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Meditation

What we teach

At the Sheffield Buddhist Centre we teach two meditation practices to newcomers.

Mindfulness of Breathing

This helps us to develop a serene, alert, focussed state of mind, in which we can get beyond the usual chatter in our heads and start to listen to our deeper inspiration and wisdom.

The Metta Bhavana

The Metta Bhavana (sometimes called development of loving kindness), this helps us to develop positivity and warmth, to leave behind harmful emotions, and to connect with other people at a deeper level.

We combine these formal practices with the 'non-practice' of 'Just Sitting', which gives an open space in which we can absorb the effects of meditation.

The Role of Meditation

In Buddhism, meditation is seen as part of an overall path and approach to life. Meditation develops positive states of mind, but there is not much point in doing this for just a short period each day if we are cultivating negative states the rest of the time. For this reason we prefer to teach meditation along with a range of other practices that help us make positive changes to our mental states. For this reason most of our introductory classes are called an Introduction to Meditation and Buddhism, rather than being just about meditation alone.

To find out about the times, dates and details of our introductory classes, see the Newcomers page.