Work Retreats
What is a work retreat?
Work retreats offer the opportunity to integrate your meditation practice with daily life. The work directly contributes to the well-being of the Gaia House community and is one way you can help to keep rates as low as possible.
Work retreats are suitable for robust and healthy individuals who have previous silent retreat experience and an established meditation practice.
A work retreat consists of five hours of physical work and at least four sessions of meditation a day. One day a week is set aside as a retreat day. From the second month, as a work retreatant you will be entitled to two additional retreat days per month for each month completed.
Work retreatants are supported by a facilitated weekly group meeting with the resident teacher when scheduled, as well as meeting individually with teachers. Work retreats are undertaken and continued with the agreement of the teacher.
During group retreats, you are welcome to participate in some of the meditation sessions and dharma talks if it fits with the work schedule and tasks allocated to you.
Please read the information below as well as our Booking and Cancellation Policy. If you have any further questions about our work retreats, please contact our Reception team: info@gaiahouse.co.uk
Who can apply for a work retreat?You also need to have the capacity to live and work in silence and to work independently (with instruction from the residential staff).
Work retreats are available only to those with previous retreat experience of at least two weeks’ teacher-led, Insight (Vipassana) or Zen meditation retreat in silence (either as two separate weeks or one continuous retreat of 14 days), not necessarily at Gaia House, and an established meditation practice.
The independence of a work retreat can be very challenging if you are not ready for it, so depending on your conditions we may suggest that you participate in more meditation group retreats before embarking on a work retreat.
If you wish to register your interest in attending a work retreat, please email: info@gaiahouse.co.uk, with the following details:
- Your full name
- Details of your retreat experience, which meets the criteria explained in the previous question.
- The dates you wish to attend
We will then confirm availability and send you a link to the online Retreat Application Form, which contains important questions about your personal and medical history. This confidential information is necessary so that our teachers can assess your preparedness for what can be a unique and profound experience.
If your application is accepted, Gaia House will be in touch to discuss available dates. Please do not pay your deposit or make travel arrangements until your place has been confirmed.We will email you back as soon as we can, but there may be a short delay and we appreciate your patience and understanding.
Full payment will be required on confirmation of a place. If a more flexible way of paying would support your personal circumstances, please contact us to discuss this: info@gaiahouse.co.uk
Other frequently asked questions
What accommodation do you provide for work retreatants?We have now updated our Booking Terms and Conditions which includes cancellation information, please click here. Please take time to review these before you book.
All work retreatants participate in a weekly teacher-led work retreatant meeting. In addition, we ask you to sign up for a weekly one-to-one interview with the Gaia House teachers.
- Please respect the silent atmosphere in the house and the grounds at all times.
- We ask you to switch off all electronic devices (mobile phones, iPads, laptops, Kindles etc.) for the duration of your retreat, with the exception of checking your phone for NHS test and trace messages.
- We recommend that you avoid making telephone calls and sending emails/post during your stay.
- Consumption of drugs (except prescription medications), cigarettes and alcohol is not permitted during your stay at Gaia House.
- This includes all areas in the house as well as the garden and the grounds.
- All retreatants are asked to abstain from sexual contact whilst on retreat.
- Please commit yourself fully to your retreat and stay on the Gaia House premises or within the immediate vicinity, except in an emergency. If you need to leave the retreat please liaise with a member of the residential team and this will be discussed with the teacher(s).
- We encourage sensitivity towards all living beings and a non-harming relationship to all life.
The Five Precepts
The core ethical principles of Buddhism are known as the ‘Five Precepts’, which we ask all people who live, work and practice at Gaia House to observe whilst within the house and grounds, in order to support a retreat environment of safety, peace, sensitivity and respect. The precepts are not rules or commandments, but ‘principles of training’, which are undertaken freely.
1. Refrain from harming or taking the life of any being.
2. Refrain from taking or misusing anything that does not belong to you or has not been clearly offered.
3. Refrain from harmful expressions of sexuality.
4. Refrain from harmful expressions of speech.
5. Refrain from the use of intoxicants and substances which cloud the mind.
Thank you for your help with preserving Gaia House’s unique retreat environment for the benefit of all beings.
Through letting go of the familiar world of words we give ourselves space from the complexity of personal interaction, and can come to see our mind and its activity more clearly. Insight into the way things are arises through experiencing life directly, rather than through language and concepts. This direct seeing is the foundation for inner peace, wisdom and compassion.
Retreatants are requested to commit to maintaining silence throughout the house and grounds, apart from essential communication with teachers and coordinators. More about silence.
Gaia House offers a healthy, balanced vegetarian diet that may include eggs and dairy produce. Vegan, dairy-free and wheat/gluten-free options need to be requested prior to arrival. At lunch we also offer a ‘Simple Diet’ consisting of a gluten-free wholegrain, steamed vegetables and plain pulses, egg or tofu. This diet is intended to meet nutritional needs whilst being as plain as possible. The simple diet, including protein choices, also needs to be requested prior to arrival.
Due to covid-19 constraints, it is not possible for us to cater for any dietary need which differs from the above options and it is not possible for personal food supplies to be brought to Gaia House and stored.
Our Response to Covid 19
Please read our current coronavirus (covid-19) and Gaia House guidelines: As the conditions and guidelines are changing, we will be reviewing what is needed at the time of each retreat. Prior to your retreat, we will send some more information about what to expect whilst at Gaia House.