Introduction

A while ago I was cycling through country lanes a few miles from home and, on the outskirts of a small village, I noticed across the fields a giant golden pagoda.  When I eventually remembered to look up as to why it was there – I thought it was likely a folly in the gardens of a well-travelled Asiaphile – it turned out to be a meditation centre.  For a while I have wanted to try meditation and being right on the doorstep it seemed like this centre was too good an opportunity to miss.  A course over Christmas and New Year may sound an unusual choice but that is the course I chose; the idea of being away from the Festive madness appealed.  So I now find myself on a ten day course starting at the end of December with some seven hours of meditation each day and in which there will be no phones, no talking, no alcohol, no meat, books, television or radio.  It will mostly definitely be a very different Christmas.