Buddhist community opens new meditation centre in Brno

Brno, March 20 (CTK) - The local Buddhist community has built a new meditation centre in Brno, the Moravian capital and the Czech Republic's second largest city with a population of 500,000, Marketa Blazejovska, from the community, has told CTK.

The new building worth 24 million crowns, named the Diamond Path House, has replaced the Buddhist community's old headquarters, situated elsewhere, that had run out of capacity and could not be extended.

A half of the new building's costs were financed from a grant, and the rest from an interest-free loan from a private foundation.

The debt has been repaid through donations from the centre members and supporters from the Czech Republic and abroad.

The house, with a hall with a capacity of 200 seats, has been built in a modern style.

Its architectonic design "corresponds to the way Buddhism functions in Western countries at present. Modern people are interested in Buddhist ideas and meditation methods, not in the Tibetan culture. That is why we didn't want to build our meditation centre in an eastern style. On the contrary, we've stuck to Brno's tradition of functionalism," said Buddhist teacher Veronika Cerna, whose lecture will open the centre to the public on Monday.

She said the number of Brno residents showing interest in Buddhism and meditations has been on increase. People are ceasing to feel they could do with material values only, they want to develop and live a rich internal life. Many of them are university students, but families with children arrive as well, Cerna said.

($1=17.257 crowns)