Sunnataram Forest Monastery : 7-9 Nov 2025

7-9 Nov 2025

The Power of the Mind

Dear Everyone,

 

Phra Mana, all monks and volunteers would like to rejoice with your wonderful effort at the Power of the Mind retreat.

It was a pleasure to welcome back old friends and meet so many delightful new friends.

We hope to see you all again soon, if not for a retreat then just a Sunday visit with friends or family..

In the meantime we love reading your reflections and experience of the retreat, so please feel free to email.

Also please let me know if you would like a copy of our Chanting Book.

Below is a short summary from Phra Mana and attached is the group photo.

with metta 

Kim

 

Every single breath can give us power of the mind:. 

1. Mindfulness 2. Confidence 3. Effort 4. Concentration 5. Wisdom.

These five powers will give extra support to us to undertake difficult tasks, and be successful. 

We learn when we breathe to feel relaxed, and when we should breathe to feel free. 

Mindfulness, calmness and wisdom will be with us at the critical moment of contact, preventing the coming of unnecessary attachment. 

So the pure mind can enjoy breathing, feeling and thinking without any trouble. 

If we feel less emotional pain, it means we are on the right path. 

Please click here to see more photos

 

Hi Kim,

 

Thank you for facilitating such a wonderful retreat. All the work that you, the volunteers and the monks put in really makes such a difference. I cannot recommend this retreat highly enough if you are interested in furthering your practice and gaining valuable insights and instructions that can be used in day to day life.

 

See you again soon!

Lisa de Jong

Hi Kim,

 

Thank you for your email and for writing us the summary. Sorry I left in a hurry and couldn’t say goodbye properly. Always appreciate all the effort you, the monks and the volunteers put to make the retreat successful. I get to experience first hand compassion and kindness which helps reconnect and reset the mind making it so clear. This is why I try and come back to participate in the retreat as much as I can whenever possible. 

I’m carrying the calm with me on my everyday life. I have felt the profound shift as my family, friends and colleagues also say that I maintain my calmness and mindfulness; while I struggled with a lot of anxiety and stress before I practiced mindfulness and meditation. I have felt connected not only to my breath, but to something deeper — a stillness I didn’t know I could access.

Thank you again for creating a space to practice mindfulness and peace of mind, it is truly a blessing for people like us!

 

See you again next time!

 

Best regards,

Poonam

Thank you so much Kim and Phra Mana and the monks! It was the best weekend, as always I love learning and spending time with you 

 

Thanks also for the summary and great photo.

 

Kim, I think I left a pair of airpods on the desk in number 9? I found them in my jacket and put them on the table, and I think I forgot to pick them up!

 

When you are next up there if you can let me know, it would be appreciated! No hurry at all.

 

Thanks so much and looking forward to the next one.

 

Kind regards

Amber Bailey

Thankyou Kim, I really appreciate this message as a reminder.

I also want to Thank you, the Monks and the volunteers for a truly wonderful experience this weekend. I have learnt so much and look forward to incorporating it into everyday life. 

I look forward to returning next year.

I wonder if your wonderful cooks would be willing to give up their amazing jackfruit curry recipe! It was delicious!

 

Thankyou again

Lyndal Molloy

Hi Kim,

 

Thank you for facilitating such a wonderful retreat. All the work that you, the volunteers and the monks put in really makes such a difference. I cannot recommend this retreat highly enough if you are interested in furthering your practice and gaining valuable insights and instructions that can be used in day to day life.

 

See you again soon!

Lisa de Jong

Thank you so much to the Monks volunteers and participants for making the retreat such a wonderful learning experience. To Kim I know everyone has worked so hard over many years  to create the beautiful landscape and we all had the pleasure of sitting in silence overlooking the valley in the shadow of Kuan Yin. Your creative beautiful input can be seen everywhere and whilst everything is subject to change many meditators will sit for decades under the trees you have planted in their journey to enlightenment as the Buddha did under the Bodhi tree. Thank you  

Here is a photo a friend sent me from Japan which I use  as a screen saver namaste  

Dear Kim,

 

Thanks for the email.

 

I would also again like to whole heartedly thank Hon.Phra Mana, the other monks and the volunteers and yourself for the effort during the weekends retreat.

 

I am already looking forward to my next visit to the monastery and can't wait for you to put out dates for next year.

 

As I mentioned while I was there please feel free to let me now if I could be of any help with the dental work for Phra Mana or any of the other monks.

 

I am also happy to come in for any volunteer work if you need any help, please let me know.

 

Just as a feedback it would be great if you could had a longer retreat in the future, maybe for previous attendees only, if not I'll come for the two day ones or the ones on the long weekend!

 

The word of the year for me has to be "impermanence". It's just going on ringing in my ears in Hon.Phra Mana's voice!

 

I also would like a copy of the Chanting book.

 

I went back home and picked up the Thich Nhat Hanh book- Breathe! You are alive, which I have read previously and am going to go through it again, because a lot of the things discussed on the weekend are in the book too, but now make a lot of sense, rather than just reading it.

 

Thanks a lot again Kim for all your tireless efforts!

 

Regards,

Bhaskar