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Public invited to check out Buddhist centre

by JANINE RANKIN, Stuff, Matrch 5, 2014

Manawatu, New Zealand -- After years of work and a tortuous path through resource consent processes, Palmerston North's Amitabha Buddhist centre is ready to settle into peaceful meditation.

But first, it is holding an open day to celebrate the kindness and support of those who helped create the centre, and to show the public what it offers.

Teacher Gen Kelsang Demo said all were invited, including the neighbours who had objected to the consent application on the grounds that people arriving for classes might be too noisy, to come and see what the centre was about.

The centre is based in a house in Albert St, where a meeting room has been added, and a peace garden has been created.

The meditation classes it offers are open to anyone interested in learning techniques to find inner peace, but Demo said the open day was not about recruiting.

"If people are interested in our programmes, they can check our website.

"This day is to celebrate, to show people what we have achieved."

Demo said the planning hearings and decisions required before the centre could be developed had prompted quite a bit of publicity and interest. "A lot of people have been very supportive, and the opening is a good news story.

"People can come and see what all this effort has been about."

The centre at 174 Albert St welcomes the public to drop in between 10am and 4pm on Sunday.

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