8 Days Vipassana Meditation Retreat in Palairos, Greece

Facilities

The main part of this retreat is the five days of Vipassana meditation practices. After the retreat there will be time to rest and enjoy the beach and the surroundings before you return home, there will still be silence in the retreat center as others will still be in retreat. You will receive individual guidance doing your whole stay by Martin Pack that has dedicated himself for many years to share this unique teaching that has been life-changing for a lot of yogis and meditators.

Vipassana means to see clearly or beyond, to see the true nature of things as they really are. The practice is based on the four foundations of mindfulness, training the mind to be aware of the present moment at all times, allowing people to overcome everyday difficulties.

The Vipassana meditation technique is being taught by teachers from Wat Chomtong. The technique is from the Mahasi Sayadaw tradition and has been developed by Ajarn Tong, the Abbott of Wat Chomtong near Chiang Mai. It is a practical technique, enabling you to practice after the retreat and incorporate mindfulness into your daily life.

The practice consists of walking and sitting meditation. The course will get through different stages of knowledge within the practice. There are important benefits of the practice such as overcoming many personal, mental, and physical difficulties like relationships, work-related stress, letting go of attachments, and so on.

Constant practice develops insights, allowing confidence, energy and effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom to arise in order to help you and others overcome difficulties, enabling everyone to have more compassion.

Vipassana meditation helps you in finding peace and happiness. Generally, you have perceptions of yourself and the world around you. Your perception is often distorted by different patterns of the mind like greed, anger, doubt, fear, and delusion. Mostly, you are not able to see these hindrances very clearly.

When you practice mindfulness, you are witnessing the arising of these hindrances and instead of trying to avoid them or push them out of your mind, you see (acknowledge) them by making a mental note of them and then letting them go by bringing your attention back to the meditation practice.

Therefore, you can begin to find peace and allow the insights to arise, showing you that all these experiences are transient (impermanent). The experience of Martin Pack, the teacher of the retreat, is seen especially during the report times (private daily talks between the teacher and the retreat participants), where he helps the students through their challenges with his compassion, characteristic humor, and deep understanding of the processes they are going through.

The teaching is based on donation in order to maintain the purity of the practice. With right intention and generosity, Ellas Retreat suggests a donation of 20 EUR per day and if you want you are welcome to offer more. Just like everyone, the teacher needs money for living like food, transport, and housing.

This retreat will take place at Ellas Retreat Paleros, Greece. The retreat center is located in a small village at the Ionian Sea close to the island of Lefkada. It lies at the base of a spectacular rocky mountain and it is surrounded by sandy beaches. The village is not the main tourist attraction and this is that makes it so inviting.

Distances

• Aktion National Airport (PVK), 30 minutes
• Vonitsa - 19 kilometers

Ellas Retreat offers a healthy menu prepared with mindfulness and love. A vegetarian breakfast and lunch will be served. There will be snacks in the evening and hot drinks the whole day as well.

After the main retreat, you will have time for some beach and relaxation time.

• 2 daily vegetarian meals
• 7 nights accommodation
• Daily hot drinks and snacks
• Daily walking and sitting meditation sessions

• Donation for teachers (according to the tradition of Vipassana, the teacher is given a fair donation at the end of the retreat. 20 EUR per day or more if you wish to)

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• A reservation requires a deposit of 16.94% of the total price.
• The deposit is fully refundable if the booking is cancelled up to 25 days before the arrival date.
• The rest of the payment should be paid on arrival.