Meditation in Hay

It's been a long time since I did any meditation - a few years ago, I used to go into Hereford with Annette and David to a Buddhist teacher at the Quaker Meeting House, but it was a rush to get there after work, so we tended to arrive quite stressed from the journey - it wasn't really conducive to a calm and relaxed attitude, so we gave it up.
Then I went up to the Skreen Centre, close to Erwood, near Builth Wells. This was much better, being a lot closer to where I lived, and was Christian meditation based on the work of John Main. I only gave that up when I moved away.
So now there's a meditation class in Hay. I'd seen the posters round town, but not taken a lot of notice of them. It was the ad in WyeLocal that finally decided me to give it a try. After all, it was only down the road at the Boardroom.
This was the third monthly meeting they'd had, and a couple of people couldn't come because they were lambing, so there were four of us and the teacher, a young man who'd come up from a Buddhist centre in Swansea, www.meditationinwales.org He was talking about the mind, between sessions of meditation, and I have to say I came away feeling wonderfully relaxed, and I still feel relaxed this morning. It was well worth the £4.50 we were asked for at the end "to cover expenses". He also has a class in Brecon, and in Neath, and his group are trying to start a Buddhist centre in Cardiff. Their main centre is up in the Lake District.
This is not the first time there's been Buddhist meditation in Hay. An American chap called Kurt lives up above Llanigon, on Wenallt, and he's turned his place into a Buddhist centre. Real Tibetan monks visit there occasionally, and a couple of years ago quite a high ranking monk came to do a weekend course in the Parish Hall, which was very well attended. There was a reason why I couldn't go - I think I must have been working - but I did meet the monk in the street when he was being shown around Hay by his hosts, and he seemed delighted with everything he saw.