January 2008
Happy new year and welcome to the January newsletter from www.meditationincheltenham.org.uk
Some good news about Akanishta Centre
Our funds have shot up to £57,000 and, through the kindness of many people, we are now within sight of buying the property on Prestbury Road and thereby establishing the first Kadampa Centre in the Gloucestershire area.
A big thank you to everyone who has in any way been helping us assemble the causes and conditions so far.
There’s still some way to go though, so please keep putting your good wishes and prayers behind it, and please consider giving what you can towards providing generations of local people, Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike, with the medicine to heal their inner afflictions of anger, attachment and ignorance.
You can now see our progress online .
It is now also possible to make donations online .
Interest-free loans are also greatly appreciated – please contact us on info@meditationincheltenham.org.uk if you might be able to help in this way.
Thank you
To read more about the project, please see the website, or our fundraising leaflet (PDF file 1.84 MB)
41 mile sponsored walk
Bringing the Dharma to Cheltenham from our mother Centre
On February 9-10 we will walk the 41 miles from our mother Centre, Amitabha Centre in Bristol, to Cheltenham where we hope to establish a Centre soon. We will be bringing with us all of Geshe Kelsang’s books containing the root texts and commentaries of Lamrim, Lojong and Mahamudra, and the representations of Buddha’s body and mind (the basis for the shrine in our new meditation room).
All proceeds will go towards establishing a Buddhist Centre in Cheltenham for the benefit of people throughout the area.
Read more about our plans to establish a residential Dharma Centre in Cheltenham
To sponsor a participant by paypal, please click here
To sponsor by cheque, please make cheques payable to ‘Amitabha Centre’ and send to:
Akanishta Centre
C/o Old Vicarage, Gloucester Road, Bishopston, Bristol, UK, BS7 8NX
Meditate in 08 – local classes begin 21st January
Cheltenham
Mondays 7.30 – 9 at Parmoor House, 13 Lypiatt Terrace, Lypiatt Road, Cheltenham
Life without anger
Can you imagine going through the day without irritation, dislike or conflict arising?
Learn how with these meditations based on Geshe Kelsang’s highly-acclaimed book How to Solve our Human Problems.
21 January – 11 February (4 classes)
Realizing our own potential
We all have the capacity to experience lasting happiness and peace from within.
Eight verses of training the mind, the well-loved poem by the Tibetan Bodhisattva, Geshe Langri Tangpa, reveals how we can achieve this in eight simple steps.
Based on Geshe Kelsang’s best-selling Eight Steps to Happiness, these are perfect teachings for busy people living in challenging times.
18 February – 10 March (4 classes)
Opening the heart, freeing the mind
Wisdom and compassion are the very essence of the Buddhist path.
Learn simple yet profound methods for improving relationships, benefiting others and letting go of daily problems.
Based on Geshe Kelsang’s best-selling Eight Steps to Happiness.
24 March – 14 April (4 classes)
40-minute lunchtime meditation classes in Cheltenham
Thursdays 1.10 – 1.50 at Isbourne Foundation
, 4 Wolsely Terrace (off Oriel Road by the Town Hall)
31 January – 13 March (5 sessions)
27 March – 24 April (5 sessions)
1 – 15 May (3 sessions)
5 – 26 June (4 sessions)
3 – 17 July (3 sessions)
21 August – 18 September (5 sessions)
2 – 16 October (3 sessions)
13 November – 18 December (6 sessions)
Gloucester
Tuesdays 7.30 – 9, Hucclecote Library
Life without anger
Can you imagine going through the day without irritation, dislike or conflict arising?
Learn how with these meditations based on Geshe Kelsang’s highly-acclaimed book How to Solve our Human Problems.
22 January – 12 February (4 classes)
Realizing our own potential
We all have the capacity to experience lasting happiness and peace from within.
Eight verses of training the mind, the well-loved poem by the Tibetan Bodhisattva, Geshe Langri Tangpa, reveals how we can achieve this in eight simple steps.
Based on Geshe Kelsang’s best-selling Eight Steps to Happiness, these are perfect teachings for busy people living in challenging times.
19 February – 11 March (4 classes)
Opening the heart, freeing the mind
Wisdom and compassion are the very essence of the Buddhist path.
