Price and donations
The base price of the retreat is 270€. This 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 and back 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
The retreat is full, but you can apply for the retreat’s waiting list by filling in the application form. Don’t pay the reservation fee 30 €! It is paid to the following account:
Nirodha Ry
Account number: FI83 3636 3010 8888 24
Bank name: S-Bank Ltd
Bank address: Fleminginkatu 34, 00510 HELSINKI, Finland
Swift code: SBANFIHH
Name of bank account holder: Nirodha ry
Address of the account holder: Vetehisenkuja 3, 00530 Helsinki
Type of account: business account
Reference number to be used for the payment: 3017090
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.)
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.
The rest of the retreat fee (240€ in case of the standard price) should be paid by August 3rd 2017. 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 3rd of August, 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 Wednesday the 6th of September. Our bus leaves from Rovaniemi railway station at around 7:45 a.m. and takes us to the Pöyrisjärvi area, where we start trekking in the afternoon. The trek ends on Wednesday the 13th of September. The bus picks us up so that we are back at Rovaniemi railway station by 8:45 p.m. 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.
A good way to travel from Southern Finland to Rovaniemi is by taking a night train. A suitable train leaves Helsinki on Tuesday the 5th of September at 6:49 p.m. and arrives at Rovaniemi the next morning at 7:14 a.m. For the journey back, a possible train leaves Rovaniemi at 9:15 p.m. and arrives at Helsinki on Thursday the 14th of September at 9:14 a.m. Closer to the trek we will help to coordinate the reservation of train tickets together with other participants coming from the same direction. Train tickets are not included in the retreat price.
Trekking conditions
We will walk partly on paths and partly outside of them. In 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 beginning of September will probably be a beautiful time of autumn colors. Biting insects have disappeared. The weather may vary from quite warm to even occasional snowfall; most probably daytime temperatures will be between 5 and 20 degrees. The temperature may go below zero at night.
The Pöyrisjärvi 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
For the trek you will need a big backpack, a warm sleeping bag (good to work down to zero degrees), a sleeping mat, a waterproof jacket and trousers, trekking boots (good to be waterproof), and sandals or other shoes good for staying in the camp and for wading the streams. Good clothes for trekking are lightweight and dry quickly.
For meditation it may be useful to have an inflatable pillow (tough enough to endure sitting on it) – or you can sit on a pile of clothes or on your sleeping bag stuffed into its storage bag.
For common use we need tents and lightweight stoves meant for trekking; in the registration form we ask you to tell whether you have these to share with others. You can join the trek without these, too.
Closer to the retreat we will send a more detailed list of the equipment needed, and other useful information about the trek. It may be some equipment can be found to lend, or it might be possible to rent them somewhere. Good equipment is rather lightweight, as we will have a lot to carry, anyway.
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. You can tell about your food allergies in the registration form.
Drinking water we will get from the streams and lakes; the water is safe to drink as such. The trek is a drug-free event. We also encourage people not to smoke during the trek.
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,
Markku Ilo (+358 40 413 6833)
Solja Temmes (+358 44 978 0844)