About Meditation
Reduce Stress
Experience a calm mind and reduce mental tension and anxiety.
Find Inner Peace
Improve your sense of well-being and experience real happiness.
Benefit Others
Develop a positive outlook and caring attitude to others.
Why meditate?
Usually, we find it difficult to control our mind. It seems as if our mind is like a balloon in the wind – blown here and there by external circumstances. If things go well, our mind is happy, but if they go badly, it immediately becomes unhappy.
When we do not get what we want, or we lose something that we like, we become irritated, even despondent. Such fluctuations of mood arise because we are too closely involved in the external situation.
If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually become more and more peaceful, and we will experience a purer and purer form of happiness. Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.
What is meditation?
Although one of the effects of correct meditation is to relax the body and the mind, meditation itself is much more than just relaxing. Meditation is a mind that concentrates on a virtuous object, and is a mental action that is the main cause of mental peace.
There are two types of meditation – analytical meditation and placement meditation. When we use our imagination, mindfulness, and powers of reasoning to find our object of meditation, this is analytical meditation. When we find our object and hold it single-pointedly, this is placement meditation.
There are many different types of meditation object, such as patience, love, compassion, impermanence or emptiness.
Where to begin?
When we start our meditation practice, it is useful to choose, as our first object of meditation, the sensation of the air at our nostrils as we breathe in and out (breathing meditation). This object is easy to discover, so it functions to calm our mind quickly, overcoming our distracting thoughts and preparing us for more advanced meditations.
If you've been thinking of trying meditation but do not know where to start, why not simply drop in in one of our weekly meditation classes, workshops or retreats.
See the list of upcoming events below for some examples. Each one of these is self-contained and no prior experience or preparation is required. Everyone is welcome!
Start your practice today.
No time to come to the Temple this week? Start meditating today by downloading one of our series of guided meditations, which you can listen to any time and any place.
These are guided by a qualified meditator and are designed to help you to relax, develop clarity of mind and increase your love and compassion for others.
As you gain more experience of these simple guided meditations, take your practice to the next level by attending one of our weekly classes, and unlock your potential to be the best version of yourself.
I've been to five workshops at this centre over the last year and it's completely revolutionized my meditation practice. I'm super grateful to have stumbled across them and recommend them every chance I get. Thanks!
— Andrew
Every time I join a workshop, I go home with valuable lessons that I can live by in daily life. The teachings are logical and cleaned my negativity significantly.
— Sara
I apply many of the teachings in everything I do in my daily life and I can say I am a much happier person and lead a much lighter life. This is my personal experience. I hope that if you get a chance to try them out they’ll be helpful in some way to you as well.
— Bianca