Learn simple yet profound methods for improving relationships, benefiting others and letting go of daily problems.
Based on Geshe Kelsang’s best-selling Eight Steps to Happiness.
25 March – 15 April (4 classes)
Tewkesbury
Tuesdays 7.30 – 9, Tewkesbury Library
Please note change of venue
Understanding the mind
What is the mind and how does it exist?
Discover how a deep inner peace can be gained through meditation on the nature of the mind.
22 January – 12 February (4 classes)
Medicine for the mind
“Since happiness and suffering are states of mind, their main causes cannot be found outside the mind.”
- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
Learn how to use basic Buddhist psychology to understand and control the various functions of the mind in daily life.
Heal your own mind by replacing the inner causes of anxiety and frustration with the inner causes of happiness.
19 February – 11 March (4 classes)
Foundation Programme
The Foundation Programme is a special course designed by Geshe Kelsang to enable people in the West to study Dharma systematically and deeply in their own language, following authoritative commentaries to essential Buddhist texts and subjects. Combining a lively mix of meditation, teachings, discussion and prayers, the classes are very effective in helping people build a complete understanding and practice of Buddhism with the support of a committed group.
This January we are beginning a new section of Joyful Path of Good Fortune – a commentary to the stages of the path to enlightenment.
Any time is a good time to join, but this is an ideal time.
The Foundation Programme runs on Sundays, 9 – 1.15, at Parmoor House.
The classes start back on January 20th, and over the next six months or so we will be looking in depth at how to cultivate and meditate on universal love, compassion and the wisdom realizing selflessness, and how to engage in the Bodhisattva’s path to enlightenment.
Those of us who are starting 2008 with a wish to end the year more peaceful, wise, compassionate and prepared for life’s adversities, are going to need a good practice of Dharma. To get a good practice of Dharma we’re going to need a good understanding. So we could do a lot worse than joining FP if we want to fulfil our wishes!
To try a couple of classes free of cost and commitment, please contact us
To read more about FP, please go to www.meditationincheltenham.org.uk/study-program
Special courses worth travelling to
Another World – Gen-la Khyenrab at Manjushri KMC 15 – 17 February
Shantideva’s Guide to Wise Living with Gen Kelsang Chonden in Bristol Sunday 24 February
Southern Dharma Celebration in London
7 – 9 March
Four noble truths day course in March
In the footsteps of Buddha – the Four Noble Truths
Meditation course in Cheltenham with Kelsang Rinchen
Saturday 1 March (10.30 -5.00), at Parmoor House
In his teaching on the Four Noble Truths, Buddha explained the supreme scientific method for solving human problems.
By learning and practising these instructions we can come to know the actual nature of our problems, where they come from, and how to become free from them.
Thank you for your support, please contact us on 01242 227 813 or info@meditationincheltenham.org.uk if you would like more information.
love and best wishes from the Akanishta team
We hope to see you soon. In the meantime, please enjoy some beautiful Dharma quotes…
“If we have to walk across rough and thorny ground, one way of protecting our feet is to cover the whole ground with leather, but this is not very practical. We can achieve the same result in a much simpler way – by covering our feet. Similarly, if we wish to protect ourself from suffering we can either try to change the whole world to make it conform to our wishes, or we can change our mind. Until now we have been trying to change the world, but this clearly has not worked. Now we need to change our mind.”
- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Eight Steps to Happiness
“For as long as space exists
And for as long as beings remain in samsara,
May I abide among them
To dispel all their suffering”
- Shantideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life
“ Developing compassion and wisdom, and helping those in need whenever possible, is the true meaning of life.”
- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Eight Steps to Happiness
“There is nothing that is the creator
Of the attractive flowers that bloom
Or the beautiful, glistening, supreme golden houses;
For they are all established by the power of conception.
All worlds are imputed by conception.”
© All quotations from Geshe Kelsang’s books are copyright of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso and New Kadampa Tradition
A few links…
www.kadampa.org This site offers a huge amount of interesting content about the activities of the NKT, Kadam Dharma and Geshe-la’s books
www.tharpa.co.uk for on-line purchases of books and other goodies.
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