Bhaja International
Retreat Centre |
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The vision of the retreat
centre is to provide a facility for the teaching of Buddhism
and meditation in a retreat context. The retreat centre
will obviously be most attractive to Buddhists, but we would
like to provide a welcoming atmosphere to people of all communities
who wish to engage their potential for change. We also see
our land as a nature reserve, which protects the plant and
animal wildlife and as an ecological resource. We thus feel
we have a great responsibility and opportunity to engage
our Buddhist ideals.
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| 21st. Anniversary The retreat centre was established 21 years ago within sight of the Bhaja Buddhist rock-temple caves. These are thought to be amongst the oldest Buddhist cave temples in India. Since its establishment, the retreat centre has grown from a few simple buildings on a few acres of land to 13 buildings on 20 acres of land, supported by three open wells, two bore wells and three small dams. At first there were also only a few residents - but now the community has expanded to over a dozen people. |
A variety of retreats takes place every year led by both Indian and western members of WBO/TBM. There are now regular solitary retreats in two separate solitary huts. Retreatants come from several states of India and some FWBO pilgrimages from the west now make this a regular stop. The combination of the retreat centre and the nearby Buddhist caves is found to be very inspiring for practice. |