Meditation Guides

Tristram30

I have tried doing a search through the forums but couldn't find anything. If I have missed a good thread on this topic please can someone guide me to it?

I am looking for a good meditation guide (in the form of a book). I have many books which talk about meditation but I can't seem to find one that actually shows you, in detail, how to do it.

I have a fair amount of experience in 'home-made' meditation and am quite happy sitting for fairly long periods so I am not a beginner in the strict sense. I ideally want to know things like: with Vipassana, for how long prior in a session should I focus on concentration, before attempting insight. I am also interested in the various techniques of spiritual questioning or koans in order to gain insights.

FYI I am looking for a teacher but I do not know how long that will take or whether it will be successful.

Thanks

CalBound

I benefitted a lot from Bhante Henepola Gunaratana's Mindfulness in Plain English, which many call a classic. You can find it on the web for free (google it) or in bookstores. This book is mainly on Vipassana. He has another book, Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English, on concentration meditation. His book Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness is also outstanding; though not solely about meditation, I did learn a little more that I had missed in the first book.

genkaku

Tristram -- It may not be exactly what you're looking for, but here is a pretty nuts-and-bolts description of Zen meditation: http://mro.org/zmm/teachings/meditation.php

buddhajunkie

An excellent Vipassana book
http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html

Tikal2012

Buddha says not to distinguish between vippasana (insight), samadhi (concentration), or samatha (tranquility) in your meditation. He says that the mind that you want to cultivate in your meditation is a combination of all three of these things. They build up together.

You'll notice that if your mind is on your object of meditation, a thought will arise. Then your mind will get carried away in more thoughts regarding that initial thought. What you need to do when your meditating is recognize when your mind is distracted like this (vipassana), let go of the thinking and relax (samatha), and return to your object of meditation (samadhi), which if your practicing the breathing meditation according to the Buddha's teachings, you're object of meditation will be breathing in feeling your entire body, breathing out feeling your entire body, breathing in tranquilizing your bodily formations (formations = sankharas* - a Pali word that if you look up will greatly expand the potency of your meditation), and breathing out tranquilizing your bodily formations.
Buddha says that practicing like this is of great fruit and benefit, and that it will lead to very enjoyable meditation, and ultimately to Nibbana, the highest happiness. Good luck.

*Sankharas - Eng. Formations, constituents, components - They are the parts and pieces that make up a certain thing. Buddha says there are three kinds of sankharas - bodily sankharas, mental sankharas, and verbal sankharas. Take bodily sankharas for example. Buddha says that in and out breaths are bodily sankharas. The body's functioning depends on the breathing in of air, and the breathing out of air, thus we can deduce that a sankhara is a a part or piece of a phenomenon that is necessary for said phenomenon to exist. If you are tranquilizing your bodily formations on the in breath, you are tranquilizing all the components of your body on the in breath; that is in breaths, out breaths, heart beat, muscles, everything, just relax it and let it go, then breath out and let go of all that tension again. You will have to do this many times, but with practice you will become more and more proficient at it, until you start to penetrate into the deeper Jhanas, and see more of how your mind works, and eventually attain Nibbana.

Tristram30

Thank you all for the book recommendations which I am looking into. @Tikal2012 thank you very much for your post. I have never looked at it this way, I always thought the different types of mediation were different practices rather than different aspects of the same practice. I ask this question of everyone I can, and you sound like an experienced meditator - do you think that successful meditation can be acheived without formal guidance? I'd really appreciate your comment and anybody else's?

Thanks all

BuckyG

Gil Fronsdal's anapanasati (Mindfulness of Breathing) talks on audiodharma.org are good but very disorganized. However, I've organized them around the four "tetrads" of the Anapanasati & Satipatthana (Establishing Mindfulness) Suttas. If you or anyone requests, I will link them out of my googledocs or PM it to you (or post it here with admin. approval). Alternatively/supplementally, Ajaan Lee's "Keeping the Breathe in Mind" & "The Four Frames of Reference" books (free on accesstoinsight.org) are good to. Thanissaro Bhikkhu's, "The Breath, A Vehicle to Liberation," along with any of his guided meditations, are good too (also at audiodharma.org).

genkaku

do you think that successful meditation can be acheived without formal guidance?
_____________________________

Tristram -- This is a regular on the can-of-worms-question circuit: Those who say "yes," will find that they have neglected some very important stuff. Those who say "no" will likewise get tripped up.

Generally speaking, my experience has been this: Practicing alone carries with it the potential for great power. It also carries the potential for a subtle and substantial pride. Practicing with others (teachers included) offers the potential for solid grounding ... and the danger of a comforting laziness.

In one sense, then, it's screwed if you do and screwed if you don't. Traditionally, a formal teacher of some kind has been seen as the best course. Teachers nudge and prod and point out what the student may have overlooked. Teachers are said to "help" their students. But the fact is that only the student can teach the student if Buddhism is to mean anything. Any decent teacher recognizes this ... and is along for the ride, so to speak. Calling them "compassionate" is overstating the matter.

Bottom line: If you hook up with a teacher, good. If you don't hook up with a teacher, practice anyway. Patience may be the single most useful tool when practicing Buddhism. Patience with yourself, patience with others ... patience ... and a determined constancy.

Best wishes.

hermitwin

http://www.vipassana.com/meditation/mindfulness_in_plain_english.php

lamaramadingdong

Try "Quiet Mind" by Susan Pivar. Very basic instruction in a variety of practices. It also comes with a CD for guided meditation of the various forms.

santhisouk

Try this.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/breathmed.html

with metta