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An Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation

• endlessvoid94 18y ago
  I can recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Plain-English-Updated-Expanded/dp/0861713214 http://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Plain-English-Updated-Expa... "Mindfulness in Plain English" It's a great book that is easy to read and explains why and how.
  • chaosmachine 18y ago
    I was about to say the same thing. The entire book is available online, for free: http://mail.saigon.com/~anson/ebud/mfneng/mind0.htm http://mail.saigon.com/~anson/ebud/mfneng/mind0.htm
  • programnature 18y ago
    That book is amazingly clear and concise. Its all about algorithms. Buddhism is truly the religion of computation.
  • dhimes 18y ago
    I have the un-updated-and-expanded edition, and it is excellent. So is Buddhism Plain and Simple http://www.amazon.com/Buddhism-Plain-Simple-Steve-Hagen/dp/0767903323/ http://www.amazon.com/Buddhism-Plain-Simple-Steve-Hagen/dp/0...
    • sandal 18y ago
      Both of these books are great. After those, the book "Seeking the Heart of Wisdom" is recommended for those who want more of the whole picture.
• eduardoflores 18y ago
  I'd recommend http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Mind-Beginners-Shambhala-Library/dp/1590302672 http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Mind-Beginners-Shambhala-Library/d... (begginer's mind there are many possibilities, on the expert's, few) And this for creativity and zen: http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Creativity-Cultivating-Your-Artistic/dp/0345466330 http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Creativity-Cultivating-Your-Artist...
  • gps408 18y ago
    Also Hardcore Zen http://www.amazon.com/Hardcore-Zen-Monster-Movies-Reality/dp/086171380X/ http://www.amazon.com/Hardcore-Zen-Monster-Movies-Reality/dp... and Brad Warner's blog http://hardcorezen.blogspot.com/ http://hardcorezen.blogspot.com/
• jmtame 18y ago
  I also recommend binaural beats. Look up "Mindwave" on your iPhone, it's $1.99 but it's really good.
  • justlearning 18y ago
    white noise (set to your liking) really helps. url:http://www.simplynoise.com/ http://www.simplynoise.com/ If you prefer something more flexible, sbagen is a freeware binaural beat generator. you can create your own(and risk?) or use several beats generated for you. There are about 40 beats just for focusing url: http://uazu.net/sbagen/ http://uazu.net/sbagen/
• miles 18y ago
  If you're into this sort of thing, I highly recommend Goenka's 10 day Vipassana retreat: http://www.dhamma.org/ http://www.dhamma.org/ I did the course in Kyoto years ago (there are locations worldwide: http://www.dhamma.org/en/alphalist.shtml http://www.dhamma.org/en/alphalist.shtml ). The entire 10 days you do nothing more than watch your breath. First 6 or 7 days are hell, the remaining days are heaven. Just need some time for the dust to settle. The entire course, accommodations, and meals are offered completely free of charge. They won't even accept a donation until you've experienced the course. Even then, there was no overt push to collect money from participants. They ask you to leave your existing practices at the door, and offer no new dogmas other than watching your breath/mind. I haven't been back to another course or otherwise involved with the group since then, but it had a profound impact on my life.
  • kolya3 18y ago
    Can you talk more about your experience? How are the last 3 days "heaven"? What was the "profound impact" on your life?
    • Hexstream 18y ago
      We might not have words for what he'd like to say.
      • Eliezer 18y ago
        So invent and define new words. Where do you think words come from in the first place? No, seriously, before I spend ten days on anything I'd like to have some idea what the point is, even if the communication isn't perfect.
        • silentbicycle 18y ago
          While I haven't ever been on a several-day retreat, I meditate periodically, and the most fitting way I've heard it described is this: "You spend so much time trying to think that it's like clenching your fist all the time, and you've been doing it so long that your wrist is shaking and your knuckles are white and your arm is cramped and you don't even notice. You need to just stop, shake it out, and let it relax." I don't know whether doing a big blowout extreme retreat thing is worth it or not (I'm a bit wary of them being cult-ish), but meditating now and then really helps. It's a small and mundane-sounding thing, like flossing or getting enough sleep, but it adds up.
• zenlinux 18y ago
  I'm a big fan of the podcasts at zencast.org. Particularly those by Gil Fronsdal. He is a Vipassana teacher and gives talks in a very humble, down to earth manner.
  • bodhi 18y ago
    I'll agree with this. Gil has an incredible manner of speaking. Some of the other zencast podcasts have people that tend to lecture at you on their topic, whereas Gil just seems to draw you in to the way he leads his life, warts and all. I actually miss my one-hour commute (now a 5-minute bike ride) that gave me time to listen to him.
• mtalantikite 18y ago
  The article mentions Thanissaro Bhikkhu aka Geoffry DeGraff in the beginning and links to some of his writings. His Dhamma talks are also freely available at http://dhammatalks.org/ http://dhammatalks.org/ for anyone interested. Just be careful, I lost three close friends to the monastic life because of his teachings -- two are monks with Ajaan Geoff at his monastery outside San Diego, another is ordained at a monastery out in the jungle in Thailand. Never thought I'd run into Ajaan Geoff on Hacker News.
