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2024
MLE Retreat 2024
Click here to Apply!
New Deadline: Friday 17th April 2024 at midnight CEST
This will be an in-person retreat connected to the European Summer Research Institute 2024, taking place at The Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia, Italy, from 31st July – 2nd August, 2024 (arrival on the 30th). Click here for more information about ESRI 2024.
Please watch the introductory video (below), where retreat facilitators, Dr Marieke van Vugt and Dr Martijn van Beek, explain the history and thinking behind the MLE Retreat.
Opening Up the Space Between Us
This year, inspired by the 2024 MLE banner theme, “Opening Up the Space Between Us”，we will explore how contemplative practice may help us in this process of opening up space, individually and collectively, as our lives unfold. In a world where a hardening of boundaries and deepening polarisations seem to be on the rise, living open-heartedly and cultivating respons-ability, as the wisdom traditions suggest, appear as radical and necessary alternatives. What might this mean, concretely, in our personal and professional lives? What experiences do we already have with it, what are our challenges, and how might insights and practices from various wisdom traditions be beneficial? How do we bring more kindness, clarity, and insight to bear on how we live in relationship to ourselves, others, and the world at large? What inner and outer resources and competences do we already possess? How might we develop our capacity to navigate the challenges of living with groundlessness as a foundational condition of being, and as an existential horizon?
The retreat will take place over three days this year and will include silent and guided meditations, reflections, dialogical exercises, journaling, and gentle movement practices. We will also engage with microphenomenological methods to explore five gateways to wholeness and authenticity (body, breath, heart, mind, and foundational creativity).
While this is not a strictly silent retreat, there will be periods of silence throughout our three days together. Since meditation will be a key ingredient of the retreat, academics (especially early-career academics) and professionals who have an established, regular meditation practice are encouraged to apply. The MLE Retreat is open to all, but it is preferable if one has already participated in one or more Mind & Life Institute or Mind & Life Europe events.
Tentative Schedule
Tuesday, 30th July
Arrivals
Evening: Serkong Rinpoche
Wednesday, 31st July
8:00: Breakfast
9:30: Morning session (including tea break)
12:30: Lunch & free time
15:00: Afternoon session (incl. tea break)
19:00: Break
20:30: Evening session
21:30: Silence through breakfast
Thursday, 1st August
6:30: Body work (outside)
7:15: Meditation (Main Meditation Hall)
8:00: Breakfast in silence
9:30: Morning session (including tea break)
12:30: Lunch & free time
15:00: Afternoon session (incl. tea break)
19:00: Break
19:30: Dinner
20:30: Evening session
21:30: Silence through breakfast
Friday, 2nd August
6:30: Body work (outside)
7:15: Meditation (Main Meditation Hall)
8:00: Breakfast in silence
9:30: Morning session (including tea break)
12:30: Lunch & free time
15:00: Afternoon session (incl. tea break) and closing
19:00: Break
19:30: Dinner
Saturday, 3rd August
No programme
ESRI participants arrival
Costs (for MLE Retreat & ESRI 2024)
| ESRI | MLE retreat | ESRI + retreat | |
| Research Fellows | € 600 | € 300 | € 900 |
| Senior investigators | € 800 | € 400 | € 1,200 |
| Professionals | € 1200 | € 400 | € 1,600 |
These prices cover the whole program and full board at the venue (including food and drink). Please note that most rooms are shared with one other participant of the same gender and single rooms are extremely limited in availability.
Financial Support
Participants of ESRI (and the retreat) are expected to cover their own registration fee and travel costs. Fee discounts might be available for selected (PhD) students and early career scholars, with a particular priority given to scholars coming from Eastern Europe, the Baltic countries and Russia.
If you have the means to make a donation in support of participants who could not otherwise afford the fees, we would be deeply grateful for any level of donation. You can state your intention to make a donation in the application form or write to office@mindandlife-europe.org.
If you would like to be considered for financial support, please submit a written request in the application form with details of your financial situation (max. 300 words). Please note that MLE operates on a limited budget, and will only be able to provide support to the selected recipients.
Marieke van Vugt is an associate professor at the Bernoulli Institute of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Artificial Intelligence of the University of Groningen (Netherlands). The research in Prof van Vugt's lab focuses on how, when and why we mind-wander, and what the fundamental cognitive operations are that underlie meditation and mindfulness. Most recently, she started to investigate how analytical meditation practised by Tibetan monks and nuns affects cognition and emotion. She addresses these questions using a combination of computational modelling, neuroscience, and experimental psychology tools. She very much enjoys projects where science, art (particularly classical ballet), and contemplation meet.
Martijn van Beek is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and affiliated with the Interacting Minds Centre, both at Aarhus University, Denmark. Having worked and conducted research for many years on politics and development in Ladakh and elsewhere in the Himalayan region, for the past two decades his research has increasingly focused on the meeting ground between contemplative traditions, especially Buddhism, consciousness research and modernity. His research seeks to contribute to refining our understanding and the significance of emergent forms of contemplative ways of living for people and for the planet. He is also engaged in research on the (micro-)phenomenology of contemplative practice and experience. Martijn teaches sustainable ways of living and contemplative life in context, in theory and in practice at Aarhus University and elsewhere. He lives at Vaekstcenter, a contemplative community in Denmark.
02-08-2024 05:00 PM