James Low, April 2026 writes: The traditional structure of Buddhist teachings is that each level or vehicle has its own View, Meditation, Activity and Result. Over the years I have focused on making the various views and meditations as clear as possible and you can access these through my many audio and video recordings, books and transcripts.
I feel that our retreats now need to have increasing emphasis on your activity and proactive learning.
We all have a lot of life experience and so how can we mobilise this experience to become an ally on our path instead of an obstacle? Rather than relying on our habitual assumptions and conclusions, our practice is to investigate how our subjectivity arises in different situations. We aim to locate the ground (or basis) for our subjective thoughts, feelings and actions in our simple presence within the ever-open here and now.
I will be teaching in the mornings. In the afternoons there will be small group activities led by experienced members of our sangha. They will offer a range of activities and I am encouraging you all to try them out so that you can experience what you can make use of (or not) at each moment in time. The key point is for you to observe what arises for you as you engage with each activity in your ever-changing environment.
The aim in dzogchen is to see the self-vanishing of each moment. We do this by ripening our presence without engaging in dualistic reificatory judgement.
James Low 6:00 pm to 7:30pm (London Time) https://dateful.com/time-zone-converter With German (Robert), Polish (Bartek), Portuguese (Joao or Milton), Romanian (Viorica), Russian (Marie), Spanish (Juan) and Turkish (Mustafa) translation. Please send your questions to Milton at simplybeingsangha gmail com and he will forward them to James. If you send your questions in advance this gives him a chance to think about them and [...]
First Winter, Then Spring The retreat will be at the end of April when the buds are starting to open on the tree and bushes. Winter has allowed a die-back in nature so that the sap could return to the roots. This release from the tasks of growing has brought a replenishing of the core energy of each plant so [...]
James Low 6:00 pm to 7:30pm (London Time) https://dateful.com/time-zone-converter With German (Robert), Polish (Bartek), Portuguese (Joao or Milton), Romanian (Viorica), Russian (Marie), Spanish (Juan) and Turkish (Mustafa) translation. Please send your questions to Milton at simplybeingsangha gmail com and he will forward them to James. If you send your questions in advance this gives him a chance to think about them and see [...]
Zoom Saturdays in the first half of 2025. With German (Kati), Polish (Bartek), Portuguese (Milton), Romanian (Viorica), Russian (Marie), Spanish (Mária) and Turkish (Mustafa) translation. Register yourself here 10:00 - 11:15 Teaching 11:15-11:45 Break 11.45-13:00 Teaching 13:00-14:00 Lunch break 14:00-15:15 Teaching 15:15-15:45 Break 15:45 -17:00 Teaching Those who would [...]
James Low Tantra and dzogchen. The delusion that we exist as definable entities is the basis of all limited and limiting experience. Through dissolving our contrived identity into that of Padmasambhava we become free to act in whatever ways will help sentient beings. The view of dzogchen deeps our understanding of how this functions and aids our release into our [...]
James Low 6:00 pm to 7:30pm (London Time) https://dateful.com/time-zone-converter With German (Robert), Polish (Bartek), Portuguese (Joao or Milton),Romanian (Viorica), Russian (Marie), Spanish (Juan) and Turkish (Mustafa) translation. Please send your questions to Milton at simplybeingsangha gmail com and he will forward them to James. If you send your questions in advance this gives him a chance to think about them and see [...]
Open to life: life comes as it comes. Vast as the sky. Deep as the ocean. James Low has been leading these summer retreats in Sussex almost every year since 2013, organised by Huw Wyn. They are usually in Emerson College, a training college inspired by the work of Rudolf Steiner. Topic We do not know what events will arise [...]
Well, I don't know what is going on at the Emerson retreat just now but it does look like fun! Photo from Anna Barbara
No gain, no loss. The eight worldly concerns are no concern of awareness. Zoom Saturdays in the first half of 2025. With German (Kati), Polish (Joanna), Portuguese (Milton), Romanian (Viorica), Russian (Marie), Spanish (Mária) and Turkish (Mustafa) translation. Register yourself here Schedule 10:00 - 11:15 Teaching 11:15-11:45 Break 11.45-13:00 Teaching 13:00-14:00 Lunch break 14:00-15:15 [...]
James Low 6:00 pm to 7:30pm (London Time) https://dateful.com/time-zone-converter With German (Robert), Polish (Bartek), Portuguese (Milton), Romanian (Viorica), Russian (Marie), Spanish (Juan) and Turkish (Mustafa) translation. Please send your questions to Milton at simplybeingsangha gmail com and he will forward them to James. If you send your questions in advance this gives him a chance to think about them and see if [...]
Non-duality is simple. The aim of this dzogchen retreat is to let go of our habitual involvement in the myriad forms of duality. In order to let go we need to sever the links between our erroneous sense of being a separate subject, our erroneous sense of there being separate real objects, and our erroneous grasping at occurrences as if [...]
Seeing and Imagining Imagining is the play of the ground source. If the source is seen then all that is imagined is non-dual illusion, like a mirage or a dream. If the ground source is not seen and opened to then all that is imagined is reified and then we experience ourselves as existents in a world of existents. There [...]
