Meditation in Cheltenham - Newsletters

June 2008

Kelsang Rinchen — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:25:54 GMT

with love and best wishes from Akanishta Kadampa Buddhist Centre

for more details please contact us on 01242 227 813 / 676 003
or email info@meditationincheltenham.org.uk

Living Meaningfully, Dying Joyfully
Meditation workshop in Cheltenham
with Kelsang Rinchen

We are alive, therefore we will die. This is the simplest, most obvious truth of our existence, and yet very few of us have actually come to terms with it. This course will provide a Buddhist insight into death and dying, helping us to develop an awareness of our own mortality in a way that will totally enrich and transform our human life.
Learn simple ways to live a meaningful life and prepare for a happy, controlled death, as well as practical advice for helping those who are dying.

Everyone is welcome.

Saturday 21 June
9.30am – 1.30pm

Parmoor House
13 Lypiatt Terrace, Lypiatt Road
Cheltenham

£10 (£8 concessions)
Explanation of facility fees

Book now with a £5 deposit

Bodhisattva Vow Ceremony
with Kelsang Rinchen

Now my life has borne great fruit.
My human life has attained great meaning.
Today I am born into the lineage of Buddha,
And have become a Bodhisattva. – Shantideva

A Bodhisattva (literally a ‘being bound for enlightenment’) is a friend of the world who, motivated by compassion, seeks enlightenment in order to benefit all living beings.
This ceremony is an opportunity to enter the Bodhisattva’s compassionate way of life, to make a promise to follow the path to enlightenment for the sake of others by practising the Bodhisattva’s deeds of giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, concentration and wisdom.

Everyone is welcome.

On this special occasion it is traditional and auspicious to arrange many beautiful offerings before the representations of Buddha’s body, speech and mind on the shrine. You are welcome to bring offerings for this purpose. In the same spirit, although there is no charge for the ceremony we welcome offerings towards the project to create a meditation centre in Cheltenham for the benefit of all.

Sunday 22 June
9.00am – 12.15pm

Parmoor House
13 Lypiatt Terrace, Lypiatt Road
Cheltenham

No charge. Donations to our New Centre Project welcome.

Local Meditation Classes in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury continue until 15 July
Click here for details of classes

Plus don’t miss out on the Summer Festival with Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (he will be retiring next year; listening to this living master while you still can is highly recommended)

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May 2008

Kelsang Rinchen — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:18:04 GMT

Welcome to the May newsletter for meditation and Kadampa Buddhism in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury.

Special day course with Gen Kelsang Chonden on May 18th

Offering to the Spiritual Guide is a special Guru Yoga of Je Tsongkhapa that is related to Highest Yoga Tantra. Although the main practice is reliance upon the Spiritual Guide, it also includes the essential practices of all the stages of the path to enlightenment.
During this day course we will look at how to engage in some of these vast and profound practices and how they will benefit our mind.

We are delighted that Gen Kelsang Chonden, Resident Teacher of Amitabha Centre in Bristol, has accepted our invitation to come to Cheltenham. A monk for fifteen years, and senior disciple of Geshe Kelsang, his stable experience of the meaning of Buddha’s teachings, and warm heart, is an inspiration to all who know him.

Everyone is welcome.

Sunday 18th May, 10.30 – 5.00

Parmoor House
13 Lypiatt Terrace (on Lypiatt Road)
Cheltenham

£20 (£15 concessions)
Vegetarian shared lunch – please bring something along if possible.

Book now with a £5 deposit

Local classes continue until 15 May
…and resume again on the first week of June

Cheltenham
Mondays 7.30 – 9 at Parmoor House, 13 Lypiatt Terrace, Lypiatt Road, Cheltenham *Gloucester *
Tuesdays 7.30 – 9, Hucclecote Library

These classes are focusing for a few weeks on Buddha’s wisdom teachings and how meditation the true nature of phenomena is a blissfully liberating experience which can cut all our problems at their root.

40-minute lunchtime meditation classes at the Isbourne Foundation, 4 Wolsely Terrace, Cheltenham (off Oriel Road by the Town Hall)
Thursdays 1.10 – 1.50

Learn meditations to overcome the pain of anger.

