GUIDELINES FOR JOINING THE RETREAT

The Middle Way Meditation Village invites people of all races and faiths to join our meditation course, provided no age limitation if they are matured and healthy, fitting enough to stay in isolately surrounding and keen interest in meditation and are willing to follow the program and the instructor's guidance.  

 
Minimizing Distracting and Preserving Peaceful Atmosphere

Stilling the mind is key to success in the Dhammakaya meditation. 
You will find that even in the absence of external distractions such as when you close your eyes for meditation, your mind sometimes wander off to a person, place or thing. 
Therefore, it is important to keep any sort of distraction to a minimum to help every participant succeed in the Dhammakaya meditation during the valuable time they spend at the village.

For this reason, we require

• separation of men and women throughout the retreat period;
• that participants stay within the compound of the village throughout the retreat period, except in emergency cases;
• that communication devices be turned off during meditation hours, and that outside contact during personal hours be kept at the minimum.  It is very difficult to leave the busy world to search for the true happiness.  Your essential moment should not be interrupted;
• that books and magazines are not read during the retreat period.  Reading requires thinking, which leads to a chain of thoughts, making it difficult to still the mind when you sit down for meditation;
• that participants do not play music or listen to radio throughout the retreat period, and

that participants strictly observe the simple code of conduct, which consists of not killing both people and animals, not stealing, not lying, not engaging in any sexual contact of all forms, not smoking and not drinking.  This code of conduct aims at creating peace, trust, and harmony in the meditation community and to make the village even more conducive for meditation study and practice—all to the benefit of every retreat participant.

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