Standard rate: R2 430 (shared bathroom, R2 890 (en-suite)
Generous Rate: R2 990 (shared bathroom), R3 530 (en-suite)
You know us as a largely Buddhist-oriented centre, but one of the things we have always believed is that truth does not belong to any single tradition — and that sometimes the clearest view of your own path comes from standing, briefly, on someone else’s.
This is why we are genuinely excited to invite you to something new.
We are hosting Etsko Schuitema — a Shaykh (the highest teacher) in the Darqawi Shadhili Sufi lineage, author, and one of the most remarkable spiritual guides we have encountered — for a two-day residential retreat.
This is not a Buddhist retreat with Sufi vocabulary. It is a real encounter with a living tradition that arrives at the same open ground by a completely different route.
Where Buddhist practice often approaches the silence through watching, releasing, and letting go, the Sufi path comes through longing, devotion, and a love so complete that the lover disappears. The destination these traditions point to is recognisably the same. But if you have only ever travelled one road, you may be surprised what the other one reveals — including about the path you are already on.
What the retreat includes:
– “Sohbet” — sacred conversation in the Sufi tradition, which is less a talk and more a transmission
– “Dhikr”— the practice of remembrance, using breath, sound, and presence
– Periods of silence and stillness
– Space for personal reflection and questions
Etsko does not teach “about” the path. He stands on it. Those who have sat with him consistently describe the experience less as learning something new and more as recognising something they had always half-known but never had named.
He is also the author of several extraordinary books — “The Millennium Discourses,” “Intent,”and “The Two Sandals” among them — and the founder of the Schuitema Human Excellence Group, whose Care and Growth model has been applied inside organisations including Nestlé, Mercedes-Benz, and Siemens. He is, in other words, not a man who has retreated from the world to talk about inner life. He has carried this into challenging human contexts.
This retreat is for you if:
– Your practice is genuine but you sense you are circling familiar territory
– You are curious about the devotional and ecstatic dimensions of spiritual life that more austere traditions tend to leave unexplored
– You want to encounter a living transmission, not just a new set of ideas
– You are simply drawn — even if you cannot say exactly why
No belief in Islam or prior knowledge of Sufism is required. No belief system of any kind is required. Only sincere openness.
Places are limited. If something in this speaks to you, we encourage you to trust that.
This two day retreat is a genuine encounter with another living tradition — one that may illuminate corners of our experience that our usual framework has never quite reached.
Come prepared to be surprised by how much you recognise, with what fresh eyes it can be seen, and how deeply it can be re-explored.
For more information: