The Wisdom Centre is so pleased to be able to offer a short three day retreat with contemplative Pip Nichols.  Pip Nichols is a contemplative who lives in Wellington, New Zealand.  Her contemplative seeking led her to Buddhism in the 70’s and she spent a year in a Thai Buddhist Monastery in 1979.  In the 90’s, through her studies with Tessa Bielecki and the Carmenlite Spiritual Life Institute, she returned to her Catholic roots.  Pip became a Spiritual Director in 2006 and has since studied with many spiritual teachers including Thich Nat Hanh, Br David Stendhl-Rast and Cynthia Bourgeault.  Pip is creative in providing her spiritual gifts to both individuals and groups in a country where people are spread out, being willing to use current technology such as Skype and traveling throughout New Zealand as well as Australia.

Cynthia Bourgeault describes Pip saying:

“Pip Nichols is one of the wisest, warmest and most spiritually grounded AMMAs I have ever met.  She has worked extensively with spiritual masters in both the Christian contemplative and Buddhist traditions and has also been deeply formed in the Maori traditions of her native New Zealand.  She combines wisdom, generosity, common sense and compassion in equal measures.  A highly respected spiritual mentor and guide, she is the founder of the New Zealand Contemplative Network. …She is truly a contemplative of and for the entire world, deeply rooted in her own Christian lineage but with her wings spreading to greet the spiritual unity of the entire human family.”

Pip describes her plan for the retreat saying: “Perfectly Flawed! – Welcome to Incarnation.” Wabi sabi is a Japanese aesthetic that allows us to see the sacred in the everyday and the beauty of ordinary imperfection.  We too are wabi sabi.  We too are perfectly flawed, sacred and permeated with everyday beauty. Compassion, unconditional love, loving kindness – whatever we name this extra-ordinary quality – is the sacred aesthetic that allows us to find this ‘treasure fo great price’.  To experience beauty and peace in everyone, everything and everywhere.

During this retreat, we will engage in contemplative practice to deepen our compassion for self, others and all creation.  It will entail slowing down, silence, simplicity, stillness, spaciousness…

More information and registration at www.wisdomcentre.ca.