Huddersfield's Buddhist road map

Lisa and Kelsang both study and meditate at the Vajrapani Centre

A group of Buddhists in Huddersfield is bringing new spiritual life and purpose to a former Baptist church.

Until quite recently members of the New Kadampa Tradition were based in a small terraced house in Belmont Street in Birkby.

When they first put in a bid for Birkby Baptist Church it was still being used for Christian worship.

Today it is the Vajrapani Centre, providing a home for both lay and ordained members of the community.

Kelsang Pagmo is a nun and teacher based at the centre which she believes has found a very good home in the old church.

She says: "I think it's quite nice that it was used for spiritual purposes before because it's the same kind of thing. It's looking for something beyond the human condition. I think it's nice and I think it adds to it."

Kelsang shows us one of the light and airy bedrooms that have been fitted in to the lowest floor of the old church. Upstairs we find the new Peace Cafe. With paintings around the wall, fresh flowers, comfortable seating and tables - not to mention the light pouring in through the old church windows - it's a place both to chat and relax.

"Basic Buddhism"

It's also somewhere to come if you want to start finding out about Buddhism. Children are brought here on school visits.

You know that the breath and the mind are very related so if you control the breath then you naturally slow the mind down Lisa, Huddersfield Buddhist

Kelsang says: "We teach basic Buddhism which is actually very simple - happiness is a state of mind and we need to go within our own minds to find our states of peace and happiness rather than search for it in external things and that basically encompasses the teaching.

"Absolutely that's what meditation is about. In fact with Buddhism everything is about the mind. It is actually the study of the mind because, if you believe that happiness and suffering are states of mind, then obviously you need to understand very clearly the nature and functions of the mind and so Buddhist teachings are based on the mind."

This is where meditation comes in. Kelsang likens this journey to a road map: "There are external rules like gravity - if you jump out of the window you will fall to the ground, and there are internal laws - if you behave in certain ways then it has certain effects on the mind. You need to begin to understand and chart these for yourself to be able to develop fully."

Spiritual heart

Lisa, who has been a practising Buddhist for 10 years, says she too thinks of Buddhism as a road map: "And within that many people may 'stop' at different service stations and along the way they may stay in one particular area or go down minor roads."

Lisa says that even basic meditation classes can help: "You know that the breath and the mind are very related so if you control the breath then you naturally slow the mind down and I think just being able to have that space within your own mental environment helps you to deal with the business of everything."

The Buddhist shrine is at the very heart of the Vajrapani Centre

The spiritual heart of the building, as it was in the days of the Baptist church, can be found on the floor above the cafe. Here is the shrine to Buddha and the main areas for meditation sitting alongside the old organ with its now gleaming pipes. The light carpets, the old woodwork and the bright colours of the shrine combine to make this - and the adjoining gallery - a very beautiful and welcoming space.

Kelsang believes the Vajrapani Centre definitely has a role to play in 21st century Huddersfield: "It's nice to have an area where people can just come in and, you know, not necessarily meditate in our way. If they just want to use the building as a place for peace and comfort and, you know, refuge in their own way, you know we are quite happy with that.

"We are just interested in providing the kind of environment where that sort of mental development occurs and that's what we hope to provide in Huddersfield - a place where people can develop within themselves and within the community."