Practical Meditation


Book Description

Learn on-the-go meditation techniques to improve your concentration and memory and enhance your self-esteem, using this unique visual guide. Follow the clear, step-by-step instructions anytime, anywhere--at home, on the beach, or on a business trip. Practice meditations sitting on a simple, upright chair; there's no need to fold yourself into uncomfortable positions. Explore a variety of meditation techniques, from mindfulness meditation to tai chi, to find the practices that suit you. Use the short "mini-meditations" to sample a variety of different styles. Find out the benefits of meditation on your mind and brain, examining how it works and the scientific evidence behind its effects. Whether you are new to meditation or looking to expand your existing knowledge, this practical guide on how to meditate provides everything you need to start (or continue) your meditative journey.




The Posture of Meditation


Book Description

The 25th anniversary edition of the classic, comprehensive guide on meditation posture and how to carry its benefits into everyday life—for practitioners of all skill levels When it comes to meditation practices, the body is as important as the mind—a fact that may come as a surprise to the many people who regard meditation as a strictly mental activity. But, as Will Johnson shows, the physical aspect of the practice is far too often underemphasized. The alert-yet-relaxed sitting posture that is the common denominator of so many meditative techniques is a wonderful aid for clearing the mind and opening the heart, but it also works to activate the natural healing energies of both body and mind. In this essential guidebook, Will Johnson shows how meditation, too often misunderstood as a mental practice, can be immeasurably enriched through an embodied approach. The Posture of Meditation features a range of simple practices based on the principles of alignment, relaxation, and resilience. This classic book—now with a new section detailing the transformative power of the path of somatic meditation—has helped thousands of people to begin their meditation practice, to refine it, and to experience depths they never thought possible.




Mindfulness


Book Description

The mind contains the seeds of its own awakening—seeds that we can cultivate to bring forth the fruits of a life lived consciously. With Mindfulness, Joseph Goldstein shares the wisdom of his four decades of teaching and practice in a book that will serve as a lifelong companion for anyone committed to mindful living and the realization of inner freedom. Goldstein’s source teaching is the Satipa??hana Sutta, the Buddha’s legendary discourse on the four foundations of mindfulness that became the basis for the many types of Vipassana (or insight meditation) found today. Exquisite in detail yet wholly accessible and relevant for the modern student, Mindfulness takes us through a profound study of: • Mindfulness of body, including the breath, postures, activities, and physical characteristics • Mindfulness of feelings—how the experience of our sense perceptions influences our inner and outer worlds • Mindfulness of mind—learning to recognize skillful and unskillful states of mind and thought • Mindfulness of dhammas (or categories of experience), including the Five Hindrances, the Six Sense Spheres, and the Seven Factors of Awakening "There is a wealth of meaning and nuance in the experience of mindfulness that can enrich our lives in unimagined ways," writes Goldstein. In Mindfulness you have the tools to mine these riches for yourself.




Practical Zen


Book Description

Zen master Julian Daizan Skinner guides the reader through a sequence of meditation techniques that can safely lead even a complete novice through to advanced levels. Based on his own long experience of the Rinzai Zen tradition, as taught by the great seventeenth-century masters, Hakuin and Bankei, Daizan highlights the key points for success and addresses the pitfalls. Structured around a traditional teaching framework called "The two wings of a bird," Daizan clearly lays-out how these methods build and combine to create a transformative and sustaining practice. The book contains an extremely useful section describing the experiences of western practitioners who have successfully applied this framework within the pressures of modern life. The final section features key source texts in translation, making the book a complete introduction and guide to Zen meditation. The work of a master, the book speaks at a deep level, with utmost simplicity.




The Beginner's Book of Meditation


Book Description

Learn simple breathing techniques, along with the most effective meditation methods and QiGong practised sitting or in movement, including traditional and lesser-known techniques, from down-to-earth descriptions, and over 250 illustrations, hand-drawn by the author (B&W). This book is meant for anyone and everyone interested in learning meditation, regardless of age, sex, physical or mental state or ability, religious or spiritual views, and previous experience in meditation practice. Meditation will be regarded as a tool, or vehicle, you might use along your path. The techniques taught within, are not follow-along meditations, that you can just do step-by-step, prescribed for specific goals, situations, or life events. The goal of this volume is to help you understand meditation, empowering you with the knowledge and experience to build up your own routine and your very own, personal meditation practice.




