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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
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Retreat Dharma Talks
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Heart of Mettā
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| This retreat has been organized by the Czech Insight Meditation Group and supported by the Hermes Amāra Foundation.
Mettā means loving-kindness, loving intention, or friendliness. Such friendliness is an essential quality for a sincere and persistent deepening of Dharma practice. Mettā realises the potential for freedom of our hearts. We will practice Mettā as it has been practised for thousands of years: turning toward and holding the experience of body, heart, and mind with kindness. From there, we will expand that kindness to those who are close to us, those who are distant, and in every direction. Gradually, we will integrate additional directions into the practice:
- gathering the heart and mind in Samadhi,
- working with emotions,
- integrating compassion, joy, and equanimity,
- and exploring liberating ways of looking.
The teachings will be informed by Rob Burbea’s approaches to Mettā, Samadhi, and Insight practices. |
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2026-08-23 (8 days)
Vrážné Zen Center
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2026-08-24
Talk: Samādhi in Mettā Practice
46:51
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Yahel Avigur
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In this talk, we explore the place of samādhi—the quality of gathering and harmonising the heart and mind—in mettā practice. We learn how to support its development, allowing both the meditative experience and the quality of mettā to deepen and refine.
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2026-08-25
Talk: The Life of the Heart: Emotions and Mind States in Mettā Practice
64:17
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Yahel Avigur
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Mettā practice involves and supports our whole being, including the full range of what may be alive in our hearts. In this talk, we explore ways of relating skilfully and wholeheartedly to our emotional life, developing greater sensitivity, understanding, and capacity to work with the movements of the heart. Like the retreat as a whole, this talk draws on suggestions offered by Rob Burbea in his 2011 retreat, “The Lovingkindness Retreat”.
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2026-08-26
Third Instructions: Mettā Towards a Neutral Person
60:09
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Yahel Avigur
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Cultivating kindness towards people we don’t know allows our mettā to become more all-encompassing, so that it can become a genuine foundation for our hearts and lives. Along the way, we reflect on what we all share as human beings, allowing this understanding to shape our perception and soften some of the fabricated and often unhelpful lines of separation between ourselves and others.
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2026-08-26
Talk - relaxing the inner critic
68:57
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Yahel Avigur
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One of the tendencies that my teacher, Rob Burbea, would point to again and again, encouraging us to soften or even overcome it completely, is the movement of the inner critic. A negative regard towards ourselves is a very common habit of mind. And, as a habit of mind, it is something we can come to understand, relax, and eventually overcome. In this talk, we take time to look the inner critic “in the eye,” exploring how the mind sustains it, and how very different ways of relating to ourselves can be cultivated.
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