Buddhist Book Reviews

Buddhist Book Reviews and Recommendations

Resting in Stillness

Written by Buddhist Books

Resting in Stillness by Martin Jamyang Tenphel and Pema Düddul is a valuable collection of written pieces which will inspire, encourage and guide you on the Buddhist path. The authors are Co-Directors of the Jalü Buddhist Meditation Centre and have decades of personal practice under their belts as well as plenty of experience in teaching workshops and courses in meditation, mindfulness, compassion and more.

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The Jalü Buddhist Meditation Centre offers secular courses in Calm Abiding and Insight meditation as well as Buddhist courses which draw from both the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and the Chan tradition of Zen. Many of the pieces which appear in this collection were written in response to questions asked by those attending meditation classes or participating in discussion groups, so they cover a range of topics that will be of interest to anyone who is looking to develop their own practice and understanding.

The style and tone of writing is at once friendly, personable, direct and pragmatic. To illustrate, consider the following excerpt from the chapter titled Making Tea:

Dharma practice is like making a cup of tea. We prepare by studying and contemplating the teachings, this is like putting tea and sugar in the cup. Then we pour boiling water into the cup and let it steep. The steeping process is equivalent to our Shamatha practice. The longer we let the tea steep, the stronger, more powerful, and more flavourful the tea will become. What do we need to do to help the tea steep? Nothing. We just rest, relax and wait for it to do its own thing. The same goes for Shamatha practice. The more we practice relaxing and resting in the stillness of Shamatha, the more we will experience the deep satisfying joy of our True Nature.

This book has forty-eight short chapters in total, and these focus on everything from what to do when one is too distressed to meditate, how to recognise and train in pure awareness and how to deal with difficult times, right through to how to meditate, how to practice sky gazing, how to get unstuck, the true nature of mind, and more.

Resting in Stillness isn’t a book to rush through in a single sitting, but a collection that you will want to dip into repeatedly for inspiration, teaching and a new perspective as you progress along the Buddhist path. The pieces here can benefit everyone, so whether you are brand new to Buddhism and meditation or an established practitioner, you will find Resting in Stillness to be a valuable and encouraging companion.

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The Mindfulness in Plain English Collection

Written by Buddhist Books

The Mindfulness in Plain English Collection is a stunning hardback volume which brings together three classic titles on mindfulness by Bhante Gunaratana. Those titles are: Mindfulness in Plain English, The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English, and Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English.

This collector’s edition from Wisdom Publications runs to 640 pages and provides the reader with comprehensive instruction on the practice of mindfulness, from beginner to advanced. It lays the groundwork with Mindfulness in Plain English, which we have reviewed previously. First published in 1994, this title guides the reader step-by-step to developing greater levels of mindfulness by practicing vipassana meditation.

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The Four Foundations of Mindfulness comes next, and that title is based on the Satipatthana Sutta, which teaches mindfulness of the body, of feelings, of mind and of Dhamma. In this book, Bhante presents the teachings in his trademark plain-English style, clarifying and expounding points for a modern western audience.

The third book in this collection is Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English, which Joseph Goldstein described as ‘a straightforward and pragmatic guide to deepening levels of concentration and insight.’ As the title suggests, in this book Bhante goes beyond mindfulness to discuss the ‘jhanas’. These are states of meditation that really have to be experienced to be fully appreciated, but which are often discussed in terms of being joyous, powerful and incredibly calm.

Having all three of these classic Bhante Guaranta titles together in a beautiful single-volume collection is a real privilege, and The Mindfulness in Plain English Collection should serve as an inspirational and indispensable guide for everyone who embarks on the path of mindfulness.

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The Miracle of Mindfulness

Written by Buddhist Books

The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh is a classic book – now available in a superb hardback gift edition – that can help anyone to develop the mindfulness skills that are necessary to slow down and start living life in present moment.

Originally written in Vietnamese as a long letter of teaching and encouragement in 1974, The Miracle of Mindfulness is as applicable to a general audience today as it was to its very first recipients. The pace of life in the 21st century is more urgent than ever, and most of us know what it feels like to rush headlong from dawn to dusk, pressured by to-do lists, schedules, deadlines and even by stressors that are created wholly by our own Monkey Minds. The good news for anyone who experiences these types of pressures is that The Miracle of Mindfulness really can help you to get to a place that is calm, peaceful and as free from stress as we’d like it to be.

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That ‘place’ is right now. Whilst most people strive to find happiness and peace by relentlessly pursuing careers, relationships, bumper pay days, vacations and the recognition of their peers, none of those things help an individual to connect with the present moment. On the contrary, constantly focusing on the future – or at the other extreme, constantly dwelling on the past – makes it extremely difficult for anyone to experience the kind of peace that is only ever available in the moment at hand.

The Miracle of Mindfulness presents a superb range of precise techniques and teachings that you can use to help ground yourself in the here-and-now and enjoy the freedom and spaciousness that is already right under your nose. Of course, you don’t have to stop pursuing your career, relationships or anything else that is a worthwhile part of 21st century life, but you can learn to live each moment mindfully, and Thich Nhat Hanh will show you how.

This book is beautifully written, and if you want to get the most benefit out of it we would strongly recommend that you take your time. Each of the seven chapters contains more wisdom-per-page than you would ever be able to absorb by reading casually, so pay attention, go slow and be sure to put the principles into practice. If you do this then you will emerge from the experience with mindfulness skills that you can use all day long, every day of the week, and even ‘mundane’ tasks such as making a cup of tea, washing dishes, paying the bills or driving the kids to school can become incredibly rewarding. And therein lies the miracle….

