Source: Portsmouth Herald
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/01022007/nhnews-ph-nmk-meditation.html
NEWMARKET -- Sandra Woodworth can feel a certain energy on New Year's Day. It's a peaceful feeling she tries to harness through meditation.
"It helps me to connect, knowing that this happens all over the world this time of year," she said.
Woodworth was one of several people who spent the first day of 2007 meditating on peace at the Aryaloka Buddhist Center in Newmarket. This was the third year the center held meditation sessions all day geared toward starting off the year in a purposeful, peaceful way.
"There are many ways to bring peace to ourselves, and meditation is a big part of that," said Amala, the program director at Aryaloka. "We take the whole day to recognize the importance of that."
The Aryaloka Buddhist Center was founded in 1985 with the intent of teaching meditation and the Buddhist way of life. The center has a core community of roughly 120 people and also has a large group of occasional visitors, according to Amala.