Radical Love

Intercontemplative Retreat

Love that is able to turn the other cheek, prioritize the well-being of the other, and offer a path to personal healing and liberation.

The type of love that the Buddha and Mahaprajapati, Mary and Jesus, Socrates and Hypatia, Esther and Jeremiah pursued unwaveringly.

Professor
Donata Schoeller

Venerable
Losang Gendun

Rabbi
Marianne van Praag

Bishop
Malkhaz Songulashvili

The historical role of our great spiritual traditions, whether theistic or non-theistic, has been to challenge authority, question prevailing opinions, pursue truth, advocate for the voiceless, forgive the unforgiven, and persuade through love rather than force.

We invite you to a retreat on radical love. Radical not as a mere synonym but as an antonym to the extremisms polarizing contemporary societies. Radical as in returning to our roots (radix) and sources, seeking a love that is able to turn the other cheek, to create space for and prioritize the well-being of the other, and offer a path to personal healing and liberation. The type of love that the Buddha and Mahaprajapati, Mary and Jesus, Socrates and Hypatia, and Esther and Jeremiah pursued unwaveringly.

This retreat will be facilitated by four esteemed teachers from diverse spiritual backgrounds. Together, we will investigate the profound teachings of love as espoused by our traditions: transcendent, unconditional, and a catalyst for transformation. We envision this space as a collaborative and inclusive environment, where we can engage in open dialogue, critically examine the teachings, and explore their practical implications. Our aim is to listen, question, and meditate, without reducing the other to one’s own understanding, and feel deeply in a suitably safe space to do so.

Is it realistic to love all living beings without exception unconditionally, especially our enemy? Is it possible, desirable, or even healthy to prioritize others over oneself? Is love truly sufficient unto itself? What does love even mean, and how do we move beyond mere words in order to respond to the urgent plight of the world around us?

Four daily tracks, led by the retreat leaders

engaging in spiritual practices of the different traditions
space for both music and exchange of our experiences in the evenings

The teachers

RABBI MARIANNE VAN PRAAG

The prophetic voice of the Liberal Jewish Congregation in The Hague

Ordained in 2008 as one of the first female rabbis in the Netherlands, she is known as much for her disarming humor as for her uncompromising advocacy for the marginalized in society. As part of her pastoral and congregational duties, she leads an active outreach to other faith communities. Eloquent, inspired, and personal, she is a much-sought-after speaker by various religious, philosophical, and social institutions. In addition to her rabbinical tasks, Marianne serves on the management team of the Levisson Institute, contributing to the education and training of future rabbis.

METROPOLITAN BISHOP MALKHAZ SONGULASHVILI

Outspoken and inspired shepherd of Tbilisi’s Peace Cathedral and her Evangelical Baptists community

A professor of Biblical Studies at Tbilisi State University, he lectures at universities around the world and has translated numerous religious texts, notably the Modern Georgian Bible. Dedicated to interfaith dialogue and humanitarian efforts, he established the Beteli Center for refugees and initiated the Peace Project, which includes the Peace Mosque, Peace Synagogue, and the Buddhist Śanti Vihara under the cathedral’s roof. He works tirelessly throughout the Caucasus and the Middle East to alleviate suffering and build bridges.

VENERABLE LOSANG GENDUN

Senior Dutch Bhikshu with nearly four decades of dedicated Buddhist practice, including 18 years as a monastic in the Tibetan tradition.

He studied Buddhist philosophy for ten years in Nalanda Monastery and India, and spent over four years in retreat, training in Tibetan sutra and tantra, as well as in the Burmese Theravada Forest Tradition. He embodies a profound secret of deep spiritual practice: the deeper you delve, the more traditional language and ancient concepts awaken to new and vibrant meanings. This teacher has a unique talent for connecting the heart and mind while reinterpreting the relevance of ancient Buddhist teachings for the urgent issues of today.

In 2023, he founded The Buddha Project, a visionary initia- tive aimed at offering long-term guidance to Buddhist medita- tors, engaging in scientific research, promoting artistic endeav- ours, and fostering inter-contemplative social engagement, encouraging a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of all life.

PROFESSOR DONATA SCHOELLER

A philosopher, who, in good Socratic fashion, takes philosophy from its ivory tower back to the ground of lived experience.

She directs young and also experienced thinkers to the embedded, embodied, and felt dimensions of meaning through the innovative methods of Focusing and Thinking at the Edge. Her expertise on working with humility, ambiguity, complexity, and the role of listening in critical thought could not be time- lier, considering our global communication crisis. A Research Professor at the University of Iceland and prolific author, she leads various international research projects and a European training program called “Embodied Critical Thinking and Understanding.” A disciple of Meister Eckhart, she understands divine love as a potential within everybody, in need of realiza- tion through a process of birth.

