"At the moment we meet in St Luke's Chapel - which is kind of tempoarary. We meet for about an hour and a half once a week for meditation and a short talk and discussion.

"We start with some short prayers to focus our minds and then we meditate for about forty mins," he said.

Although meditation is a central part of the Buddhist tradition, it is just one aspect of a complex system of thought and practice.

Paul continued: "The idea of the meditation is to still the mind. One of the aims - or the aim - of Buddhism is to get to know the nature of our own minds, and our patterns of behaviour and thought.

"Because our minds are constantly busy and we're being pulled and pushed this way and that we don't often see what is impelling us to do things.

"We don't often see the patterns of what's going on around us - and that's the first step in Buddhism - to gain some insight into mind and reality."

The group in Exeter is connected to the Sakya Buddhist Centre in Bristol - one of the two principle Dechen Centres in the country - along with Manchester.

Paul Rogers runs the Exeter Centre

Paul continued: "We see ourselves as a public resource - Buddhism is well known now and there are a lot of people in Devon who want to know about it - so we try and make ourselves as accessible as possible.

"We have contact with education and I've given talks at schools - we're just happy that we can inform people what Buddhism and in particular Tebitan Buddhism is all about," he added.

And what about Devon? Avoiding the hustle and bustle of a hectic modern life is an important aspect of Tibetian Buddhism.

"I love Devon - Devon is just such a lovely place. It's got something about it - even though Devon's become much busier since I've been here - it's still fairly laid-back I think," he added.

To find out more about Buddhism and in particular the Dechen Centre, visit their
website.

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