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1a


From the heart

I don’t think of Samatha as an “organisation” in the usual way that I normally respond to that word – something ‘faceless’, impersonal – because that is not how I first encountered it. In fact, for a few weeks after I first started attending classes, I didn’t know there was such an organisation: it was just a person teaching about the Buddha, what the Buddha said and how to practise.

I like the way that the classes I attend are very relaxed – you can come, you can stay or you can go. There’s no pressure, no sense of needing to conform to a particular ‘brand’ of Buddhism. Ideas of religion or faith or belief can seem ‘uncool’ to people these days but I didn’t find the approach I encountered off-putting at all. It’s very open, teaches from the heart, presenting the teachings of the Buddha in a straightforward way which, I feel, preserves the original essence of the teachings and, at the same time, makes them relevant to modern day life and the struggles we may have.

There’s a wonderful sense of connection between people who are drawn to this practice: a sense that we’re all on the same path and that there is someone with experience to guide you. There’s also that sense of being connected to an ancient tradition that encompasses the wisdom - having the power to illuminate what sometimes seems like the darkness of 21st century Western life.

I like it that Samatha does what it does, first and foremost, to help people help themselves, I am very grateful to my teachers.