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Inspired to 
 explore your 
 spiritual nature?

.

Inspired to explore 
 your spiritual nature?

“When we are no longer locked into a rigid adherence to position and point of view, learning can be fun and light-hearted. Then every new vista becomes a playing field of opportunity.”

KAREN JOHNSON - Co-Founder of the Diamond Approach

If you are longing for a supportive community committed to learning, joining a retreat group at Diamond Approach Australia might be precisely what you are looking for. 

Our retreat groups are the primary vehicle for ongoing development on the Diamond Approach path, serving to guide and encourage your spiritual journey. 

If you are in touch with what A.H. Almaas calls “the enlightenment drive” – the drive to realise your spiritual nature to the fullest extent in endlessly unfolding ways – then the learning you will experience in an ongoing retreat group will benefit you.

Interested in joining an ongoing retreat group?

A shared journey of spirit!

The teaching is taught in open-ended retreat groups committed to long-term inquiry, guided by our teachers who have extensive training. 

After an initial open period, ongoing retreat groups close and stop accepting new members. The closing of the group fosters a stable, committed, supportive learning community that continues to share the unfolding path of this teaching. 

Through an ongoing retreat group you will discover:

  • A step-by-step, gradual path of awakening that clarifies and expands your consciousness
  • Spiritual practices that help you become more present and aware
  • Qualities of presence that realise your potential and bring you fulfilment
  • What it means to love the truth for its own sake
  • Skills for practicing open and open-ended inquiry
  • How this teaching differs from spiritual paths that focus on transcendence
  • How to be in the world but not of the world
  • How to defend against inner-judge attacks that constrain your self-acceptance and compassion
  • An experiential understanding of how your individual soul grows and evolves.

What are you likely to experience on this journey of discovery?

  • Aliveness: Awakening to new dimensions of joy and contentment
  • Subtle Sensing: Embodying varied aspects of presence with awareness
  • Inquiry: Refining your capacity for ongoing discovery and new insights
  • Guidance: Seeing and undoing common obstacles to experience more freedom
  • Direct Experience: Living in the moment without shame and judgement
  • Presence: Experiencing the mystery of your spiritual nature.

FAQs about ongoing retreat groups

If you are becoming interested in joining an ongoing retreat group, and want more detailed information, read our responses to some frequently asked questions.

Each retreat has a theme related to a core teaching of the Diamond Approach. The sequence of these teachings follows the Diamond Approach path. The same teaching is provided to all students no matter where they live in the world.

In all its group meetings Diamond Approach Australia uses an experiential approach that includes talks, spiritual practices (e.g. inquiry, meditation and awareness), experiential exercises, large group discussion and personal exploration. Usually a retreat day commences at 9.30am and concludes at 5.30pm. The day is divided into two, three-hour sessions with a 90-minute break for lunch. Each session starts with a meditation practice followed by a specific teaching related to the theme of the retreat.

Students deepen their personal inquiry through experiential exercises, usually in pairs or triads, before re-joining the large group to process what has emerged in response to the teaching.

There are three Sydney-based retreats each year that you commit to attend in person. Retreats are held in January, June and October and total 13 days (i.e. usually two five-day retreats and one three-day retreat). In addition, between each retreat there are small group meetings organised in your area or online.

Deepening your inquiry process is supported through individual sessions with your private teacher. You are also encouraged to develop individual meditation, awareness and inquiry practices. These practices are viewed as essential for you to really learn and integrate the spiritual realisations possible on this path. So, making time for individual practice daily is important.

There are fees for each aspect of participating in the Diamond Approach Australia process. The fees include payments for: i) three Diamond Approach Australia retreats and six interim small group meetings (approximately $2,600 per year GST inclusive): ii) monthly individual teacher sessions ($160 per session); iii) membership fees for the Ridhwan Foundation (sliding scale between $80-$160 per year), and the Diamond Approach Australia Student Association ($10 per year).

Fees are kept as low as possible and are mostly less than other comparable self-development experiences. Expenses associated with travel, accommodation and food are not included in Diamond Approach Australia fees and are the only additional costs that you would incur.

Our students make only an inner commitment to their participation in Diamond Approach Australia and the Diamond Approach, so you are not required to sign a contract of any kind with Diamond Approach Australia.

People of all nationalities, races, cultures, ethnicities, creeds, generations, sexes, genders, abilities and sexualities may participate at any level of Diamond Approach Australia and the Ridhwan School. The Diamond Approach teaching on totality appreciates differences in these areas of human experience and encourages openness to understanding diversity more deeply, including examining our unconscious biases in these areas. As a spiritual community and learning centre Diamond Approach Australia is non-discriminatory and actively supports inclusiveness in offering this path.

As part of our vision, we recognise the effects of power and privilege that arise in relation to our differences, and that these effects may be individual, interpersonal and systemic as well as visible and invisible. We seek to reduce these dynamics in individual teacher sessions, interpersonal relationships and group teachings. We also seek to express this vision in the organisational structures, policies, procedures, and functioning of Diamond Approach Australia. As with the Diamond Approach itself, this vision is growing and evolving, and we understand the need for an active and ongoing engagement with it.

How to join an ongoing retreat group

Joining an ongoing retreat group involves completing the same application process required for starting individual sessions with a Diamond Approach teacher. 

Step 1:

Complete a comprehensive and confidential questionnaire which will be forwarded to one of the teachers working with the ongoing group.

Step 2:

Participate in a personal interview (usually conducted by telephone or video call) with one of the teachers working with the ongoing group.

This two-step application process may occur at different times for different people. For example, some people complete the application process when they start working with a teacher and before attending their first ongoing group retreat, while other people complete the application process after attending a couple of retreats and when they start individual sessions with a teacher.  

Usually, attending one-off retreats and working with a teacher precedes joining an ongoing retreat group. However, we are open to responding to your unique way of joining an ongoing retreat group.  You can discuss your pathway with Anna, our New Enquiries Coordinator. 

Our new ongoing retreat group (DAA8) is open and welcoming students - it will close in October 2024

Would you like to join our new ongoing retreat group? 

This group will close to new participants after the retreat in October 2024. This means the October retreat will be the last opportunity to join DAA8. We estimate that the next group will formally open in about 2027.

To find out more, register your interest or apply to join the group contact Anna – our New Enquiries Coordinator, and she will support you through the process. 

Upcoming DAA8 retreats

These online and in-person retreats provide an opportunity for you to get a taste of the teaching and a sense of what it is like being in an ongoing retreat group. 

2024 Retreat schedule for DAA8

May 10 – 12, 2024 (3 day retreat)
Online ONLY

October 11 – 15, 2024 (5-day retreat)
TBD

Have you seen our upcoming events section? There are a number of free webinars throughout the year, with DAA Teachers, offering mini Diamond Approach teachings. Take a look!

Do you need more information before taking your next step?

Contact Anna – our New Enquiries Coordinator, and she will answer your questions and provide you with information about how you could become involved in a way that works for you.