Thur 10 Sept 7:15-8:30pm
Creating Inner Peace

The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so experience true happiness. If our mind is not peaceful, however, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions.

By training 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 remain happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.

Thur 17 Sept 7:15-8:30pm
Understanding Stress

The first step towards freedom from stress and anxiety is understanding their true nature and where they really come from. We will discover that our problems are the nature of unpleasant feelings within the mind, and that their main causes also lie within our own mind rather than in external circumstances.

This insight gives us confidence that, through meditation, we can gradually reduce our stress and ultimately solve our daily problems at their root.

Thur 24 Sept 7:15-8:30pm
Understanding Anger

Anger is by nature a painful state of mind. Whenever we develop anger, our inner peace immediately disappears, and even our body becomes tense and uncomfortable. It is through our anger and hatred that we transform people into enemies.

We generally assume that anger arises when we encounter a disagreeable person, but actually it is the anger already within us that transforms the person we meet into our imagined foe. If we were truly peaceful inside, difficult people or circumstances would not be able to disturb our peace.

In this class we will learn how to recognise, reduce and eventually overcome anger. To someone who has subdued their mind and eradicated the last trace of anger, all beings are friends.

Thur 1 Oct 7:15-8:30pm
Building Resilience

In this class we will gain a deeper understanding of why we become angry, and learn how to eliminate its causes. Since it is impossible to fulfil all our wishes or prevent unwanted things from happening, we need to find a different way of responding to life's difficulties.

By developing the open and peaceful mind of patient acceptance, we can stop unhappy thoughts from gaining a foothold in our mind and discover the freedom, resilience and inner peace that come from accepting things as they are.

Thur 8 Oct 7:15-8:30pm
Transforming Relationships

The best way to overcome stress in our relationships and the wish to retaliate is to combine patient acceptance with compassion. When someone harms us, we should think not only, "They are hurting me because they are deluded," but also, "They are hurting themselves too."

By training our mind in meditation to see things in this way, compassion naturally arises, and impulses towards anger and retaliation begin to subside. As we learn to distinguish people from their delusions, we can respond with wisdom, compassion and a peaceful mind.