Fancy a spiritual adventure?
Well if you’re looking to get to the
heart of things, then Ireland is a pretty good place to start.
Cavan
The
hilly lakelands of northwest Cavan is the scenic setting of Jampa Ling,
a Buddhist retreat set up more than two decades ago in a large
Victorian house on 13 peaceful acres.
Jampa Ling means “place of
infinite loving kindness” and that alone would make anyone feeling a
little low want to visit, while the centre’s aim is to preserve Tibetan
Buddhist traditions and culture through teaching meditation and Dharma
practice.
Open to people of all religions, and none, so popular is
it that the small community that runs it recently completed the
conversion of an old stone barn and coach-house on the property to
provide accommodation for groups of up to 20 people.
For anyone
looking for a little more head space than that, there is a mobile home
in the garden which is used for personal retreats. Guests are free to
join in with morning and evening meditations, browse from its library or
just take time out to relax.
Cost: from €36pps
for a double room, or €45 for single occupancy, including (vegetarian)
meals. Or you can opt for the mobile home, which has its own kitchen,
for €100 a week.
Donegal
For
1,500 years pilgrims have been coming to Station Island on Lough Derg,
Co Donegal – a place where, legend has it, St Patrick was told the
entrance to purgatory exists.
Run today by the Catholic Church,
pilgrims of all religions are welcome to follow age old proceedings
which include fasting, walking barefoot and praying for three days.
The
prayers recited are all included in a booklet participants receive on
arrival and are carried out at various points on the island, such as the
remains of ancient monastic beehive huts.
A certain degree of
hardiness is required for this one as the entire first night on the
island is spent in prayer – no sleep – and you survive the three days on
black coffee and dry toast.
The pilgrimage season runs from June 1st to August 15th, 2011.
Cost: €55pp,
including boat fare and dormitory accommodation (for night’s two and
three). There’s a one-day “Lough Derg-light” option, too, which costs
€30.
Leitrim
For a
much gentler option, Ard Nahoo in Leitrim offers a two-day personal
retreat focusing on the restorative benefits of nature.
Guests
here stay in private eco-cabins surrounded by the peace and quiet of the
gentle Leitrim countryside.
Spend your days out walking before
returning to enjoy everything from an outdoor sauna and hot tub to yoga
classes and massage treatments.
No shortage of food here and it’s all
organic.
Cost: the two-day retreat, including
organic welcome pack with breakfast foods and one dinner, is available
throughout the year and costs €260pp midweek rising to €360 at weekends.
A three-day mind and body detox including yoga classes, water
treatments, vegan meals and lots of walking, is €420pp based on two
sharing.
The therapeutic value of spending time
in the great outdoors can’t be overstated and is the basis of the
wilderness therapy and survival skills course organised by Lough Allen Adventure Centre, also in Leitrim.
As centre manager Kevin Currid
puts it, getting in touch with how your ancestors lived “makes you feel
more alive than you have done in ages. It’s all about experiencing the
sheer joy that comes of immersing yourself in the beauty of nature and
participants come away treasuring what is a very positive and energising
experience”.
Participants learn how to build shelters in the
wild, how to light fires without a Firelog and how to forage and make
such delicacies as nettle soup and dandelion root tea.
There are fishing workshops and nature walks and, all in all, you’ll return to your suburban homestead a changed person.
Cost: the two-day wilderness therapy course costs €110.
Sligo
You
have to love the Gyreum, just because it’s so odd.
As its owner, Colum
Stapleton, describes, it’s a lot like the place the Telly Tubbies used
to emerge from and it’s just not what you’d expect in rural Sligo.
From
here, however, he operates one of the best known pilgrim tours in the
country, the Gyrovagus, taking in a wonderfully eclectic mix of
religions along the way.
The nine-day pedestrian jaunt takes you
through six counties and all kinds of terrain. Being Ireland, you can
expect all kinds of weather too, typically all within the same hour.
A
250km marathon, bring stout boots and an open mind and you’ll learn far
more than just the history and belief systems of the various religious
communities you meet along the way.
Picnics and food stops are
organised for you, including visits to everything from the Buddhists of
Cavan to the Scottish Church in Enniskillen and the Poor Clares of
Drumshanbo.
And, like pilgrims in days of yore, you won’t find their
hospitality lacking.
Cost : the trip takes place once a month and costs €790.
Wicklow
Anyone
looking for a spiritual alternative to the daily grind should check out
the programme at the Chrysalis centre in Donard, west Wicklow.
It
has all sorts of wellness programmes throughout the year, including,
next month, an eight-day Hoffman Process workshop which aims to resolve
issues around self esteem and relationships.
Hot on its heels is a
weekend’s “Dancing the rainbow”, a workshop involving dance, movement,
voice work, creative writing, colour and light therapy.
But first
up comes a weekend of Tai Chi, the ancient Chinese practice which offers
not just a handy martial art when you need one, but health benefits
too, including physical and mental flexibility and grace.
It’s also a great stress reliever.
Cost: the
Tai Chi Chuan weekend, from March 4th to 6th, is led by world Tai Chi
Chuan champion Imelda Maguire.
It costs €295, including time in nature
and both indoor and outdoor classes.
And if all you need is a little
time out, book the hermitage in its restful Zen garden, perfect for
reflection, meditation or simply rest.
Self-catering and cosy, it costs
€60pp per day, with a two-day minimum.
Fermanagh
For
a total change of pace you’d be hard pressed to beat the spiritual
retreats on offer on Inis Rath Island in Fermanagh, home of bhakti yoga
in Ireland.
The island has been home to a Krishna temple since
1986, as well as to various troupes of peacock, heron, swan and deer.
The bucolic surrounds provide a perfect backdrop for a range of
spiritual retreats, ranging from workshops in meditation and yoga to
courses on eastern philosophy.
And, while your mind and spirit are
so occupied, your body can lap up the full body aromatherapy massages
you can book while there.
Cost: its Candle-light Kirtan, a weekend of calming mantra music and sacred chants open to all from March 25th to 27th, costs €175.
Cork
West
Cork’s a tonic in itself but anyone feeling in need of a more intensive
spiritual intervention should check out Passaddhi, a residential centre
which specialises in “mindfulness”.
The main meditation practised
here is vipassana, as taught by Buddha more than 2,500 years ago and
still taught widely in the Theravada Buddhist tradition of Thailand,
Burma and Sri Lanka.
The other form of meditation taught here is
metta or loving-kindness meditation, designed to help you rediscover the
“joyful, radiant place in ourselves that is our true being”.
Well, it would be a shame to lose it.
Retreats are residential in shared accommodation with home grown organic vegetarian meals.
Cost: true
to the spirit of the enterprise there is no charge for the courses
other than a €100 registration charge for weekend events and €200 fee
for week long events.
After that, participants are simply asked to make a
donation.