Once you have correctly learnt and established a daily or weekly meditation practice at one of our FPMT Centres or Study Groups, you may want to start a small group in your community.
This can help keep you motivated to practice and help you find other like minded people in your area.
Before you start a group you need to make sure a few things can be put in place to ensure your best chance of success.
Consider where you will hold the meditation sessions, maybe for the first few months you could use a community space, office or room. There will never be the ‘perfect space’ but do try to ensure noise levels are low, it is easy to find and access.
Then make the space as comfortable as possible with a mixture of chairs and cushions.
Choose a day and time that you are free to help lead/guide the group and then stick to that time for at least 3 months. This way, people looking for meditation will know when the next group meeting is and not turn up and find out it has been moved and leave feeling disappointed.
It would be good to start with a half hour meditation session, so that those who have never tried meditation before can come and sit for a short period of time and get used to sitting. If the session is too long, individuals may feel tired, or that they ‘can’t do it’. So start with a shorter session and over time extend it as appropriate.
You could set the meditation session up for an hour but only have a half slot for mediation so that people can arrive, connect with each other, do the meditation and then have time at the end to discuss shared experiences. This will help the group connect and grow. If there is a cup of tea and a biscuit offered, they may even stay longer !
If you wish to start a meditation group then it is very important that you take the lead and share the meditations you have learnt with others. Once regular people start attending and practicing, there may be others that can offer help once you feel confident. Check the support available below to help with this.
It is important to be consistent when starting a group, so that people get into positive habits and also known when the next group meeting is.
There are lots of ways to advertise your group but word of mouth is always the best. This way individuals feel more comfortable about attending following a recommendation.
You could also put up a cards or posters in your local shop windows, library, at work or even create an event on Facebook or other social media. Make sure ‘What, Where and When are mentioned’ you could also use either a Buddhist image or keep the advert more general and use calming images like ponds, lotus plowers, mountain tops etc but try not to be too ‘new age’ as this can be a limit the number of people who may wish to attend.
If you are using a buddhist image then you should use a Buddha image at the session for consistency and to be clear the group is a Buddhist meditation group.
One of the main ways to ensure you feel supported is to regularly attend an FPMT Centre, Satellite Group or Study Group so you can keep you practice fresh, be able to ask questions, and share your experiences with peers about any challenges and your successes !
There are FPMT resources on YouTube and advice that you could share at your session.
A very useful book that offers Buddhist meditations and uses general non-Buddhist language is ‘How to Meditate a Practical Guide‘ by Kathleen McDonald. You can find this on-line or at your local Centre.
NOTE: Any formal course being presented should only be lead by a qualified FPMT teacher. A list of these can be found by contacting your local Centre.
As the home of authentic Buddhist teachings within the Tibetan Gelugpa tradition in the UK, we are part of the international Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) family and support His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
We are a network of Buddhist Centres, Projects, Study Groups and a Retreat Centre who work together to fulfil the wishes of our Founder Lama Thubten Yeshe and Spiritual Director Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.