The practices

Rabbi Marianne will introduce you to the Jewish practice of Mussar. While literally meaning “correction”, “instruction,” or even “ethics”, it refers to a “way of life” through bringing a spiritual perspective to our life of worldly pursuits and a discipline for its transformation.

Mussar provides a map of our inner life and engagement with the world, and the tools to reshape them. Mussar is an exercise in the maintenance of a person’s character and well-being, that helps us to evolve into an extraordinary ordinary human being.

According to the Jewish tradition, in the beginning there was only God: “Shema Yisraeel, Adonaj Elo- heenoe, Adonaj Echad: The Lord is our God, the Lord is One.” Overflowing with love, God created the world and man in it, male and female, to share that love. At the same time, it also brought duality: light and dark- ness, water and land, heat and cold, good and evil.

According to the mystical teachings in Judaism, the goal of humanity is to return to that original oneness, by the seemingly impossible task of following the Lord’s 613 mitzvot (commandments), progressing one choice at a time. Rabbi Bachya ibn Pakuda wrote to encourage us: “I know that many good ideas were reject- ed out of fear, and that fear does much harm, but I say to you, be careful but not too careful. I am aware that if everyone who ever wanted to do something good or instruct others in the path of righteousness kept quiet until he himself had succeeded in achieving all that he had set himself as his goal, nothing would have been done or said since the days of the prophets.”

Bishop Malkhaz invites you to four distinct practices of the Georgian Baptist tradition. Practicing the Art of Reading Sacred Scriptures will explore how to approach and interpret sacred texts from the Christian tradition. Avoiding harmful literalism, we will engage in a sacred reading of these dynamic and living words that require a thoughtful and creative approach to find meaning for our time and enjoy discussions on their cultural, historical, and symbolic contexts.

The Meditative Walk of the Way of the Cross will reflect on Jesus’ journey as an allegory of today’s chal- lenges, such as poverty, inequality, conflict, and environmental degradation, to find in the Resurrection themes of hope, renewal, inner peace, and the possibility of reconciliation.

If the Practice of the Cosmic Eucharist is an invitation to people from all walks of life to share in the sac- rament of the divine human family, celebrating our connection to each other and to the universe, the Cele- bration of Creation is an expression of gratitude to God for the beauty and abundance of creation, acknowl- edging the gifts of nature and reflecting on the ways in which creation sustains us.

Venerable Gendun is our wayfarer on a meditative journey to touch your inner buddhanature. In the words of the great Indian Buddhist master Shantideva: “Children work only for their own end, while Bud- dhas work solely for the welfare of others.”

According to the Buddha, the price of our mind’s inclination to constant rumination is a profound alien- ation from our sources, both inward and outward. Moreover, it dissolves our lives into a kind of second-hand existence in which our precious time trickles away ever faster, depriving us of the taste and peace of the pres- ent.

The Buddhist practice of lojong, or mind training, aims to heal this estrangement and nourish those qualities of the heart that restore our relationship with the web of life. Understanding all living beings to be the co-creators of their world and each other, Mahayana Buddhists honor them as their mothers and seek the perfection of Buddhahood to cherish and care for them.

We will practice the stillness of letting go, the intimacy of equanimity, the rapture of sympathetic joy, the surrender of unconditional love and empowerment through boundless care, with a touch of tantric imagina- tion of being a Buddha.

Professor Donata will be our guide in the practice of Thinking-at-the-Edge. TAE, for short, has been developed at the University of Chicago by Eugene Gendlin, Mary Hendricks, Kyle Nelson, and others. It is a main component of a current European Erasmus training program called Embodied Critical Thinking and Understanding, involving seven universities.

TAE will support us in listening to ourselves and others while exploring deep intuitions related to our spiritual journey, and examining concepts of faith that are important to us. This practice enhances the focus on “edges” of inspiration, frustration, or knowledge for which we struggle to find words easily, not because these „edges” are marginal, but because they feel significant and vibrant. The practice is contemplative, invit- ing us to dwell on what we bring along, not dismissing our feelings and experiences for lack of appropriate language, and valuing the paradoxes and difficulties of human experience as a fertile ground for insights.

Through this practice, we will reflect on meaningful moments of our daily retreat-journey, how our habits of thinking and feeling might be affected, and how important concepts might evolve in meaning. And, of course, we will also explore our own understanding of the enduring challenge and joy of love.

The location

Institut Vajra Yogini is a Buddhist center located in a magnificent 19th century chateau in the French country-side near Toulouse.