Even if you are not booked onto the urban retreat, you can still attend the free events. You don't need to be a Buddhist. You can also download free audios of the talks from the retreat.
Here is one of the mailings from the urban retreat:
Why is it so hard to live in present-tense awareness?
One of the main reasons we find it hard to live in present-tense awareness is because we're in no fit state to do so. We can't enjoy things if we are hyped up, stressed out, exhausted, or in a bad temper. To enjoy something we need an enjoyable object – the sight of plum blossom, a walk in the Dales – and we need a subject capable of experiencing enjoyment. In other words, we need to be in a state of mind that is receptive enough, clear enough, calm enough, to enjoy things. Simply surrounding ourselves with pleasurable objects won't do it. We need to be in a good state of mind.
It's strange, when we come to think about it, that of all the things we learn – from algebra to circle dancing – so little is said about the mind and how we experience things. We miss the one thing that absolutely determines whether the holiday in Majorca is enjoyable, the new IT job rewarding. Our state of mind filters everything. We cannot make the most of life if we are distracted by trivialities, rehearsing arguments in our head, or getting irate about how long it takes to make an online booking. If we want to live well, we need to attend to the mind. Of course, we don't have to. We could just party, shop, watch daytime TV, or cruise the Internet. It's up to us. No one is going to make us practise mindfulness. But I believe that if we want to be happy, if we want to feel that life is going somewhere – rather than just going round and round in circles – we need to attend to our mind.
Maitreyabandhu (Edited excerpt from his book: Life with Full Attention – to be published in July)