Tewkesbury

Tuesdays 7.30 – 9, Tewkesbury Library These classes are focusing on Training the Mind, based on the book Universal Compassion

Special courses worth travelling to

Saturday 10 May Introduction to Wisdom with Gen-la Kelsang Khyenrab at Jangchub Ling Centre, Cradley Heath

Spring and Summer Festivals with Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

Coming up in June
Living Meaningfully, Dying Joyfully
Meditation morning course with Kelsang Rinchen
Saturday 21 June, 9.30 -1.30 at Parmoor House
Book now with a £5 deposit

With love and best wishes from the Akanishta Centre team

February 2008

Kelsang Rinchen — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:52:06 GMT

Akanishta KBC – creating the first Kadampa Centre in Gloucestershire
We’re nearly there!

Can you help us raise at least £15,000 in the next few weeks?
The students of the Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury classes have been fundraising for some time to set up a meditation Centre in Cheltenham to serve the Gloucestershire area.

This will be the first such Centre in the region, a charity belonging to all, and dedicated to peace throughout the world. The Centre will give generations of local people, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist, the chance to learn how to control their own mind; reduce their anger, stress and anxiety; improve their daily relationships; find lasting peace and contentment and be of real benefit to those around them. The teachings we offer are part of an authentic lineage, and the Centre will have its own Resident Teacher and will be run under the guidance of internationally-renowned meditation masters from the New Kadampa Tradition. Read more about our plans to establish a residential Dharma Centre in Cheltenham (PDF file 1.84 MB)

We have found a building which would be ideal for our purposes, and through the kindness of many people we are now very close to being able to make an offer on this building.

Today Venerable Geshe-la gave his blessing for us to buy the building and become an independent Centre with the name Akanishta Kadampa Buddhist Centre.

In the last few months we have raised almost all of the funds needed, and now only need to raise a minimum of £15,000 more. However we need to raise this money very quickly!

Please consider whether you can help in any way with this auspicious project.
Any amount is very gratefully received.
Interest-free loans are also very helpful – please contact us about all the options.
A big thank you to everyone who has helped so far.
Please keep praying, giving and creating all the causes and conditions you can. If you would like help in any way please contact us .

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 Geshe Kelsang’s books containing all the precious root texts and commentaries of Kadampa Buddhism.

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

Thank you for your kindness and support.

If you would like to join the walk, please contact us

Keep up-to-date with our progress

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 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.

Book now with a £5 deposit

£15 (10 concessions)

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 Akanishta Kadampa Buddhist Centre

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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January 2008

Kelsang Rinchen — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:03:20 GMT

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.

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

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

Book now with a £5 deposit

£15 (10 concessions)

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.”

– Buddha, Sutra requested by Upali

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November/December 2007

Kelsang Rinchen — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:59:49 GMT

November/December 2007 – Kadampa Buddhism and meditation in Cheltenham and Gloucestershire
Hello and welcome to our latest newsletter.
Please contact us if you would like any further details.

Day course – ‘Secrets of Successful Meditation’

with Kelsang Rinchen
Sunday 2 December
10.30 – 5.00
Parmoor House, 13 Lypiatt Road, Cheltenham
Facility fee: £15 (£10 concessions)

If all the causes and conditions are assembled, nothing can prevent the effect from arising. – Aryadeva

For our meditation practice to yield results, certain necessary conditions need to be assembled within our mind. On this course Rinchen will explain what these factors are, and how to make sure they are present whenever we meditate.
The course will also include advice on how to contemplate and meditate effectively.

Everyone welcome.
Book now with a £5 deposit

Ideal time to join the Foundation Programme

The Foundation Programme was designed by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso and provides an opportunity to deepen our understanding and experience of Buddhism through a systematic study of six texts covering all Buddha’s essential Sutra teachings.

