the more personal tastes of the good folk at Wildmind – of their 19 favourites no less than 17 are ‘Peter, Paul, and Mary’ songs…

Their latest Newsletter has also just been released, on the theme of “Celebrating impermanence”.