Aukana Trust

For Buddhist meditation instruction, the Aukana Trust is brilliant. I'm a member of the community. We meditate on Wednesday evenings at the House of Inner Tranquillity and I also go in occasionally as a day student, too, to join the full time recluses in meditation in the mornings, and then to help them out in the afternoons. I get regular one-to-one conversations with Paul Harris, the centre's director, for my personal instruction on how to practise. Aukana Trust also offers weekend and weekly retreats, which are set up to give meditators good supoorting conditions for practise. The instruction is clear and accommodates Western lifestyles. So there's no messing around with chanting or whatnot. We meditate while sitting on chairs, when on retreat we eat normal and healthy food. For those that can, there's also the opportunity to go in for full-time training, to ordain and practise as a Buddhist monk or nun. The monks and nuns are supported by the community, and it all seems to work really well together.

Great meditation advice and bookshop

Amazing place dedicated to the Buddhas teaching. Has a teacher who has completed the path and always helped point the way on days when it's not clear. Lots of scope for getting involved, from weekend meditation to day student to monastic training and much more. Online presence too with lectures on audioboom and YouTube. Ive done a few vipassana retreats there and its set up perfect. Just type house of inner tranquility into the search bar.

I have been under instruction at Aukana Trust (The House of Inner Tranquillity), receiving the Buddha's teachings here, for over twenty years. It has totally changed my life in every respect, changing it from one who did not understand sufficiently well how life worked, which therefore caused me much misery, to someone who intuitively knew that this teaching, this centre and its teachers, was a place to immerse myself in, to find a more wholesome life. As a result, I moved nearer to Bradford on Avon as I began what seemed 'an extraordinary new beginning!' This teaching is life-changing. Nothing happens without great application - this I understood as I began to trust how the teaching was having such a deep impact. I know I am on a journey to the end of suffering and that suffering is already far, far reduced - life just gets more and more fascinating. It's what all of our hearts desire.

If you are interested in the Buddha's teaching of enlightenment and the path to come to this realisation, Aukana has all to tools you need. Expert instruction, supportive Sangha, retreat facilities, lovely peaceful surroundings. I fully recommend the place.

You won't find the House of Inner Tranquility/Aukana Trust by accident; it doesn't shout its presence, and you could miss it entirely as you walk up the hill from Bradford-on-Avon. So the 40 or so of us who attend the Centre regularly are self selected". Some of us had hit a block in our lives

For anyone sincere in seeking to follow the Buddha's authentic teaching to attain enlightenment, the Aukana Trust provides all the conditions one could require.Primarily, in Paul Harris, students have access to a teacher whose wisdom and compassion are born of his personal experiences of having 'completed the path'. Such an incredibly rare and gifted teacher gives regular talks, hosts Q&A sessions and personal one-to-one interviews.There are opportunities to attend the above in person in Bradford on Avon, or on-line, as well as opportunities to complete retreats.The physical environment is set-up to compliment meditation and reflection, all on a foundation of established rules of training and efficient protocols that have evolved over 40 years.The Aukana Trust offers both lay and monastic training in the Buddha's teaching with a delightful, supportive and inclusive community of students. The accent is very much on providing the optimum spiritual and practical conditions to embark on the greatest adventure there is.