Mondays, 7pm-8:30pm

Each class includes a guided relaxation meditation, a teaching on a particular aspect of Buddhism and a concluding meditation. There is also time to ask any questions you may have. This term we will focus on a series of verses that offer practical advice for daily spiritual practice from Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s book Universal Compassion.

Registration: $10 per class, no pre-registraiton is required, just drop in. There is a reduced rate for students/unemployed.


Clear Light Buddhist Center
614 E. Townley Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85020

Located two streets south of Dunlap and one street west of 7th Street
map

THE BENEFITS OF MEDITATION
The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. As mentioned earlier, if our mind is peaceful we shall be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we shall experience true happiness; but if our mind is not peaceful, we shall find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions. If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually become more and more peaceful, and we shall experience a purer and purer form of happiness. Eventually we shall be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.

Usually we find it difficult to control our mind. It seems as if our mind is like a balloon in the wind – blown here and there by external circumstances. If things go well, our mind is happy, but if they go badly, it immediately becomes unhappy.

Such fluctuations of mood arise because we are too closely involved in the external situation. We are like a child making a sandcastle who is excited when it is first made, but who becomes upset when it is destroyed by the incoming tide. By training in meditation, we create an inner space and clarity that enables us to control our mind regardless of the external circumstances. Gradually we develop mental equilibrium, a balanced mind that is happy all the time, rather than an unbalanced mind that oscillates between the extremes of excitement and despondency.