Buddhist Meditation Center of Austin - Austin, Texas

Paweł Samselski

Very nice place to meditate, all the people are nice and friendly. They gave nice explanation of basics and meditation is guided so it is easy to follow. Very good place for beginners and advanced meditators.

J T

I am coming to the center already 3 years, since I moved to Texas from California. The group of friends that are running Austin center is very warm, welcoming and supportive. If you want to experience and practice Tibetan Buddhism meditation, come to check it out!

Sandy Munoz

I've been going to the center since February. I've met a lot of very warm, loving, and supportive individuals. I started going there looking for a place to meditate and gained an entire community. I've been to other centers I've liked, but this one really rang true to what my personal values and beliefs were; I feel like I've found a place that fosters my personal growth in a really open and warm environment.

Ryan Hoffnagle

The people are friendly, and informative. The meditations are tried, true, and effective. This is the best Buddhist center in my humble opinion. I am a member of this group, so take my opinion as such. The most important thing when searching for a Sangha, and practice is resonating with the teachings, and the people involved. If it fits with your style, then get in where you fit in! I wish you the best in your search for a practice, and path that brings you maximum benefit, and meaning.

Sarah Hudgens

After trying a bunch of other meditation centers in Austin, I found the Diamond Way center. It's Westernized and informal while still offering clear access to Buddhist teachings. Everyone is warm, helpful and happy to answer questions, and the guided meditation is wonderful. I'm so grateful that I found this group!

Ed K

Great people, meditation and teachers. Perfect for newcomers to Buddhism. They pass on authentic teachings and meditations from the Karma Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, but are very accessible to our modern western mindset. A good group of folks all around, highly recommended to fun loving and open minded individuals.

Sergio Ayala

I have been visiting, participating, and volunteering in DWB of Austin for over 15 years. This group has always held a great standard of being relaxed, informal, getting to the heart of the Buddhist teachings and methods, but without the cultural trappings that often surround such groups. The group has always stressed experience through meditation and becoming self reliant and independent. I have always appreciated this because it is how we become able to handle everything in life with a mature outlook and to create a lasting basis for reaching mind's full potential for unconditional joy and clarity of how things are. If you are independently minded and can identify with Buddha as a state of mind showing what is possible, this is the group for you...

Jacob Dirr

I was active in this Center for about six months, but chose to end my participation after encountering views of Islam among the nucleus members that I can't reconcile with the Buddhist teachings of compassion.

I genuinely enjoyed the people, the community, the open-door vibe, and the programming. But it turns out their main teacher Ole Nydahl, also known as Lama Ole, has been speaking out against Islam since the 70s and early 80s. When I started becoming a more active person at the Center I discovered a strong opinion about Islam and Muslims has grown deep roots from the seeds their Lama planted. I was not able to separate what I found immense joy and value in, from what I consider to be unacceptable stereotyping of Muslims and an irrational fear of Islam.

If you are searching for meditation guidance and a community at this Diamond Way Buddhism center, you should do so with your eyes open. This may not be the place for you if, like the Dali Lama is, you are concerned about the bad image Islam is getting and agree that a few "Muslims'" behavior (relative to the 3.7 billion Muslims worldwide and 3.3 million in USA) should not be used to generalize the entire religious tradition. As the Dali Lama said on this topic: “It’s not fair, not right.”

PS… Most of the recent five star posts are from the nucleus members, so they are not really reviews. But what they said in the posts are true: they are indeed all very kind and welcoming people, and there is a lot to be learned from the programming. But, in my opinion, you must prepare to separate the wheat from the chaff.