Meditate Effectively
Winter Retreat
3 Nights, Sunday 28th – Wednesday 31st December 2025
Led by Vajrashura
Curious about retreats? And how to meditate effectively? This Winter retreat is an ideal first taste. It will be a vital opportunity, in this darkest time of the year, to open up to a new kind of consciousness.
Instead of over-doing food and binge-watching streaming series, our time on retreat will be an opportunity to take stock of the year just gone and set our mind towards transformation in 2026 – both of ourselves and the world.
We will be practicing meditation, facing into our minds fearlessly and learning how to change it. We will have a real taste of transformative a meditative mind can be, especially in how we relate to ourselves and the world around us.
On this retreat, you will:
- Discover the Buddhist approach to meditation.
- Learn or deepen two meditation practices: Mindfulness of Breathing and Cultivating Loving-Kindness
- Enjoy short periods of silence, as well as free time for walks, exercise, or rest.
- Be part of a retreat community for the weekend.
Come along and discover what’s possible with an effective and rich meditation practice!
When
3 Nights.
Sunday 28th – Wednesday 31st December 2025. The retreat starts at 6pm on Sunday and ends around 2pm on Wednesday.
Where
This retreat will take place in our new retreat centre Shubha Vihara, in Ballycorrigan, Ballina, Co. Tipperary. Join us for our very first Winter Retreat here!
Our New Year meditation retreat is suitable for people who want to have a deeper taste of what meditation can offer.
So if you’re
- …a complete beginner who want to learn to meditate
- …a meditator with some experience who’ve never been on retreat before
- …an existing meditator who want to deepen their meditation practice in the perfect conditions that a retreat can offer
then come along for this stimulating and inspiring weekend retreat.
Vajrashura started practicing yoga and learnt to meditate while in university doing a Masters in High Performance Computing. He firstly did these through university societies, and then in the Dublin Buddhist Centre. He has worked as part of the Centre Team since 2002 and in 2007 he joined the Triratna Buddhist Order.
Since ordination, he’s been one of the DBC’s main teachers, leading many courses, retreats, and events each year, and is concerned with helping people go more deeply into meditation and Buddhism. He also is helping coordinate the new retreat centre project and looks after the DBC finances.
He is passionate about meditation and how it is a vital tool for transforming self and world.
We asked previous retreat participants what the highlights were for them. They answered:
- A chance to escape the noise and complexity of modern life
- Meeting others on the retreat
- A simple life with a daily programme to follow
- The food!
- A chance to reflect on things
- Great instruction on meditation
Our retreats are known for being friendly, inspiring, and enjoyable.
All dishes are vegan, but don’t let that put you off. We’ve astounded by many omnivores on our retreats who admitted they had no idea vegan food could be so tasty and filling!
Every meal is cooked from scratch, and there is always enough for second helpings. No one ever goes hungry on our retreats.
The retreat is a brilliant way to deepen your meditation after the intro to meditation course. Restful and insightful. Highly recommended!
– Rick
The most worthwhile thing I’ve done in a long time.
– Hugh
If you want to get off the motorway of modern life for a while and park somewhere quiet to reflect and review the direction you are taking in your journey… A retreat with the Dublin Buddhist Centre can offer you a change of oil, new spark plugs, a cleaner windscreen, tightened suspension and quite possibly update your Sat-nav so that you may finally know where you are going.
– Colin
Shubha Vihara is an approximately 2 hour and 15 minute drive from Dublin City Centre.
There is usually there an opportunity to car pool, subject to availability. If you can offer lifts, let us know on the booking form.
Buses can be taken to Limerick (UL) and then Ballina where pickups can be arranged. You can also get the train to a nearby town (Birdhill) and a taxi for the rest of the trip.
Cost
We do tiered pricing, depending on the circumstances.
€355 waged
€320 low waged
€255 unwaged
You can pay a deposit of €75 to secure your place.
What to Expect
All bedrooms are shared with fellow participants, typically with three to five retreatants per room. There are no single rooms at this venue.
Sharing a room is a meaningful aspect of the retreat. Many find it enriching to live simply alongside others, fostering a quiet sense of connection, mutual support, and community. This spirit of shared living reflects some key elements of Buddhist practice — simplicity, awareness of others, and compassion.
A €75 deposit per person of this payment is non-refundable under all circumstances.
If you wish to cancel or transfer a booking please notify us as soon as possible at info@dublinbuddhistcentre.org
Cancellation:
- If you wish to cancel your place more than 14 days prior to the retreat starting, a full refund minus the deposit will be offered.
- If cancellation occurs within 14 days of the retreat starting no refund will be available.
Transfers
- At least 14 days before the retreat starts: we will transfer your place to another residential retreat if there are places available on the alternative residential retreat.
- 14 days or less before the retreat starts: we may be able to transfer your place to another residential retreat if there are places available on the alternative residential retreat and we can fill your place on the original retreat.
- If the residential retreat you wish to transfer to costs more than your original booking you will need to pay the difference at the time of transferring in order to secure your place.
- We will refund the difference if the residential retreat you wish to transfer to costs less than the original booking.
- We will only transfer a booking once and no transfer will be possible once a residential retreat has started.