Buddhist Meditation

At our monastery and meditation centre there are many opportunities to learn the different kinds of meditations that the Buddha taught. All of the meditation techniques taught in our classes come directly from the ancient Buddhist scriptures preserved in the Theravada Buddhist tradition.

The ultimate goal of Buddhist meditation is happiness. Not the ordinary kind of happiness that comes from material things, but a lasting happiness that eliminates all suffering. The short-term benefits are relaxation and a calm and focused mind. The long-term benefit is putting an end to the otherwise endless cycle of birth and death.

Our introduction to Buddhist meditation classes focus on two main types of meditation. The first is called loving-kindness meditation. This meditation trains our mind to have thoughts for the welfare of all living being whether they are near or far away, friendly or unfriendly, large or small, visible or invisible.

By training ourselves with this kind of meditation we can slowly give up our habits of anger and resentment. It is also very useful for calming and focusing our mind. You can read the text of the guided loving-kindness instructions here.

The other type of meditation we teach in our introduction class is breathing meditation. With this we are able to bring calm and peace to the mind. With this concentrated mind we are able to see more clearly the true nature of the world.