Hertford Buddhist Meditation

04/12/2025

Have you ever noticed how much of your day is spent simply reacting - to emails, to traffic, to that comment someone made, to the news? Most of us spend our lives in this reactive mode, bouncing from one trigger to the next like a pinball.
But here's the thing: it doesn't have to be that way.

This Tuesday 9th December, Shubhadasa is leading our class on mindfulness through the lens of creative versus reactive mind. As we develop greater awareness, we start to catch our reactions earlier and earlier - and that's where real freedom begins. It's the difference between being lived by your life and actually living it.
The more we cultivate this capacity, the stronger it becomes. Come along and explore what that might mean for your day-to-day experience.

Tuesday 16th December is our annual Sangha Soirée - and honestly, it's one of my favourite nights of the year. We've got singing, poetry, music, and even a comedy sketch and gong bath lined up. If you've been away for a while, this is the perfect moment to pop back. Bring friends, bring family, bring anyone who might enjoy an evening with genuinely lovely people. (I once brought my 99-year-old mother along, and she declared "what lovely people!" - so there's your endorsement.)

We're then taking a short break over Christmas - no classes on 23rd or 30th December - because experience tells us most people are off doing festive things. If you would like to stay connected, you could look online at https://thebuddhistcentre.com/stories/toolkit/ , listen at https://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/ or go on an event at the London Buddhist Centre who are keeping their doors open over the festive period.

But we're back with a bang on Tuesday 6th January with a six-week meditation course. Whether you're completely new to meditation or your practice has gone a bit rusty and could use a refresh, this is for you. It's a wonderful opportunity to start the new year with some genuine inner nourishment - and to meditate away those mince pie excesses!

Meditation has become a source of real joy for many of us, and this course offers a chance to taste that experience more deeply.
Wishing you a peaceful Christmas and a nourishing New Year. I hope to see you soon.

With warmth,
Keith

01/12/2025

💪🏼 Working with Effort 💪🏼

The 4 Right Efforts teach us how to prevent and let go of unhelpful mental habits, and how to develop and maintain positive ones. Learning them gives practical tools for managing our minds, making choices that support wellbeing, and bringing more balance and clarity into everyday life.

Last week, with the fantastic Taradasa, we explored how to bring more awareness to what we take in and how to act with compassion and generosity.

Come join us next time and see how these ideas can make a real difference in daily life.

01/12/2025

May this week bring all beings peace.

24/11/2025

Starting the week with loving kindness and mindfulness for all beings.....

20/11/2025

🙏 How do I continue practice when my conditions change? 🙏

As always, the Buddha has answers.

We talk a lot in Triratna about setting up the conditions for skillful practice, how conducive our conditions are for our practice or the qualities we are trying to develop. Once these conditions are established, we may find ourselves in a certain level of comfort which can be pulled from under our feet when it’s time to say… go home for Christmas 🎄, on holiday 🏖️ or visiting friends & family 🏠.

It’s at these times that we most need to remember our trust in the path, in ourselves, and the Buddhas teaching. Pushing through changing conditions to be persistent, consistent, concentrated and ever mindful of our ethics and mind states.

For some of us, this might look like wishing passers by well in the street, others may break up a usual 25 minute meditation in 5 minute chunks across the day, or others may take mindful walks. Whatever way, remembering to remember that we have a choice to set up these conditions in an ever changing world is tantamount to our development on the path.

Let us know how you stay connected, or if you want to connect. Regular sangha evenings are on a Tuesday at the Mill Bridge Rooms at Hertford, 7.15 start.

We’ll greet you there 🙌🏼

#

17/11/2025

We look forward to seeing you there!

17/11/2025

17/11/2025

Starting the week with intentions of acceptance as a form of self-metta, to enable us to ease our suffering and aversions, and embrace life as it is.......

16/11/2025

We look forward to welcoming you warmly on Tuesday. 😊

13/11/2025

👀👀👀

The Hertford Men’s Sangha meeting for a drink before Sangha night on Tuesday! What do you think they talked about?!

Great to see and be involved with connections flourishing across and within the Sangha each Tuesday and beyond.

Let us know if you’d like to join us next week for another night of Sangha, meditation and insightful conversation 🙌🏼

10/11/2025

Starting the week with self-metta.....