Price and donations
The base price for the retreat is 240 €. The base price covers the travel expenses of the teachers and the managers, the food expenses and some other practicalities. The bus from Rovaniemi to the trekking area is included in the price; meals during the bus trips are not included.
We feel that financial situation should not prevent anybody from participating, so we are willing to offer the retreat for a reduced price, if needed. If the base price is too high for you, please contact us at retriitit2@nirodha.fi and let us know how much you are able to pay. If you would like to support those in a difficult financial situation, you can pay more than the base price.
The teachers and organizers do not receive any payment for their services, but offer these freely, so that as many as possible have a possibility to benefit from the teachings regardless of their financial situation. This principle of generosity is very central in the teachings of the Buddha, and has made it possible that we can still practice meditation 2500 years after him. The retreatants may support the teachers and organizers by donations after the retreat; we ask you to take cash with you for this. The teachers live primarily on donations.
Registration and cancellations
You can sign up for the retreat by filling in the registration form. You will get a confirmation email after we have received the form and your registration fee. Pay the registration fee 30 euros to the following bank account:
Account number: FI84 4108 0010 3769 97
Bank name: Oma Säästöpankki
Bank address: Valtakatu 32, 53100 LAPPEENRANTA, Finland
Swift code: ITELFIHH
Name of bank account holder: Nirodha ry
Address of the account holder: Vetehisenkuja 3, 00530 Helsinki
Type of account: business account
Reference number: 30200618. It is important to use this reference number in the payment!
You can also use PayPal. The recipient’s email address is talous@nirodha.fi. Mention the reference number in the PayPal message. If you send money by PayPal, you also need to pay the PayPal fee which is 1,40€ for the registration fee, and 9€ for the rest of the retreat price. Add these to the payment.
If you are paying from a non-euro account, it may be cheaper to use Transferwise. (Using the link to register will give Nirodha a compensation. We use Transferwise to pay our foreign transfers.)
The rest of the retreat fee (210 euros in the case of the base price) should be paid by 7th of May 2020. The reserved places which are not paid for by the due date will be given to others on the waiting list. If you pay from an account which is not with your own name, please inform us about this to retriitit2@nirodha.fi. The information needed is the name of the participant, the name of the account owner, and the day of payment.
In case you need to cancel the retreat, we kindly ask that you tell us as soon as possible, so we can give your place to the next person in the queue. In case of cancellations, the registration fee is not refundable. If the cancellation takes place before the 7th of May, we will return the rest of the fee. If the cancellation takes place later than this, money will be returned only if we can find another participant to fill in the empty place.
If you are coming from abroad, please note that we are not able to provide any documents for visa applications because of limited resources.
Time, place and travel arrangements
The retreat starts on Thursday the 18th of June. Our bus leaves from Rovaniemi railway station at around 7:45 a.m. and takes us to the Hammastunturi wilderness area, where we start trekking in the afternoon. The trek ends on Thursday the 25th of June. The bus picks us up so that we are back at Rovaniemi railway station by 8:45 p.m.
A good way to travel from Southern Finland to Rovaniemi is by taking a night train from Helsinki. We will provide you details for the suitable trains closer to the retreat. Train tickets are not included in the retreat price and the participants should purchase them by themselves. If you need help in this, please contact us.
We will arrange a place close to the trekking area where it will be possible to store some equipment (like spare clothes for the journey back) for the duration of the trek, and have a sauna after the trek.
Trekking conditions
We will walk partly on paths and partly outside of them. In some places the terrain may be wet or stony. We will wade across streams and small rivers. Nights are spent in shared tents, and food will be cooked with portable stoves. There will be no toilets available. Washing is possible in cold streams and lakes; it is also possible to spend a week without washing oneself. If clothes get wet, it may not be possible to get them dry immediately.
The conditions in late June vary a lot from year to year. There may be huge swarms of mosquitoes and other biting insects, or almost none; in any case, it is good to bring a mosquito hat and maybe even a mosquito jacket, too. The weather may vary from warm to even occasional snowfall; most probably daytime temperatures will be between 5 and 25 degrees. The temperature may go below zero at night.
Hammastunturi wilderness is a remote area, and we will probably have a chance to be mostly on our own there. Mobile phones will not work everywhere. The organizers will be carrying a satellite phone for possible emergencies.
Equipment needed
The equipment needed for the trek can be found in the equipment list.
It may be possible to lend some of the equipment, or it might be possible to rent them somewhere. Good equipment is rather lightweight, as we will have a lot to carry, anyway.
We will send the particants other useful information closer to the retreat.
We do not have an insurance for the participants. It may be good to have your own personal insurance, which also covers trekking type of activities.
Food
On the trek we will eat trekking type of food, which is light to carry. We eat three meals a day, and there will also be some common snacks. All the food will be vegetarian/vegan. Please tell us about your food allergies in the registration form. If you have very specific requirements, please contact us beforehand to ensure that we can accommodate your needs.
We will get the drinking water from the streams and lakes; the water is safe to drink as such. The trek is a drug-free event.
Lastly
If you have any questions, you can contact us at retriitit2@nirodha.fi. We wish this will be a fruitful trekking retreat for everyone!
You are warmly welcome,
Heini Repometsä +358 45 6755043
Marianne Kautiala (registration, +358 50 531 8228)