Retreats – Panditarama Sydney Meditation Centre

Panditarama Sydney

General Information

Whether you are new to meditation or an experienced practitioner, Panditarama Sydney Meditation Centre (PSMC) retreats provide a supportive environment to cultivate mindfulness, develop Vipassanā insight, and experience the teachings of the Buddha through guided practice taught by experienced teachers. Join us for a meaningful retreat experience grounded in the Mahāsi tradition.

Meditation Guidance

PSMC Sayadaws guide yogis in Satipaṭṭhāna Vipassanā meditation according to the Mahāsi tradition as taught by the late Mahāsi Sayadawgyi. Meditation instructions, interviews, and practice schedules are designed to support both new and experienced yogis in developing mindfulness and insight.

Amenities

Basic accommodation and retreat facilities are provided to support a simple and conducive meditation environment. Participants are encouraged to maintain simplicity throughout the retreat period.

Language

Retreat instructions, interviews, and teachings are conducted in both Burmese and English.

Meals

Traditional Burmese and local meals are provided during retreats. Non-vegetarian meals (which may contain ingredients such as garlic and onion) are served for breakfast and lunch. Please inform in advance if you are vegetarian.

Fees

All retreats are offered free of charge in accordance with the tradition of Dhamma generosity. Donations are welcome for those who wish to support the continuation of the Buddha Sāsana and future retreats.

Noble Silence & Eight Precepts

Participants are expected to observe Noble Silence throughout the retreat and undertake the Eight Precepts to support mindfulness, concentration, and the development of insight practice.

Rules and Regulations

1. Appropriate Attire

All yogis shall wear loose T-shirt /blouse and long loose trousers or sarong (plain and white preferred). Short skirt, short pants, sleeveless shirt, leotard and skin-tight clothing are strictly prohibited.

2. Observance of 8 Precepts

Yogis must observe the 8 Precepts which are:
1. Refrain from killing all living beings.
2. Refrain from stealing / taking what is not given.
3. Refrain from sexual intimacy.
4. Refrain from false speech.
5. Refrain from taking liquor and intoxicants causing heedlessness.
6. Refrain from taking food at inappropriate times, which is between 12pm noon and before dawn the next morning.
7. Refrain from dancing, singing, music and unseemly shows; from the use of garlands, perfumes and unguents; from things that tend to beautify and adorn the body.
8. Refrain from using high and luxurious bed.

3. High Standard of Discipline and Conduct

Yogis must practice respectfully and take their practice seriously. The instructions given by the teacher should be followed strictly. Yogis are to report to the Meditation teacher for interview as scheduled (if any).

Yogis are expected to maintain high standards of discipline and conduct. They are expected to be at VMC punctually each day before the commencement of the retreat and continue till the end of the day. If they need to come late or leave early due to last minute urgency, they are to inform the organizer / manager.

Daily activities should be carried out mindfully to maintain the mindfulness and avoid disturbing other yogis.

All yogis are to conform to the retreat schedule, i.e. alternate sitting and walking meditation according to the schedule.

4. Vipassana Meditation & Noble Silence

Please note that yogis are only allowed to practice Vipassana Meditation according to Mahasi tradition as taught by the Meditation Masters. No other form of meditation is permitted.

This is a SILENT retreat. Yogis are Not allowed to engage in casual talks and discussions especially after lunch. Please switch off your handphone or put on quiet mode, no talking or making phone calls during the retreat even during lunch time. Reading (including Dhamma books), writing (of letters), entertaining visitors are strictly disallowed.

Meditation Instructions

Vipassana Meditation Instruction in English

Walking Meditation Instruction in English

မဟာစည်ဆရာတော်ဘုရားကြီး ဝိပဿနာအလုပ်ပေး တရားတော် (၁နာရီ)

မဟာစည်ဆရာတော်ဘုရားကြီး ဝိပဿနာအလုပ်ပေး တရားတော် (၃၀မိနစ်)

Weekend Retreats

At PSMC, we welcome yogis (practitioners) to join our regular weekend meditation retreats designed to help yogis maintain their Vipassana Meditation practice and cultivate a consistent habit of mindfulness and concentration.

New yogis are recommended to complete the Meditation Instruction Videos and Yogis’ Handbook before joining attending our weekend retreats. This foundation ensures a better understanding of the practice, allowing participants to gain the full benefits of Vipassana Meditation practice.

Note: There may be no weekend retreat in the week when the long retreats are in progress.

Please register latest by Thursday before the weekend you wish to join.

Full Day session: 9am to 5:30pm
Half Day session: 1pm to 5:30pm

For enquiry, call us at +61 2 9620 2174 or email us at psmc.org.au@gmail.com.

Structured Retreat Programme

Vipassana Meditation Retreat

PSMC organises Vipassana Meditation Retreats of varying duration throughout the year.

Month	Date	Duration & Information	Registration
August 2026	28 – 31 August, 2026	4-Day Metta Meditation	Registration link: https://forms.gle/GC4QRJ6vwCh9UH7P6
September 2026	1-10 September, 2026 11-20 September, 2026 21-30 September, 2026	10-Day Vipassana Meditation Retreats	Registration link: https://forms.gle/GC4QRJ6vwCh9UH7P6

Daily Schedule

Time	Activity
4:00am	Wake up
4:30 – 5:30 am	Sitting meditation
6:00 am	Breakfast *Timing for breakfast is subject to change due to the Day Light Saving hours
7:00 am	Walking meditation
8:00 am	Taking Eight Precepts & Sitting meditation
9:00 am	Walking meditation
10:00 am	Sitting meditation
11:00 am	Lunch
12:00 pm	Walking meditation / Rest
1:00 pm	Sitting meditation
2:00 pm	Walking meditation
3:00 pm	Sitting meditation
4:00pm	Walking meditation
5:00 pm	Yogi interview / Sitting meditation
6:00 pm	Refreshments / Walking meditation
7:00 pm	Dhamma Talk by Sayadaw
8:00 pm	Walking meditation
9:00 pm	Metta Chanting
10:00 pm	Lights off

* The programme schedule is subject to change as advised by the meditation teacher.

Yogis' Handbook

The Yogis’ Handbook provides essential guidance to help retreat participants prepare for and navigate their meditation practice, including guidelines for observance of 8 precepts, meditation instructions, yogi interview reporting guidance, and practical information to support a conducive retreat experience.

Download

Panditarama Sydney

Meditation Centre

We greatly appreciate and welcome your kind generosity to help support the continuous development of the centre.

All donations are processed securely in Australian Dollars (AUD) only.

Panditarama Sydney

General Information

Meditation Guidance

Amenities

Language

Meals

Fees

Noble Silence & Eight Precepts

Rules and Regulations

1. Appropriate Attire

2. Observance of 8 Precepts

3. High Standard of Discipline and Conduct

4. Vipassana Meditation & Noble Silence

Meditation Instructions

Vipassana Meditation Instruction in English

Walking Meditation Instruction in English

မဟာစည်ဆရာတော်ဘုရားကြီး ဝိပဿနာအလုပ်ပေး တရားတော် (၁နာရီ)

မဟာစည်ဆရာတော်ဘုရားကြီး ဝိပဿနာအလုပ်ပေး တရားတော် (၃၀မိနစ်)

Weekend Retreats

Structured Retreat Programme

Vipassana Meditation Retreat

Daily Schedule

Yogis' Handbook

Panditarama Sydney

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