Geshe Kelsang on the Foundation Programme:

‘Our present understanding and experience of Dharma is quite superficial. We are like someone who has entered a huge food store and seen many things but sampled only a few. We may have received many different teachings from many different Teachers, but we have taken in very little, just a few morsels. There is a gap between our mind and Dharma and we cannot apply Dharma in our daily lives. Our approach remains passive, like someone watching television, and our mind remains as uncontrolled as before. Why is this? It is because we are not studying systematically, according to a specially designed programme. If we just pick at Dharma randomly we shall never gain deep and stable experience. For this reason the spiritual programmes offered in New Kadampa Tradition Centres are very important’.

We currently offer an FP in Cheltenham, on Sundays at Parmoor House, 9.00 – 1.45 (classes run on about 26 Sundays a year).

We are about to start a new topic, the Great Scope of the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, which deals in detail with the development of universal love and compassion, and the wisdom realizing selflessness, the true nature of things.

For those who want to gain a deep understanding and thorough practice of Dharma, the Foundation Programme is like a wish-fulfilling jewel. Joining FP is a very special step towards a meaningful life and the attainment of our spiritual goals.

There’s never been a better time to join, and now is the only time you can be sure you have!

If you are interested in trying a couple of sessions with no cost or commitment, please contact us.

We begin the great scope on January 20.

Learn more about the Foundation Programme

Latest fundraising news

Many thanks to all who have been helping in our attempt to buy the building on Prestbury Road.
In the last couple of months we have raised another £9,000 in donations and loans, putting our total at around £25,000. We’re still a long way from our target of £80,000, so please continue with your prayers and good wishes, and perhaps consider how you might get involved by giving money, time or skills.

Our aim is to establish a Buddhist Centre in Cheltenham for the benefit of the local community and people throughout Gloucestershire, and indirectly all living beings. The Centre will be a place where people can learn the methods for controlling their mind and finding lasting inner peace, engage in retreats and study programs, enjoy the support of a community of spiritual friends, and benefit others by helping Dharma to flourish, even training as Dharma Teachers. Once we have a residential Centre we’ll be able to expand on our activities in Cheltenham as well as setting up more classes in local towns.
This is a wonderful opportunity to make our money meaningful and share our good fortune by establishing something of real benefit to others, for generations to come.

“Without inner peace, outer peace is impossible” – Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

If you can help with a donation, or interest-free loan, please contact us

Special events worth travelling to

November 9 – 11 Empowerment with Gen-la Khyenrab at Manjushri Centre in Cumbria
Amitayus Empowerment & Teachings on realizing our human potential, increasing our good fortune and wisdom.
Gen-la’s courses are priceless – well worth the journey to get there. You will be glad you went.

December 15 – 16 Infinite light in a life without limit weekend course with Gen Chonden at Amitabha Centre in Bristol
Teachings on wisdom, long life and merit including Amitayus empowerment on the Saturday. Highly recommended.

With love and best wishes from all at Akanishta Centre

Contact :

email – info@meditationincheltenham.org.uk
web – www.meditationincheltenham.org.uk
phone – 01242 227 813 / 676 003

We hope to see you soon; in the meantime here are some beautiful Dharma quotes to be going on with…

“From the point of view of our own welfare we need to enter the Mahayana path because it is only by attaining full enlightenment that we can fulfil all our own desires and realize the ultimate purpose of our human life. From the point of view of others’ welfare as well we need to enter the Mahayana path because it is only by becoming a Buddha that we become perfectly capable of helping all other living beings.”

– Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Joyful Path of Good Fortune

“Just as the earth supports all life, So moral discipline is the foundation of all good qualities.”

- Nagarjuna, Friendly Letter

“ We should understand that ultimately nothing is true except emptiness. Conventional objects such as people, trees, atoms, and planets have a relative degree of reality that distinguishes them from non-existents such as square circles and unicorns; but only the ultimate nature, or emptiness, of phenomena is true, because it is only emptiness that exists in the way that it appears. Objects exist only in relation to the minds that cognize them. Since an object’s nature and characteristics depend upon the mind that beholds it, we can change the objects we see by changing the way we see them. We can choose to view ourself, other people, and our world in whatever way is most beneficial. By steadfastly maintaining a positive view we come to inhabit a positive world, and eventually a Pure Land.”

– Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Eight Steps to Happiness