The word ‘meditation’ in Sanskrit is called ‘Bhavana’, meaning cultivation or development. Cultivation of what, you may ask? It is the cultivation of the mind.
In Buddhism ‘mind’ is our experience of our emotions, thoughts and sensations. Body and mind are interrelated. When you experience pain in the body, you also automatically experience pain in the mind. When you experience pain in the mind, you also automatically experience pain in the body. Balancing the body and mind is an integral part of being mindful and happy in daily life.
In Buddhist meditation, you reach a state of balance by cultivating ‘calmness’ and gaining ‘insight’ into how things really are.The way you cultivate calmness is through focusing one’s attention on the breath and bodily sensations without judgements or preoccupations. The way you cultivate insight is through observing one’s feeling, thought and phenomena as ever changing like the stream of a river – rather than holding onto them as fixed. By watching their true but fleeting nature, you thus come to let go gradually and be free of their entanglements.
The meditation sessions are open to people all faiths or no faith equally. The sessions focus on the universal qualities of human mind and its potentials rather than Buddhist faiths or dogmas. They are suitable for those seeking a regular meditation practice, or looking for guidance on how to meditate in a secular context. Personalised conversation about one’s practice is available after the meditation if required, or you can arrange to meet Karuna for one to one consultation.
There is also Tuesday Mindfulness Meditation run by the Chaplains, which in practice is very similar to Buddhist meditation.