Think on finding happiness

Odiyana Kadampa Meditation Centre is running an 11-week meditation course based on “finding happiness”.

The course takes inspiration from the 11th century book Eight Verses of Training the Mind, which gives instructions devised in Tibet for becoming happier.

Julie Forrest, education programme coordinator for Odiyana Kadampa Meditation Centre, said: “When we think about happiness, it seems quite a simple subject. It seems very attainable, yet very few people are truly happy.

“This isn’t through lack of trying; every day millions of people work very hard and spend large sums of money, yet they don’t become any happier.

“If we are logical, we must realise that we need a different approach in our search for happiness. It needs to come from within our minds. We can’t rely on external objects for our happiness, we need to learn to cultivate happy states of mind for ourselves.”

Buddha said that people should check whether their actions led to the results expected – and would be forced to conclude that they don’t. People engage in actions that they expect to lead to happiness and when they don’t, just repeat them, and are surprised when they don’t make people any happier.

The classes will run at Holmes Chapel Library on Monday evenings, beginning at 7.30pm. The course runs from 10th January up to and including 21st March. Each class comprises two meditations, a talk and discussion over tea and biscuits.