In his book Eight Steps to Happiness page 81, Geshe-la teaches :

"Normally we divide the external world into that which we consider to be good or valuable, bad or worthless, or neither. Most of the time these discriminations are incorrect or have little meaning. For example, our habitual way of categorizing people into friends, enemies, and strangers depending on how they make us feel is both incorrect and a great obstacle to developing impartial love for all living beings."

Geshe-la follows on with this advice :
"Rather than holding so tightly to our discriminations of the external world, it would be far more beneficial if we learnt to discriminate between valuable and worthless states of mind."


If we observe our mind patiently over a long period of time we shall discover that it is vast and formless. It's contents are also formless.

That which lacks form is therefore not limited - yet our happiness is limited...why? 


It is our view & intentions which limit our happiness. So we need to learn to think and go beyond our limited view of ourself and others. 

When we learn to view others' happiness as equal to our own we shall be able to regard every being (humans & non-humans) whom we meet as a potential friend, thus extending our benefit towards them and in turn they to us - this would help our relationships to be more harmonious.

Examples of valuable minds (those which make us happy) are love, compassion, wisdom understanding the true nature of reality. Examples of worthless states of mind are anger, desirous attachment, jealousy, deluded pride, self-cherishing & self-grasping.

Not all desires are worthless - eg. the desire to be happy through developing inner peace, the desire to help others or to become enlightened for the sake of all living beings.

Our meditation classes & courses help us to work with our minds to unlock it's full potential to be happy and of great benefit to others.

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Relevant courses

Learn to Meditate in half-a-day - bring a friend for FREE
Saturday 12th November, 2011 10.30-1pm

Day Course - Love : Soothing the ups & Downs, taught by out Resident Teacher, Hung Tran
Sunday 20th November 2011, 10-4pm (includes delicious vegetarian lunch) - bring a friend for FREE

Meditation retreats for relaxation...everyone welcome!

During the class we were introduced to the mantra, OM AH HUM. The instructions can be found in the New Meditation Handbook (in an appendix called A Special Breathing Meditation) or guided on on the CD called Meditation for Relaxation.
We all wish to be happy and free from problems. 

The source of true happiness is a mind of inner peace and the source of problems is the mind of delusion.

What is a delusion?

"The definition of a delusion is a mental factor that arises from inappropriate attention and that functions to make the mind unpeaceful and uncontrolled." p190. Understanding the Mind

"Delusions are distorted ways of looking at ourself, other people and the world around us - like a distorted mirror they reflect a distorted world...When our mind is under the influence of delusions, we are not in touch with reality and are not seeing things as they really are."p7. Transform Your Life


A very powerful delusion is the mind of anger. 

The teaching tonight was to contemplate the definition of anger. This will help us towards recognising it arising in our mind.

"What is anger? It is a deluded mind that focuses on an animate or inanimate object, feels it to be unattractive, exaggerates its bad qualities, and wishes to harm it."p21. How To Solve Our Human Problems (HTSOHP)

"Having understood the nature and disadvantages of anger, we then need to watch our mind carefully at all times in order to recognize it whenever it begins to arise."p.22 HTSOHP

We were asked to always remain mindful of anger arising in our mind by recalling the nature (deluded, therefore painful mind) and disadvantages of anger. 

When we are aware of this then we can apply the appropriate antidote - patient acceptance - which we will learn over the next term.

The first level of overcoming delusions - recognising them - is understood to be difficult due to our deep familiarity with them.

However with effort to remain mindful of the nature & disadvantages of anger it will be come easier and we shall have achieved something great. It will become a great contribution to our own and others' welfare continually.

Next week we shall look closely at the disadvantages of anger and where it comes from to encourage us to recognise, reduce, and finally overcome this delusion that destroys our own and others' inner peace and happiness.

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References for the classes

These items are available to purchase in our little shop at Drolma Centre or you can order them online by clicking on the titles.

The New Meditation Handbook
Meditation for Relaxation
How To Solve Our Human Problems
Transform Your Life
Understanding the Mind

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Interested in taking things further to improve your experience of meditation to deepen inner peace and relaxation? 

