SAMATHA-VIPASSANA TRUST (SVT)

Ref: Appealing for Support and Attendance for Upcoming 2022 Retreats

Samatha-Vipassana Trust (SVT) was officially established on October 21, 2021. The Trust aims at joining together with  Dhammasukha-Asia to continue the growth and development of Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation (TWIM) practice in INDIA, We will continue sharing this priceless gift through the Brahma Vihara practice which reveals a Buddha Dhamma  that is fun to learn and very useful within daily life. Our work has already started and a wonderful supportive community of conscientious practitioners is slowly growing.  Those who aspire towards a meditation-life balanced by combining serenity (samatha) and insight (vipassana) components into one practice to keep going all the time in life, should come and investigate this wonderful practice. TWIM is  just as the Buddha spoke about within the suttas in early times. It truly is Easy to understand when closely guided as you learn, immediately effective in daily life, definitely invites deeper inspection, and seems to not have changed across time. This truly is a practice anyone can learn and it relieves suffering and helps you develop a clearer happier mind. 

SO WHAT HAS THE SAMATHA-VIPASSANA TRUST
BEEN DOING IN 2021?

 Actually, a lot has been going on. Despite the challenging circumstances COVID-19 brought us in 2020, SVT has made significant progress in several areas of the Buddha Dhamma through 2021 and now is looking forward to 2022.  

o  TWIM Foundation Series (13 weeks) This was an online series offering Foundation Information about Buddhist teaching. It was taught two times through the year to help support meditators to move forward towards the state of cessation and the experience of Nibbana by way of practicing the Brahma Viharas. We begin with Metta ( Loving KIndness ) and move through all four of the Divine Abodes. We listened to many suttas that covered many interwoven Dhamma topics to improve our meditation practice.

o  Wednesday Evening Dhamma Talks: continued throughout the year from 6:30-8:30 PM IST (2 hours) These talks were offered to a global audience to offer individual support. Several supporting suttas were offered and were followed by Q&A sessions. In November- December 2021, we focused on meeting the characters in the Buddhist Suttas by way of listening to "The Buddha and his Teachings " by Ven. Narada .

o Sunday Afternoon Dhamma Classes (1.5 hours) for Australian/advanced meditators, were continued all year long. Here we sit for ½ hour and then listen to and discuss Dhamma topics for 1 ½ hrs with Q&A each time. 

o Several Online Retreats were held in March, April and  August, and there were two semi on-site retreats held at Tiny Temple during the year. 4-6 participants attended each one. Online coaching and counseling continued in various countries for past students (worldwide) .

o A Six-Day Workshop for over 200 students of University of Mumbai was completed  in May 2021 followed by a 5-day online Metta retreat for 176 students of that cohort. Nearly 50 students kept up the practice and supported each other by staying in touch post-retreat as one group on WhatsApp. 

o  First Bridgework Project : This year an experiment with diversity was attempted and very successful. A Retreat was conducted in September 14-24, 2021 by MataJi. This was  offered to establish the value of teaching TWIM to a Non-Buddhist group. The 10-Day Course of TWIM  was presented by request for a group of Novice Catholic Nuns with the objective of improving their daily deep personal Christian prayer sessions . A Non-denominational Universal practice of the Brahmaviharas was carefully taught and the nuns learned about using equanimity to steady themselves in order to lengthen their personal meditation times. The participants  went from as little as 15 minutes in meditation up to 4hr45min long meditation.  Every member of the group increased their sitting time as they grew the feeling of Metta. Metta shifted into a softer Compassion and they became able to bring uip Joy very well to share with those in need of being uplifted. They truly discovered a way to ease a person's suffering and agreed in the end to teach others this practice. 16 nuns from 21 to 38 yrs. old participated.  They were from 16 different locations around India. The retreat was held at the Maria Assunta Convent in Pune  with the intention to complete the Nuns requirement for Meditation Training which was required for their ordination training program. This Convent arose out of the original early tradition of St. Francis of Assisi. The Retreat was considered a hugh success and we hope to repeat it in future years.

o Publication Work has slowly gathered momentum. Several guidebooks and larger books are in development stages.  But, we are still needing a layout specialist to help us take these all projects through to publishing. 

o   ‘Post-Retreat TWIM Toolkit’ as supportive guide for after students who have attended a retreat.

o   ‘Brahmaviharas for Everyone’ is a bridgework booklet for all humanity, from any religious background to learn this practice to relieve suffering in daily life.

o   Books: The Nevermind Game, TWIM Sutta Index and Waking Anattā aat different levels of completion. The Nevermind Game is ready to be taken and pushed along for publicaiton. 

o   Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation Sutta Index and Topical Reference Guide: Learning about the evolution of TWIM and the early books that  are authoritative so far. to guide it along. 

o   “Waking up Anatta”- What causes Craving to arise? How can you take action to get free from suffering? This book brings home  answers to questions you 

never got to ask.    

o   “The Book about Hindrances” What should I do? Invite them to have tea and but don't get into any conversation with them... Just stay with your meditation

o Media Work online has been going on by creating MOrning Dhamma Dew Drops, Dhamma Bytes, Weekly Dhamma Talks, Foundation Series Training, and we are helping to create a repository of resources for future practitioners/students of the Buddha Dhamma. Group lessons have included series talks about:

-Foundation Series- what do you need to know to reach cessation & experience Nibbana.

-Examining the Sigolavada Sutta- a guide for living.

-Dependent origination- out of the box, back into life! 

- Dhamma Foundation Activities are being planned so students will learn how to actively use Dependent Origination to reduce suffering in daily life.  Understanding is spreading about how Human Cognition works and how if one changes their mind, they will change their life. 

- Translated Dhamma Training is steadily growing now. Instructions was given to many students to get started with the Loving Kindness Meditation through 10-day Online Tri-lingual TWIM Retreats in English, Hindi, and Marathi.  

- There are also Freestanding Translations of Beginner TWIM Instructions available in Hindi and Marathi 

- There also is a TWIM Regional Language Channel on Youtube now available

-AND

Malayalam youtube translations  at

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN4A61wSjobN2bJy1tWJJ_A/videos 

o In 2021, Tiny Temple has been established and occupied by Ven. Khanti Khema to reside in and work from in Ulhasnagar, Mumbai (India).  A Buddha was donated by the local Family  and an attendant stayed on for a period of time to help with translation for local people. There is a desire for a weekly Sunday school in this area but there is not space for this to happen YET.

o Various visits took place by Board members  during the year in search for a 2-3 acres level location with wooded and cleared areas for building. Such an area would be developed for lay people and monastics to live onsite for periods of time for one on one training. The location would proviide space for 10-day retreats with meditation and Dhamma parallel training.
    AT this time,  retreats are being planned for the 2022 year in other centers like the Jetvan Monastery in Yavatmal, and Deerpark Institute in Bir, Himichal. We are getting ready to host two retreats at JetVan Monastery location in January 2022 by invitation of the project owner. Details for these retreats are given  HERE. At JetVan Monastery, we will be using the older facility set-up until the new compound is completed.  This facility was used very successfully in 2019 for two retreats which many foreign students represented 9 different countries.

 Come JOIN US!