About Our Center
There is growing interest in meditation and Buddhism in America today. Several years ago, a small group of Buddhists began to meet in Hartford. The group gradually developed and adopted the name 'Odiyana Buddhist Center'. Odiyana is the name of a Buddhist holy place in ancient India, where many people developed deep insight into the nature of reality through the practice of meditation. With this special name, we can understand that people of these modern times too can achieve special realizations by relying upon the pure teachings of Buddha, brought to the West by the great meditation master Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.
Odiyana Buddhist Center offers clear and practical teachings on Buddhist practice, psychology, and philosophy based on the tradition of Kadampa Buddhism. This tradition conveys Buddha's original meaning by revealing all of the stages of the spiritual path in a concise and understandable manner.
Today there is a global flourishing of pure Kadampa Buddhism, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Geshe Kelsang. To date, he has created over 1000 Buddhist Centers world-wide, and has written 20 highly-acclaimed books on Buddhism. He is widely recognized as an outstanding Buddhist teacher of our time.
The Resident Teacher of Odiyana Center is currently Eve Arias. Eve has studied at Odiyana for several years and serves as an inspiring examplefor how to practice Buddha's teachings in our daily lives.