Simply Meditate Retreats,
27th November & 18th December. Three guided 45 minute meditations at 10am,11am,12pm

Day Course Love : Soothing the ups & downs
20th November 10am-4pm 

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Interested in a more structured study & meditation course? 
Why not try a taster session on Foundation Programme (FP) on Wednesdays & Sundays 6.30-8.30...just contact us 

Sunday 24th September 2011 10.30-1pm, 
followed by (optional) light lunch

The following article is a round-up of the half-day course to teach learn to meditate. This primary assists those who attended to recall the material and also to inspire those wishing to attend future course.


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The aim of this course was to introduce those new to meditation first hand experience of meditation techniques. Practical learning was the emphasis of the classes so that students could leave having experienced meditation.

10.30-11.30 Teaching & Meditation 1
Started with a short, simple & beautiful Buddhist prayer to inspire our minds called the Liberating Prayer

The teacher emphasised that the best way to learn meditation was to experience a meditation.

We got straight into a guided breathing meditation which lasted about 15-20 minutes.

First we voluntarily 'let go' of our world by dissolving it into empty space. Then we imagined we had a hollow body surrounded by an outline of our body of light. This was taken from a meditation called 'Body of Light' from the CD called Meditations for a Clear Mind.

We then used a breathing meditation to practically learn the essential components of meditation through our own experience : 

So using the breathing meditation to settle the distractions in our mind :

We were asked to apply 'analytical meditation' to 'finding' the 'object of meditation' which was the sensation of the breath going in and out of the nose. Once we had found the object of meditation we were asked to do 'placement' meditation.

Once we noticed that our mind had wandered off or lost the object of meditation completely, we were asked to apply mindfulness (to remember the meditation object) and bring our minds back to the object of meditation - through analytical meditation to find the object, then placement to focus/concentrate on the object.

In these sessions we found that we had to apply the cycle of analytical then placement meditation several times as the power of our mindfulness was not so strong and we kept forgetting or losing the object of meditation.

After some initial and then clarification instructions we were left to it for about 5 minutes.

Each time we noticed we had lost the object we repeated the process of analytical & placement meditation. In this way we became more and more familiar with the techniques of meditation. 
For a link to the full meditation, click here, also available on CD called 'Meditations for Relaxation'.We then had a 15 minute teaching to reflect and review on the techniques and the aspects of the meditation. This helped us to consolidate our meditation experience. These aspects were which were :
- analytical meditation
- object of meditation
- placement meditation
- concentration
- mindfulness

After this practical teaching we repeated the breathing meditation. We were asked to be aware of these components and to apply what we had learned to the same meditation. Our meditation became much clearer and more rewarding once we were clearer as to what and when to apply these components to every meditation. Afterwards we felt that each person's meditation experience became much deeper as a result of applying these components to their meditation.

11.30-12midday : Tea break
We got to meet the other students ad compare our experiences


12-1pm Teaching & Meditation 2
We began with a brief teaching to once more reflect on the techniques.We learned that there were many types of meditation 'objects' which could be feelings, sensations, motivations, states of min.

There were different types of meditation but they were generally categorised into those to settle the mind and those that transformed the mind.

In general we learned that we needed to always settled the mind before we could transform it successfully. 

Most of a meditators problem is not first settling the mind. There are various objects of meditation that can be used to settle the mind and those that transform the mind. Regardless of the object, the technique of meditations are always applied :- analytical meditation to establish or 'find' the object of that particular meditation- once the object had been found we then used 'placement' meditation to hold the object in our mind to improve our level of 'concentration'.

In order to improve our concentration we applied 'mindfulness' to remembering the object once it was already known or established or to recall it once our mind had been taken away from the object by distractions.

So there was a bit to do during a meditation session, not just 'blanking' or 'zoning out'. However our efforts would ensure we experienced a calmer and more peaceful state of mind. 

We were advised not to worry about the outcome of a meditation sessions, just to contemplate the benefits of meditation to inspire us to meditate. Then to just meditate.To begin with we need only apply 5 minutes daily or whenever we can (the more frequently the better). 

Then naturally our sessions will increase in duration as the quality of our meditation experience improved. We emphasised quality of meditation over quantity of time.

