The Mind Illuminated


Book Description

The Mind Illuminated is a comprehensive, accessible and - above all - effective book on meditation, providing a nuts-and-bolts stage-based system that helps all levels of meditators establish and deepen their practice. Providing step-by-step guidance for every stage of the meditation path, this uniquely comprehensive guide for a Western audience combines the wisdom from the teachings of the Buddha with the latest research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Clear and friendly, this in-depth practice manual builds on the nine-stage model of meditation originally articulated by the ancient Indian sage Asanga, crystallizing the entire meditative journey into 10 clearly-defined stages. The book also introduces a new and fascinating model of how the mind works, and uses illustrations and charts to help the reader work through each stage. This manual is an essential read for the beginner to the seasoned veteran of meditation.




Samatha, Jhana, and Vipassana


Book Description

A clear and comprehensive handbook to a revered path of meditation. This step-by-step meditator’s guide walks the reader through practices that can hold the key to unlocking new levels of concentration and insight. A student of the famed Pa-Auk Monastery and a practicing psychiatrist, Jeon Hyun-soo, MD, PhD, uses these two paths to guide the reader to a new understanding of themselves and the world around them. Drawing both from Jeon’s own experience with Pa-Auk Sayadaw and from the words of the Buddha, this is an authentic and practical guide to samatha, materiality, mentality, dependent origination, and vipassana.




Wisdom Wide and Deep


Book Description

Wisdom Wide and Deep is a comprehensive guide to an in-depth training that emphasizes the application of concentrated attention (jhana) to profound and liberating insight (vipassana). With calm, tranquility, and composure established through a practical experience of jhana meditators are able to halt the seemingly endless battle against hindrances, eliminate distraction, and facilitate a penetrative insight into the subtle nature of matter and mind. It was for this reason the Buddha frequently exhorted his students, Wisdom Wide and Deep follows and amplifies the teachings in Shaila Catherine's acclaimed first book, Focused and Fearless: A Meditator's Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity. Readers will learn to develop this profound stability, sustain an in-depth examination of the nuances of mind and matter, and ultimately unravel deeply conditioned patterns that perpetuate suffering. This fully detailed manual for the mind sure to become a trusted companion to many inner explorers.




Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English


Book Description

Gunaratana offers basic instruction on the meaning of insight meditation through concepts that can be applied to any tradition. His focus here is on the Jhanas, those meditative states of profound stillness in which the mind becomes fully immersed in the chosen object of attention.




Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond


Book Description

"Better than sex!" That's how Ajahn Brahm describes meditation, and his enthusiasm is contagious. A self-described meditation junkie, Brahm, the author of the popular "Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?, " shares his recipe for bliss in this practical, energizing new book. "The Meditator's Handbook" is a complete, stem-to-stern guide to the subject, with precise step-by-step instructions for traversing the stages of practice and overcoming obstacles. Drawing on his working-class roots, Brahm explains difficult concepts clearly and easily, so that beginners understand them, while those who already meditate gain new insight. Full of surprises, delightfully goofy humor, and entertaining stories that inspire, instruct, and illuminate, "The Meditator's Handbook" encourages novices and gives a shot in the arm to more experienced practitioners.




Practicing the Jhanas


Book Description

Two experienced American meditators explain the stages and techniques of concentration meditation, as taught by the Buddhist master Pa Auk Sayadaw This is a clear and in-depth presentation of the traditional Theravadin concentration meditation known as jhāna practice, from two authors who have practiced the jhānas in retreat under the guidance of one of the great living meditation masters, Pa Auk Sayadaw. The authors describe the techniques and their results, based on their own experience.