If You Can Breathe, You Can Meditate


Book Description

If You Can Breathe, You Can Meditate: A Practical, Secular How-To Guide to Meditation is an indispensable new book that demystifies the practice of meditation, stripping away religious and philosophical associations that have been ascribed to this timeless and universal activity. It brings clarity and focus to something that is entirely normal, completely human, and positively habit-forming. Meditation is not magic, nor is it a religion. It will not allow you to break the laws of physics and levitate or visit astral realms. Meditation is simply a process of focused objective attention--a mental exercise, nothing more and nothing less. While it is often lumped together with mysticism or appropriated by New Age believers alongside their chakras, crystals, and auras, meditation is in fact a straight-forward, secular practice that can help to improve your health and quality of life. Among the potential benefits of meditation are relief from stress, anxiety, and depression, lowered blood pressure, reduction in cholesterol levels, effective pain management, improved sleeping patterns, increased energy, and enhanced creativity and intuition. A skeptic by nature and a scientist by training, author Morgan D. Rosenberg brings a refreshingly direct and pragmatic perspective to this plain and practical instruction manual for those interested in meditation. Broken down into a series of step-by-step chapters, If You Can Breathe, You Can Meditate guides the reader through the various aspects of meditation, providing convenient, easily referenced resources including a section addressing frequently asked questions and a comprehensive bibliography that will assist with further investigation and reading on the subject. Dispel your misconceptions and discover the realities of meditation and mindfulness, as this thoughtful and insightful guide presents a practical way to engage in a beneficial routine of mental exercise rooted in the fundamental, reasonable principles of meditation.




Buddhist Meditation


Book Description

This book is a comprehensive and practical guide to Buddhist meditation, providing a complete introduction for beginners, as well as detailed advice for experienced meditators seeking to deepen their practice. Kamalashila explores the primary aims of Buddhist meditation: enhanced awareness, true happiness, and liberating insight into the nature of reality. This third edition includes new sections on the importance of the imagination, on Just Sitting, and on reflection on the Buddha.




The Mindfulness Manual


Book Description

The Mindfulness Manual provides you with first-hand experience of the importance of mindfulness in your daily life. The manual is based on The Buddha's classic and most loved discourse on the four applications of mindfulness, namely to body, feelings, states of mind and the inner/outer world. This manual consists of a series of teachings and practical daily exercises with regular quotes from the Buddha. There are questions to explore at the end of each chapter. Sustained mindfulness training develops the capacity to handle a wide variety of challenging situations, and to understand more deeply the relationship of the inner life to the outer world. Christopher also addresses ethics, communication, enquiry, spiritual experiences, action, love and a liberating wisdom.




Meditation For Fidgety Skeptics


Book Description

*As heard on the Tim Ferriss Show podcast* 'Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics is well researched, practical, and crammed with expert advice and it's also an irreverent, hilarious page-turner.' - Gretchen Rubin ABC News anchor Dan Harris used to think that meditation was for people who collect crystals, play the pan pipes, and use the word namaste without irony. After he had a panic attack on live television, he went on a strange journey that ultimately led him to become one of meditation's most vocal public proponents. Science suggests that meditation can lower blood pressure, mitigate depression and anxiety, and literally rewire key parts of the brain, among numerous other benefits. And yet there are millions of people who want to meditate but aren't actually practising. What's holding them back? In this guide to mindfulness and meditation for beginners and experienced meditators alike, Harris and his friend Jeff Warren, embark on a cross-country quest to tackle the myths, misconceptions, and self-deceptions that stop people from meditating. They rent a rock-star tour bus and travel across the US, talking to scores of would-be meditators, including parents, police officers, and even a few celebrities. They create a taxonomy of the most common issues ("I suck at this," "I don't have the time," etc.) and offer up science-based life hacks to help people overcome them. The book is filled with game-changing and deeply practical meditation instructions. Amid it all unspools the strange and hilarious story of what happens when a congenitally sarcastic, type-A journalist and a groovy Canadian mystic embark on an epic road trip into America's neurotic underbelly, as well as their own.




Concentration and Meditation


Book Description

Originally published in the '40s, this book was the first to accurately and clearly present the Buddhist practice of meditation and adapt it to Western understanding and lifestyles. Now considered one of the standard manuals, this practical guide begins by strengthening the mind through concentration, then explains the deeper spiritual development available through meditation.




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