5-Day Silent Retreats at Easter and Pentecost

You will be staying at Landhaus Meingast, a historic, very quiet guesthouse located within walking distance of the ZEN_raum. Since the number of single rooms is limited, we recommend booking early. If this accommodation does not meet your needs, we can provide you with other options.

The meals are Ayurvedic, vegetarian, and vegan. All ingredients are fresh and organic. We can also accommodate personal dietary restrictions. Please let us know about these when you register so we can take them into account. We will also make eating part of the meditation. Mindful and conscious eating has fallen out of focus due to time constraints. Quickly available food is prioritized over sensory enjoyment. We want to explore this aspect and reflect on it within ourselves.

CONTENTS

Participants spend more than two-thirds of the seminar in silence. At specific times during the seminar, there will be
periods set aside for sharing and exchanging experiences. In addition, individual sessions will be held in which
questions and topics that arise during the silence and meditation can be discussed and explored in greater depth.


Key components

Seated meditations of the Vipassana tradition
Exercises to strengthen self-compassion
The body scan
Walking meditation
Active meditations
METTA meditation

The individual practice sessions (sitting, lying down, and mindful yoga exercises) rarely last longer than 45 minutes.
The morning active meditations last 60 minutes, alternating between movement,
breathing, and stillness.

Talks

In addition to detailed instructions for the respective meditations, short talks
addressing the everyday challenges of our lives
will enrich this seminar.

Sample Daily Schedule

7:00 AM to 8:00 AM Morning meditation (active)
8:30 AM to 9:00 AM Breakfast
9:00 AM to 1:00 PM ZEN meditation structure with short breaks
1:00 PM to 1:45 PM Lunch
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM Break and individual one-on-one sessions
4:15 PM to 4:30 PM Tea ceremony
4:30 PM to 7:00 PM MBSR meditation structure with short breaks
7:00 PM to 7:30 PM Evening vespers
7:30 PM to 8:15 PM Walking meditation
8:15 PM to 9:00 PM Evening meditation (Metta, Tonglen, Nadabrahma, Heart meditation)
9:15 PM RETIREMENT

Seminar Leaders:
We are Marion and Bernhard Hötzel, and we each have 45 years of meditation experience, 20 of which we have spent working as meditation teachers.
We teach at our own institute, as well as serving as guest teachers at other institutes and as lecturers for NEURO-Meditation at the TH-Campus Vienna. We have received traditional training in Asia, the USA, and Europe and are very familiar with humanistic psychology and the approaches of NEURO-Meditation.

Take the train to Salzburg, and from there, take the Postbus 140 to Mondsee, which runs hourly. From the bus station in Mondsee, it’s just a short walk to the ZEN Room and your accommodation. The nearest airport is also in Salzburg. From there, the city bus runs every 10 minutes to the main train station. From there, take the Postbus 140 again.