Right Concentration


Book Description

A practical guidebook for meditators interested in achieving the states of bliss and deep focus associated with the Buddhist jhānas One of the elements of the Eightfold Path is Right Concentration: the one-pointedness of mind that, together with ethics, livelihood, meditation, and more, leads to the ultimate freedom from suffering. So how does one achieve Right Concentration? According to the Buddha himself, the jhānas—a series of eight progressive altered states of consciousness—are an essential method. But because the jhānas can usually be achieved only through prolonged meditation retreat, they have been shrouded in mystery for years. Not anymore. In Right Concentration, Leigh Brasington takes away the mystique and gives instructions on how to achieve them in plain, accessible language. He notes the various pitfalls to avoid along the way and provides a wealth of material on the theory of jhāna practice—all geared toward the practitioner rather than the scholar. As Brasington proves, these states of bliss and concentration are attainable by anyone who devotes the time and sincerity of practice necessary to realize them.




Knowing and Seeing


Book Description

Knowing and Seeing is teachings given by the Myanmarese meditation master, the Most Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw, at a two-month retreat for monks and nuns in Taiwan.In strict accordance with the standard Pali Texts, the Most Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw gives a practical overview of how you develop absorption (jhana) with mindfulness-of-breathing, the thirty-two parts of your own body and that of others (near and far), repulsiveness of the body, the ten kasir:ias and four immaterial states. He then explains how you use the ' strong and powerful' jhana concentration to perfect lovingkindness, compassion, appreciative joy, equanimity, recollection-of-The-Buddha , foulness , and recollection-of-death. Next, he explains how, with the light of jhana, you penetrate the delusion of compactness and see the sub-atomic particles of materiality, and see the ultimate materiality of your own body, that of others, and throughout the universe; how likewise you see the cog nitive-processes of your own mind and that of others; how likewise you examine your materiality and mentality of past lives, your present life and future lives (on this and other planes); and how likewise you develop the remaining knowledges till 'Your mind knows and sees Nibbana directly: it is fully aware of the (unformed) Nibbana as object.' The Sayadaw also answers questions from meditators at the retreat, on details regarding medi tation, related matters, and the Bodhisatta Path etc. Finally, there is a stirring talk where he exhorts us to ' breathe according to The Buddha's instructions' , followed by a talk on the most superior type of offering.This new edition has new charts, an index, additional information, and the layout, etc. has been made clearer.The Most Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw is abbot and teacher at Pa-Auk Tawya Monastery, a meditation centre outside Mawlamyine in the Mon State, Myanmar. He has centres also elsewhere in Myanmar , in Malaysia and in Singapore.The Most Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw has given Dhamma talks, and conducted retreats , in also Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea , Malaysia, the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Singapore, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.Printed copies of this book are made available for the cost of printing and shipping with zero profit.




Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha


Book Description

The very idea that the teachings can be mastered will arouse controversy within Buddhist circles. Even so, Ingram insists that enlightenment is an attainable goal, once our fanciful notions of it are stripped away, and we have learned to use meditation as a method for examining reality rather than an opportunity to wallow in self-absorbed mind-noise. Ingram sets out concisely the difference between concentration-based and insight (vipassana) meditation; he provides example practices; and most importantly he presents detailed maps of the states of mind we are likely to encounter, and the stages we must negotiate as we move through clearly-defined cycles of insight. Its easy to feel overawed, at first, by Ingram's assurance and ease in the higher levels of consciousness, but consistently he writes as a down-to-earth and compassionate guide, and to the practitioner willing to commit themselves this is a glittering gift of a book.In this new edition of the bestselling book, the author rearranges, revises and expands upon the original material, as well as adding new sections that bring further clarity to his ideas.




Focused and Fearless


Book Description

Now ordinary meditators (and non-meditators) can understand how to attain non-ordinary states with relative ease. Blended with contemporary examples, pragmatic exercises, and ''how to'' instructions that anyone can try, Focused and Fearless provides a wealth of tools to cultivate non-distracted attention in daily life and on retreat. Shaila Catherine has a friendly, wise approach to the meditative states (jhanas) that lead to liberating insight. Focused and Fearless is about much more than merely meditation or concentration. It offers a complete path towards bliss, fearlessness, and true awakening.