Sarnath Retreat

Atish Dipankar Dhyan Kendra held its annual away retreat of 2024 from October 7-13 at Sarnath, near Varanasi, where Buddha Shakyamuni turned the first Wheel of Dharma. The topic of the retreat was Heart Sutra, Buddha’s teachings on profound perfection of wisdom.

For the first half of the seven-day meditation retreat, we stayed in the guesthouse of Vajra Vidya Institute at Sarnath, a monastic college imparting training in Buddhist study and practices. This gave us the rare opportunity to attend the monastery’s morning prayers recited by the resident monks.
We spent the second half of the retreat in Vatika Homestay where the sprawling greens helped us to stay relaxed and be in contemplative mode. A visit to the Sarnath Museum and Dhamek Stupa complex was also on the cards at the end of the retreat.