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A Path With Heart

Written by Buddhist Books

A Path With Heart by Jack Kornfield was first published in 1993 and today the book (which has been reprinted numerous times) is widely regarded as a classic and timeless guide to meditation and living an authentic spiritual life.

Jack Kornfield was ordained as a monk in the 1960’s at the Thai Forest monastery at Wat Ba Pong, and studied under a variety of noted masters, including Ajahn Chah and Mahasi Sayadaw. He started teaching Buddhism to Westerners in 1974 and, along with Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein, co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachussets. He also became a founding teacher at the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California, and that is where he currently teaches, almost five decades after discovering the Buddhist path for himself.

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A lot more information about Jack’s life and journey are provided in A Path With Heart, but we wanted to paint a thumbnail sketch of the author’s background to try and convey some of the length and depth of his experience. What we can’t convey here is how good he is at teaching those of us who want to follow the Buddhist path in the West, but fortunately anyone who picks up a copy of A Path With Heart will soon find that out for themselves.

This is a weighty book which covers every aspect of the spiritual life from a Buddhist perspective, and it will be of immense value to anyone who wants to make progress at any stage along the path. Whether you want to learn how to meditate from scratch or deepen an existing practice that will benefit every area of your life, this book presents the information you need in a practical, down-to-earth manner. Even when the author is discussing potentially confusing topics such as altered states, absorption, and access concentration, the text is always precise and illuminating. Chapter titles are as follows:

Chapter 1 – Did I Love Well?
Chapter 2 – Stopping the War
Chapter 3 – Taking the One Seat
Chapter 4 – Necessary Healing
Chapter 5 – Training the Puppy: Mindfulness of Breathing
Chapter 6 – Turning Straw into Gold
Chapter 7 – Naming the Demons
Chapter 8 – Difficult Problems and Insistent Visitors
Chapter 9 – The Spiritual Roller Coaster: Kundalini and Other Side Effects
Chapter 10 – Expanding and Dissolving the Self: Dark Night and Rebirth
Chapter 11 – Searching for the Buddha: A Lamp Unto Ourselves
Chapter 12 – Accepting the Cycles of Spiritual Life
Chapter 13 – No Boundaries to the Sacred
Chapter 14 – No Self or True Self?
Chapter 15 – Generosity, Codependence and Fearless Compassion
Chapter 16 – You Can’t Do It Alone: Finding and Working with a Teacher
Chapter 17 – Psychotherapy and Meditation
Chapter 18 – The Emperor’s New Clothes: Problems with Teachers
Chapter 19 – Karma: The Heart Is Our Garden
Chapter 20 – Expanding Our Circle: An Undivided Heart
Chapter 21 – Spiritual Maturity
Chapter 22 – The Great Song
Chapter 23 – Enlightenment Is Intimacy with All Things

As you can see, this isn’t a book that you will want to speed through, but one that you will want to savour at a measured pace. Whether you are simply curious about Buddhist meditation and life or you are already established on the path, this book will serve as an extremely valuable guide that you will want to refer to again and again.

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Inner Pilgrimage

Written by Buddhist Books

Inner Pilgrimage: Ten Days to a Mindful Me by Raji Lukkoor is a personal account of the author’s experience on a ten-day vipassana meditation retreat. It is not written as a Buddhist book, per se, and the author writes in her preface that she had no Buddhist background when she embarked on the retreat. This makes the title very useful for anyone who wants to find out more about the vipassana retreat experience, whatever their background, because as the author learns about the practice of vipassana, so does the reader.

The ten-day retreat that is described in this book was led (via video instruction) by S. N. Goenka, and anyone who has already experienced a retreat such as this will find Inner Pilgrimage to be a very useful summary of the main concepts that are taught. Those who are merely curious about how this kind of retreat works – or who have been thinking about taking part in one but are unsure about what to expect – will get an excellent first-hand account from someone who knows.

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Inner Pilgrimage is split into 13 chapters. In the first chapter, Day Zero, the author says goodbye to her family and makes her way to the retreat centre. Here we learn why she decided to take the retreat and what it will involve. We are with Raji every step of the way as she checks in, finds her accommodation and sits on her assigned cushion for the very first time when she attends the introductory session.

The next ten chapters take us through the retreat day by day, and throughout the book the author writes not only in the first person, but also in the present tense. This gives her writing a great sense of immediacy and puts the reader firmly in the middle of the experience. Perhaps even more importantly, the author writes with complete and utter honesty throughout, describing not only external activities but also her internal thought processes. As you might expect, the author found quite a few things to mentally grumble about during the first day or so, and her train of thought initially switched tracks with alarming regularity, but as we read on we get to see that her entire attitude softened and changed as the retreat progressed, and so we witness – as far as possible via the written word – a genuine transformation.

Raji learned a great deal on her ten-day retreat, and by covering all of the main points in some detail she has ensured that the reader is able to learn alongside her. All of the important concepts taught on the retreat are very well explained in a way that makes them easy to understand even if you have no prior knowledge of vipassana, and that makes Inner Pilgrimage an excellent introduction to the subject, and one that will no doubt motivate you to find out more.

A brief chapter entitled Homecoming covers the author preparing to return home, and the final chapter, The Afterlife, tells us how she felt about the ten-day retreat some eight months later. Here we learn how the retreat has improved her life in a variety of ways, and whilst the author is quick to point out that she didn’t grown a halo of light around her head or experience angelic visitations of any kind, it is clear that the ten day retreat has changed her life quite substantially, and all for the better.

In summary, Inner Pilgrimage is a book that we recommend highly to anyone who has any level of interest in vipassana, and we thank the author for putting her very personal experience in writing for the benefit of others.

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