CONCEALED among the houses and hills of Brynmawr town is a building which has served as a centre of worship for generations.

After costs rose and congregations dwindled at Calvary Chapel on King Street, the building fell into disrepair before being bought by the Buddhist Sherabling foundation in 2009.

After a fresh lick of yellow paint and major restoration works, the church has been revived as the Palpung Changchub Dargye Ling, an international hub of Buddhist practice and teaching.

Today it offers courses, classes and retreats, a library packed to the brim with Buddhist texts and a warm, welcoming environment.

Resident teacher, Venerable Choje Lama Rabsang, was born in 1971 in a remote village in Eastern Tibet and focuses the centre’s sessions on mindfulness and meditation within the community.

After taking robes at 11 years old he spent his early years studying under the direction of his uncle, completing and joining the Sherabling Monastery Foundation in Northern India.

He later became a master after a traditional three-year retreat, moving to the UK in 2001 and spending time in Birmingham and then Cardiff.

“Our teachings are about dealing with emotions and how to keep life going with happiness and understanding,” he said.

“We don’t try to convert people here but if people do come and want to know Buddhism at a deeper level then we can talk about that too.”

The centre offers classes on meditation for all ability levels with many internationally renowned Buddhist figures visiting the centre on special occasions.

Although the foundation bought the centre at auction for a mere £28,000, it was a long road transforming the building to its former glory as Lama Rabsang recalls.

“I remember when we first came in and it was damp and dark, the doors were boarded up, the building was grey and the ceilings and floors needed replacing.

“The building is around 140 years old so it took a lot of work and we also needed to get planning permission to legally live here.

“We chose this location because Brynmawr is very poor and when our international speakers come over a hundred people can attend, which is very good for the shops and hotels here.”

The Lama lives in the centre with his Tibetan spaniel Poppy, is supported in his work by volunteer Finland-born Pauliina Kossi, 38, and has a deep reverence and respect from his students.

Painter and decorator, Andy Cowdell, 43, of Tredegar, has used the centre for around four years, joining after going through a tough divorce.

He said: “In the old days I used to drink a lot and this centre has changed everything for me; although a lot of people come here from across the world, I wish more local people would try it.

“It’s the only thing that has ever come to this area that has been constructive in a social way and everything about it is wholesome.

“I believe that Buddhism is one thing but mindfulness and the benefits of meditation can be beneficial for anybody. It changed me.”

He added: “Before I started coming here I was doing sales in a very high pressure environment and had a mortgage and marriage but it all fell apart.

“When you look at your life through the prism of Buddhism you can see why things can’t work because everything changes, you always want more and in the end you lose it anyway.”

Ms Marg Munyard became involved in Buddhism aged 55 and first met Lama Rabsang in his old centre in Llandrindod wells.

Today, she travels 65 miles to the centre from her home in Llanidloes, where she also coordinates meditation classes with help from the Brynmawr centre.

As a practicing Buddhist for over a decade, she has also declared her commitment to the religion through a refuge ceremony.

Describing her beliefs, she said: “Developing love, kindness and compassion is important alongside trying to live without a version or attachment — a state of equanimity.

“As the Lama says the mind’s job is to create thoughts but we can control that by stepping back and not continuously engaging with them

“That is the ultimate skill of what meditation is about so that you can eventually feel the centredness and calmness which means you can avoid knee-jerk reactions.”

For Gareth Clayton, 47, who attends the Tuesday and Sunday meditation classes, “it’s all about relaxation.”

He added: “You get to a point in life when you start becoming frustrated with things and it’s just a way of standing back and looking at them slightly differently.”

The centre also offers personal retreats, with around eight rooms set aside for people spending two weeks in solitude for personal or religious enlightenment

London-retreatant Alain, who declined to give his surname, discovered Buddhism while growing up in France and was celebrating the final day of his two-week retreat at the Brynmawr Palpung Centre.

He spent his two weeks going on occasional jogs, meditating, studying Buddhist texts in an effort to “spend some time with himself.”

He explained: “As a retreatant you do everything at your own rhythm and if you encounter mechanisms you don’t understand you can receive advice from teachers here.

“If you don’t want to speak to anyone at all over the two weeks that is fine too and people from the centre will do your shopping for you — I feel very relaxed after my two weeks here.”

He added: “I like the fact that you’re not judged here and that people talk very easily about themselves and issues and this is something most people are not used to.

“Because everyone is in the same boat working with themselves to be more stable and happier, people are also more authentic.

“I’m here now to make meditation part of my daily life because I need to — I have big decisions or big things to face when I go back to London and I need that support.”

This weekend, the Palpung Changchub Dargye Ling Centre will enter an Easter retreat of “calm abiding and insight meditation” and has a full schedule of events and speakers lined up for 2016.

For Choje Lama Rabsang, “awareness and beneficial acts” are at the heart of the centre’s teaching.

“This moment that we are in, accept it and be happy in it as everything changes every moment and there is no need to hold on to it,” he said.

“You don’t know what is going to happen in the future and that is why we feel pain and fear and the past will come back, your upset and anger will come back and it doesn’t help anything.

“This moment you have the opportunity to give love and be kind, compassionate, generous and patient.

“It is in this moment where we transform this moment into wisdom, pure mind and happiness.”