ABOUT US
Meditation Retreats In Guatapé
Woods & Nature
La Casa de Loto is a Meditation and Yoga Retreat Center in the magical mountains of Colombia, founded and run by Karma Pema and his wife Maria. Here we offer you cosy accommodations, daily meditation and yoga classes, freshly cooked Ayurvedic food, and a variety of optional massages and treatments. Our experienced teachers and staff and the beautiful nature surroundings create the ideal conditions for you to turn inward, let go of stress, and reconnect to the essence of life, where lasting happiness can be found. You will find us just 10 minutes up in the mountains of Guatapé, and one hour away from Medellin's international airport. We can arrange transportation from and to the airport and the city for you.
At the heart of all our retreat programs are the ancient practices of samatha and vipassana meditation (calm abiding & insight) as taught by the great Tibetan Dzogchen master Dudjom Lingpa, and daily 2-hour hatha yoga classes to relax and strengthen the mind and the body. As a support to cultivate more self-awareness and mindfulness, we employ the practice of noble silence throughout the retreat, and work with no more than eight guests at a time, to help you to immerse yourself into the meditation and yoga practice and clarify your practical doubts.
If you are looking to tame your monkey mind, and deepen your meditation and yoga practice in a tranquil and spiritual environment, you are happily welcome here. Our retreats begin on Fridays and end on Thursdays, with the option of one to four-week stays.
"Bondage is simply the mind being bound - and if it is freed, without a doubt, that is liberation." — Saraha
ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུ
TEACHERS & PRACTICES
SAMATHA & VIPASSANA
Buddhism addresses two major types of meditation, different mental skills, or qualities of consciousness. They are called Samatha and Vipassana.
Samatha can be translated as “concentration” or “peaceful abiding.” It is a state in which the mind is brought to rest, focused only on one item and not allowed to wander. When this is done, a deep calm pervades body and mind, a state of tranquility which must be experienced to be understood.Vipassana can be translated as “Special Insight”, a clear awareness of exactly what is happening as it happens. This insight comes naturally, when we become able to abide calmly, and allow our mind to look at itself.
Here at La Casa De Loto we teach you both techniques from a Dzogchen point of view. When we practice this way, judgements begin to fall away and we learn how to break out of our mental prison, and find relief in the nature of the mind - an uncontrived, natural, spontaneous flow of pure awareness - also referred to as buddha-nature.
KARMA PEMA
Pema is a Meditation and Yoga practitioner and teacher. He mainly follows the Dudjom Tersar and Longchen Nyingthik lineages of Tibetan Buddhism.
Very early in his childhood he lost both of his parents. Meanwhile, all of the wealth they had left for him by will was stolen by others in his family while he was still young. As a teenager and into his mid-twenties he struggled with this betrayal and loss while pursuing a career as a professional musician. By and by he developed an unsustainable lifestyle and major depressive problems, and started questioning if life has any inherent meaning at all.
One night, moments before attempting to jump out of a seventh floor window into a dingy, grey, Berlin backyard, Pema had a profound experience with the nature-of-being and saw that all good and evil thoughts and feelings are merely essence-less projections of the mind. This moment encouraged him to step away from the ledge, and go on a full introspective journey. Soon after he gave away all of his belongings and went to study and practice with many of the great buddhist masters and yogis around the world, until he understood how to fully liberate the mind and be able to teach others.
For the rest of this life Pema wants to stay in retreat, and share his space and practices with others who are looking for liberation and freedom.
HATHA YOGA
Hatha yoga can be translated as “sun” (ha) and “moon” (tha), and "union" (yoga), the practice of finding union through balance. Hatha mostly is composed of various ancient physical exercises which combine teachings related to asanas (postures) and pranayama (breathing exercises) in order to bring our mind and body into union. These practices support and prepare us for deeper spiritual practices such as meditation.
At La Casa de Loto the focus in our yoga classes is on proper alignment like it was taught by B.K.S. Iyengar, and on the breath, trying to create a flow of energy to help release mental and physical blockages and pains. All our classes are taught by Maria Mercedes Lopez. She has lived, studied and practiced Yoga for more than 30 years, and lived as a nun in a buddhist Temple in Thailand for over a year. A true Yogi who guides meditation and yoga retreats in Colombia since over 20 years.