Meditation

Bibliography:
Shankman, Richard. The Experience of Samadhi: An In-depth Exploration of Buddhist Meditation. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2008. 

Bibliography:
Gampaha Pemasiri Mahathera. Meditative Defilements - Upakkilesa Dhamma. Colombo: Print & Print Graphics (Pvt) Ltd.

Bibliography: 
Ledi Sayadaw. Manuals of Buddhism. Igatpuri: Vipassana Research Institute, Reprint 2011.

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.

Early Buddhism borrowed two of its central terms from the workings of fire. Upadana, or clinging, originally referred to the fuel that kept fire burning; nibbana, the name of the goal, to a fire's going out. This is the first book to examine these terms from the perspective of how the early Buddhists themselves viewed fire--what they saw happening as a fire burned, and what happened to the fire when it went out--to show what light this perspective throws on Buddhist doctrine in general, and the practice of meditation in particular.

As an outcome of Dhyana, you will be able to observe these phenomena very clearly because your “mental mirror” is very clear, for there are no more disturbances to veil it. Out of these observations will come Transcendental Wisdom, which in Sanskrit is called “Prajna.” This book The Sweet Dews of Ch’an (Zen) is a series of lectures on practical Zen meditation.

As Buddhist meditation becomes more popular, it is vital that clear and accurate guidance is available. For many years, there has been an unfortunate lack of thorough instruction in simple English on the deeper states of meditation called Jhanas. Even though the Jhanas are, perhaps, the theme most repeated by the Buddha in the Suttas, and in spite of the fact that the old teachers of the Thai forest tradition encouraged, preached and taught Jhanas, a description of their development is hard to come by. This ebook, then, serves to remedy this lack of practical information.

'Walking with Awareness - A Guide to Walking Meditation' written by Luang Por Liem Áhitadhammo – a Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest Tradition who was born in 1941. After higher ordination at twenty years of age, he first practised in several village monasteries until he joined Wat Nong PahPong, Ajahn Chah’s famous forest monastery in UbonProvince, in 1969. This short book lays out the basics of walking meditations as he practiced and taught it.

Ego, Attachment and Liberation with the subtitle Overcoming your Mental Bureaucracy – a five-day Meditation Course by Lama Yeshe is a detailed guide to handling the obstacles during retreats and more advanced meditation techniques. At the same time Lama Yeshe presents and explains his own thoughts on concepts such as karma: Every time your ego contacts an object, its interpretation leaves a different imprint on your consciousness. Those imprints react again and again. That’s what we call karma—cause and effect. The imprints are the cause; the reaction is the effect. That’s karma.

Dudjom Rinpoche was one of the seminal figures in Tibetan Buddhism in the twentieth century, yet very few of his religious writings have been translated into English. This volume contains a generous selection of his inspiring teachings and writings, the core of which is a lengthy discussion of the entire path of Dzogchen, including key instructions on view, meditation, and conduct, along with direct advice on how to bring one's experiences onto the path.

In this classic 17th-century presentation of the union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen, Karma Chagme, one of the great teachers of both these lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, begins with an overview of the spirit of awakening and the nature of actions and their ethical consequences. Next, drawing from his enormous erudition and profound experience, Karma Chagme gives exceptionally lucid instructions on the two phases of Dzogchen practice - the "Breakthrough" and the "Leap-over" - followed by an accessible introduction to the practice of the transference of consciousness at the time of death.

A psychologist in private practice and the director of the Buddhist Guhyasamaja Center in Virginia, Lorne Ladner has written a concise book that brings understanding to the Tibetan concept of compassion. In The Lost Art of Compassion: Discovering the Practice of Happiness in the Meeting of Buddhism and Psychology, he has brought his years of Buddhist meditation and mainstream psychology together into a workable formula that seeks to help people become their own therapists and seek their own inner peace, allowing them to then look outward and do good in the world.

A Spacious Path to Freedom is a classic manual of Tibetan meditation, offering the Dzogchen and the Mahamudra systems of practice. Chapters explain the stages of meditation, and author Karma Chagma applies his extensive experience and familiarity with Tibetan oral traditions to reveal how these two meditative systems can be integrated into a single approach. Commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche enhances this core addition to advanced Buddhist Studies shelves.

This is a companion volume to The Koan and The Zen Canon , by the same editors. The first volume collected original essays on koan collections, recorded sayings of individual masters, histories of major schools, and compilations of monastic regulations. The second focuses on the early history of Zen in China, providing overview assessments of many of the most important canonical texts that set the Zen tradition in motion throughout East Asia. Zen Classics will follow that historical movement, focusing primarily on texts from Korea and Japan that brought this Buddhist movement to fruition.

How to cite this document (a suggested style):

Ajahn Sucitto. Meditation: A Way of Awakening. Amaravati Publications, 2011.

How to cite this document (a suggested style):

Ajahn Sucitto and Scott, Nick. Where Are You Going: A Pilgrimage on Foot to the Buddhist Holy Places. Part I: Rude-Awakenings. West Sussex: Cittaviveka Monastery, 2010.

The Satipatthana Sutta, the Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness, is generally regarded as the canonical Buddhist text with the fullest instructions on the system of meditation unique to the Buddha’s own dispensation. The practice of Satìpatthana meditation centres on the methodical cultivation of one simple mental faculty readily available to all of us at any moment. This is the faculty of mindfulness, the capacity for attending to the content of our experience as it becomes manifest in the immediate present.

Nan, Huai-Chin. Tao and Longevity: Mind-Body Transformation. trans. by Wen Kuan Chu, Samuel Weiser, York Beach: Maine, 1984.

Mindfulness: Traditions and Compassionate Applications.
The International Association of Buddhist Universities Celebrating the Endeavors of a Decade 2007-2017. 6-8 May 2017, Mahachlalongkornrajavidyalaya University, Thailand.

The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Lamrim chen mo) is one of the brightest jewels in the world's treasury of sacred literature. The author, Tsong-kha-pa (1357-1419), completed this masterpiece in 1402 and it soon became one of the most renowned works of spiritual practice and philosophy in the world of Tibetan Buddhism.