Buddhafield

The potential for healing and transformation for individuals and for the planet is ENORMOUS when we gather in this way in a spirit of co-operation and good will.

Healing Garden

We offer a wide variety of holistic healing, mostly in exchange for donations. We recommend a donation of £6+ for each 15mins of treatment, by individual negotiation. We also offer inspiring group activities and workshops in our Workshop Dome, for free!

Experience the calming energies of our natural treatment space.

There are over 60 therapists in the Buddhafield Healing Garden, where we usually have an “A-Z of Treatments” available, often including:
Acupuncture, Aromatherapy Massage, Bowen Technique, Chakra Balancing, Craniosacral Therapy, Crystal Healing, Deep Tissue Massage, EFT, Emmett Technique, Energy Healing, Herbal Medicine, Holistic Massage, Homeopathy, Hopi Ear Candles, Indian Head Massage, NLP, Reflexology, Reiki, Shiatsu, Swedish Massage, Thai Yoga Massage, Theta Healing & Vortex Healing — some day we might even have Zero Balancing!

Yoga Space

Please feel free to explore the many potentials of a yoga practice: there are nearly 40 classes with different styles and different teachers. This can be a wonderful way to explore these bodies and this breath — to ground ourselves in present moment awareness.

Classes start from 6.30am every day and stop at 9.30pm. Each morning there is an intermediate Ashtanga class (6.30-8.00am), followed by an class specifically for beginners (9.45-10.45am).

In addition to the Yoga Space classes there is an area for self-practice: each morning in the Communal Om tent (near to the Yoga Space in the Healing Garden) will be open for self-practice from 6-8.30am. For classes please arrive 15 minutes prior to start and bring your own mat if you have one.

Self-practice — each morning the small Healers tent (next to Yoga Space) will be open for self-practice from 6 — 9.30am.

Teachers & Styles in 2012

Yin Yoga led by Norman Blair. As the focus is on feeling, through the practice we develop attentiveness and refine awareness: it's a slowing down and softening where we have space to stay with our experiences.

The Earth, Gravity and our Breath Coming and Going with Jo Tytherleigh. When we tune in and move with these innate rhythms we experience our own vitality and aliveness.

Yin & Yang Yoga with Manjunaga. Dynamic flowing movement with stilling postures, experience yoga as a deepening awareness of the breath, encouraging meditative qualities and peace of mind.

Satyananda Yoga with Abhijeeta which incorporates the whole person, not just the physical body. It also focuses on the spiritual & meditative aspects and promotes the balance between body, mind, emotions and spirit..

Hatha Yoga with Amber Ward. Amber’s classes will help you to unravel tension by giving more to the earth; encouraging an exploration of the “unnecessary” effort we bring to both movement and stillness. Suitable for beginners minds of all abilities. S

Grounded Yoga with Nikki Fee. Learn simple movements and techniques that encourage you to become grounded and body aware; able to notice unconscious habitual patterns by re-learning dynamic positive ways of 'being' and 'feeling' relaxed and naturally stronger.

Hatha Flow with Debbie Joy. Linking breath and movement with flowing sequences to energise, strengthen, release tensions and relax. A medium paced practice suitable for beginners and experienced yogis.

Dynamic Yoga with Alex Thomas. My Dynamic yoga classes will include sun salutations and sequences of postures that synchronize with the breath, with opportunities to develop strength, and some challenging postures too. Th

Soma Yoga with Lisa Christie. Hatha yoga with a somatic focus. Deep, gentle, intuitive yoga. Unfolding the poses from inside out, using breath, anatomy and imagery to find union for the body mind.

Iyengar Yoga with Cathy Allison is a system of yoga developed by BKS Iyengar which focuses on alignment, intelligent sequencing and individual modifications to help people work safely and to their full potential within the practice. Classes include a wide variety of postures which can bring about a sense of wellbeing, relaxation and increased flexibility.

Scaravelli Yoga with Jeanette Karlsson. The yoga is inspired by the practice of Vanda Scaravelli. It is not a system but is very creative and joyful. We explore how to undo unnecessary tension in both the physical and inner life.

Ashtanga Yoga with Joey Miles in the tradition of Sri K Pattabhi Jois with added attention to precision and alignment.

Martial Arts, T’ai Chi and Qigong

Qigong: Awaken your Body, Heart and Mind with Brad Richecoeur. Revitalise your energy, awaken your heart/mind and liberate your spirit. Qigong is easy and fun to learn, exploring mindful movement, standing postures, together with more freestyle movement and spontaneous play. Suitable for beginners and experienced practitioners alike. Brad has practised Qigong since 1990, and been teaching since 1994. He has also practiced Buddhism since 1984, and taught at Gaia House since 1999.

Qigong: Awareness and Movement. Rik Midgley has been practising Yang style tai chi and vipassana meditiation for over 2 decades. In his qigong classes,an alive feeling of wellbeing is sought through gental natural movements which use the co-ordinate mind and body to enhance balance and awareness.

Wu Style Tai Chi Short Form. “Wu style uses balanced, natural movements. During the workshop I will focus on relaxation, and movement of energy through the body. Balance, focus, flexibility and co-ordination can be improved. This is a gentle, meditative form, known for its healing properties.” Karen is a Brighton based certified instructor of Wu style Tai Chi and has been practising Tai Chi and Qi Gong for over 20 years. She started teaching in 2008 after training with Bruce Frantzis and achieving teacher certification in these subjects. She teaches Wu style short and long form Tai Chi, and Open the Energy Gates of your Body & Dragon and Tiger Qi Gong. She likes to make her classes a mixture of learning and fun, along with a direction towards health, and teaching people to feel into their bodies and “get out of the their heads”.

Zhineng Qigong or Standing Qigong with Vimokshadaka each morning.
One of the main aims of Qigong is to access the super-conscious states through letting go and freeing tension and blockages. It's sometimes called a fast method of relaxation. It is probably good to use both approaches: gentle and forceful relaxation. In both there can be dangers, but more so in the latter: many, even most, people will not be able to activate full relaxation straight from stage three, introducing the possibility of exacerbating rather than resolving tension and even emotional repression issues, not ideal perhaps for beginners classes.
‘Happy Pain’ is Qigong’s description of what happens when you start to make progress in its ‘fast method of relaxation’ and the energy movement begins to collect up and push against the blockages we all have in our meridians: energy (Chi) builds up in front of the blockage (which is painful – but beneficial, hence ‘Happy Pain’) and, if we don’t stop early, it can sudden break through and clear the blockage (this is forceful relaxation). I’ve experienced this happening doing qigong myself and it felt rather like entering Dhyana, a Buddhist word for concentrated states of mind. This energy is real, not metaphorical, and I agree that we would gain from understanding this process in meditation more.
Over my sixteen years of Qigong training, more and more I’m beginning to see the vast underlying importance of relaxation and the need to spend far more time sitting in a reclining chair to support full relaxation before getting up and attempting to do it whilst standing, or even sitting for meditation; this has been a revolution for my meditation practice. I’m probably less relaxed than most people, but I’ve been studying this exactly because I’m not naturally good at relaxation: we don’t tend to study something obvious or natural to us. This might explain its near absence as a discussion pre 1900’s and in Buddhist literature generally. Now we can show how relaxation is essential to Buddhism rather than relegate it to the sphere of ‘self-help’. Vimokshadaka has been doing the Zhineng Qigong for nearly five years, and is one of the UK reps for the Europeans Zhineng Qigong Centre in Sweden, where he first got a taste of how serious, and powerful, Qigong could be