Meditation classes to help people find “inner peace and calm”

AN 11-week course of meditation classes aimed at helping people in the Warrington area to find inner peace and calm starts on Wednesday, January 12.

The classes at the Old Fairfield School, Fairfield Street, Warrington, start at 7.30 pm, are run by the Odiyana Buddhist Centre and are based on the renowned “Eight Verses of Training the Mind” which was composed in the llth century.

Each class comprises of two meditations, a talk and discussion over tea and biscuits. There is a £6 fee per class.

A spokesperson for the charity said: “Why is happiness so elusive?

“It is because we are looking for it in the wrong places.

“Happiness is a state of mind. We cannot make ourselves happy by accumulating possessions, watching TV or continuously making changes in our life. People have tried this approach year after year, generation after generation and it has never worked. There are more and more depressed people about than ever. Stress and anxiety are reaching epidemic proportions.
“Buddha said that we should check whether our actions lead to the results we expect. If we did this we would be forced to conclude that they don’t. We engage in actions that we expect to lead to happiness and when they don’t we just do them again and again and again and are surprised when they don’t make us happy.

“For example, we expect that buying a new car will make us happy. We buy one and feel excited for a few days then we are back in the same position as we were before – needy and discontented, so then we look for something else to buy and the cycle continues.

“If we are logical we must realize that we need a different approach in our search for happiness. Pieces of plastic and metal cannot make us happiness. Our happiness needs to come from within our minds. We can’t rely on external objects for our happiness, we need to learn to cultivate happy states of mind for ourself.”
Odiyana Buddhist Centre is a registered charity based in Northwich.

For further details contact: www.meditationincheshire.org or email
[email protected]