Absorption of Cessation of Gross Conceptual thoughts
With that said we learned a new meditation to improve the quality of settling our mind. To begin with the first obstacle to experiencing a still and peaceful mind were the distractions of our gross minds & senses.

We were introduced to a meditation called the 'absorption of cessation of gross conceptual thoughts' - this was to ignore all the distractions arising from all our senses as well as thoughts.After a few moments of breathing meditation we started on the absorption of cessation meditation.

The analytical bit of this was simply to - ignore all distractions arising from the waking senses as well as the mind - thoughts & feelings, by remaining like a piece of wood or stone.

Once we sensed that the mind had settled and become still - then this stillness was the object of meditation. So we applied placement meditation on this stillness - abiding in this place.

Then with mindfulness we would try to hold the object. However when we sensed our mind had become distracted again we once more applied the analytical meditation to establish the object (a stillness of mind which was the mere absence of gross thoughts & feelings as well as sensory input). Once more placement meditation was applied and the object was held in place through mindfulness.The cycle was repeated as before. This session lasted 20 minutes.

There followed a 20 minute round up of meditation and how we could take it further.

Through settling the mind we could hope to become more and more peaceful and warmly disposed of others. This is what is already and it will have more of a chance to arise in our mind if it is still.

However we were informed that the negative thought patterns that caused our minds to be negative and hence our actions and experiences to be negative were the delusions. The delusions would be pacified by stilling the mind but would not be reduced or removed if we didn't engage in meditations that transformed them. This is the topic of Buddhist psychology based upon Buddha's teachings or Dharma (Skt. protection). 

Each of these teachings are a systematic ways to deeply transform our mind. In all Buddha gave 84,000 teachings and we are very fortunate to have a access to all of them in a coherent, systematic, and simple way presented in Lamrim (stages of the path to enlightenment) teachings.

It was emphasised that though the meditation tradition is a Buddhist one spanning back 2600 years, that we didn't have to be Buddhist to benefit from the meditation & courses. Buddha simply gave the teachings to benefit everybody who has a genuine wish establish pure happiness by transforming their minds into compassion & wisdom.

To further assist our experience & journey of our meditation we can engage in :
- drop-in classes
- learn to transform our mind through the various courses
- retreat to simply meditate
- regard Drolma Buddhist centre as our resource for inner peace 
- there is a learning zone all about meditation, click here

Practice, practice, practice...

contemplate the benefits of meditation and then engage with it...


Our take home message was :
"Since inner peace is the source of all happiness, we can see how important meditation is."The New Meditation Handbook, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

1.15pm Lunch 
Some of us stayed for a delicious vegetarian lunch kindly cooked and served up by the students & residents of Drolma centre. It was a chance to get to know the community and teachers.

It was interesting to know that the course fees went to supporting the centre and any surplus were re-invested to run further courses at the centre as well donated to the International Temples fund to help bring meditation to future generations. We also learned that no-one from the centre and within the New Kadampa Tradition received any financial payments for their time and efforts and that it was all given freely.


It was so lovely that the students and residents had donated their free time to making this event happen just for us...

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Experiences of those who attended - to be posted later

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Resources & announcements
Next Learn to Meditate in Half-a-day is Sat 22nd October, click here
Next Day course - Practical Methods of Overcoming Stress, click here
Further reading/downloads, click here
About Modern Buddhism, click here

What is meditation



"It is a mind that concentrates on a virtuous object, and that is the main cause of mental peace.  

The practice of meditation is a method for acquainting our mind with virtue; the more familiar our mind is with virtue, the calmer and more peaceful it becomes.  

When our mind is peaceful, we are free from worries and mental discomfort, and we experience true happiness.  If we train our mind to become peaceful we shall be happy all the time, even in the most adverse conditions; but if our mind is not peaceful, then even if we have the most pleasant external conditions we shall not be happy.  

Therefore, it is important to train our mind through meditation."
The New Meditation Handbook, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

SIMPLY MEDITATE RETREAT
Sunday 11th September. 
Three guided sessions 10am, 11am, 12midday
£4 per session (includes light refreshments)
Suitable for everyone, no need to book, 
just drop-in!

LEARN TO MEDITATE IN HALF-A-DAY
Saturday 24th September, 10.30-1pm
£18, (optional lunch, £5)

Suitable for beginners