• ZeroGravitas 18y ago
  Meditation is pretty interesting stuff. For those put off by the spiritual or new age aspects of meditation, try The Relaxation Response. http://www.relaxationresponse.org/steps/ http://www.relaxationresponse.org/steps/ http://www.relaxationresponse.org/howto.htm http://www.relaxationresponse.org/howto.htm It's trancendental meditation boiled down to the basics and demystified by a Harvard MD.
• ellyagg 18y ago
  > This is what Thanissaro Bhikkhu, a renowned Buddhist meditation teacher, calls "getting the body into position." "In order to do a sit-up, lie flat on your back with your knees at a 45 degree angle. This is what Jane Fonda calls 'getting the body into position.'" No kidding? What else would you call it?
  • alyssumclimbs 18y ago
    Next paragraph: "The hard part is what comes next: getting the mind into position . . ." Get it?
• nihilocrat 18y ago
  For those wondering, the use of a meditation cushion and a proper posture is to make it comfortable to sit upright (not slouch) for long periods of time. It's important and shouldn't be thought of as just sitting down.
• zupatol 18y ago
  Meditation is something I would like to try. Recently I went to a zen dojo to try. They sit on this zafu cushion in a position I am not flexible enough to do. Even trying half of the position hurt incredibly. But the worst part was after the meditation, when one of the students asked a question to the master. The master then talked for a very long time, digressing on different parts of his life, mocking his students, and boasting about his superiority, which he tried to demonstrate by misquoting all sorts of people. I wondered if listening to the master was also pain the students are supposed to overcome. I won't go back there. I'll have to try meditation somewhere else.
  • silentbicycle 18y ago
    You can stretch and acclimate your knees to the sitting position, unless you have a major existing medical condition or something. It comes with time. The next thing that will come up is that zazen can be incredibly boring. (It is.) But it helps. Also, sometimes people considered authority figures act like dicks. Sometimes people cut their authority figures slack because they're "enlightened", or whatever.
• radu_floricica 18y ago
  It's interesting to see all the opinions here. I recently found a zen (soto zen) dojo in Bucharest, to my great surprise. The last weekend I attended a short "retreat" there. Mostly my experience fits with what I read here. Overall it was fine, and I will continue going there. Probably my biggest problem is that I finally understand and feel the difference between atheism and agnosticism. I am atheist, zen is agnosting. That is, it really doesn't care what religion (if any) you have. In practice this means people will be occasionally talking about "positive energy" and "negative energy". It's mostly small talk though, and the teacher was reasonably... well actually emphatically neutral. As for the regular meetings, they are much cleaner. It's just "hello" and small talk, then you sit, then "good bye" without small talk. I did learn a lot of tips about correct posture and I got a proper pillow, stuff I could not learn on my own. So even if you don't plan to join a dojo, a few visits are probably very useful. Edit: Oh yes, another thing that somewhat irked me. It took me a long time to put my finger on it, but there was too little self deprecating humor in the teacher's talks. Sue me, but this is how I felt.
• solutionyogi 18y ago
  In Feb, I took Part 1 course of Art of Living (AoL). http://artofliving.org http://artofliving.org In AoL, they teach you what they call 'Sudarshan Kriya'. It's a breathing technique which helps you in variety of ways. I originally took the course because I was very stressed and my friends recommended the course so that I can learn how to deal with stress. I can definitely say that the particular breathing technique helped me a lot and I can say without reservation that my stress has reduced drastically. What I like about Sudarshan Kriya is that it is a very practical technique. It's very easy to follow and as you do Sudarshan Kriya regularly, your breathing capacity and your ability to focus on breathing will increase. Sudarshan Kriya helps you slip in to meditation much more easily. I highly recommend taking the Art of Living course.
  • justlearning 18y ago
    I wish I could downvote. I rarely post,so don't have the karma. A friend and I went for a free seminar by Sri Sri himself and had to sit through the parody of meditation and acted humour, which the paid patrons enjoy. He evaded questions from everyone and all he 'preached' was to join this course and not one person(outside their organization) I met afterwards told me anything positive. It's a good way to loot you of 400usd. I have my first cousins who attended the course and told me firsthand about the "materialistic" association related to this course.[for instance, you are told not to worry about money by a person who worked as a banker(made his money) and now is a spokesman, then you are told to put in more money and rope in more people for this course by 'volunteering" ]
    • solutionyogi 18y ago
      I up voted you because I completely agree with your points. I have attended Sri Sri meet-up once and I did feel that the humor was forced and all the attendants were still laughing. Also most of what Sri Sri talked that day didn't make any sense to me. Let me give you an example. This is what Sri Sri said: 'Everything is nothing' and then harped about it for next 15 mins. When I learned that course fee was 350$, I wasn't really inclined to attend the course. But I was so desperate for solutions to my problems, I decided to give it a shot. And I can safely say that I learned a lot and it helped me tremendously. Later on, I wanted to attend another course and the fees were 450$. At that time, I and my friend spoke to the course organizer and complained about the high fees. They say that this money goes to the charity effort and there is nothing he can do. Anyway, I could afford the fee and attended the second course as well. Personally, I don't agree with the 'forceful' charity and few other things, but that doesn't discount the fact that the actual techniques they teach, are very useful. If you can afford the course fee, it's worth giving a shot. The bottomline for me is, there is a definite connection between breath and mind. I highly recommend experiencing this connection regardless of the route you choose.
• justlearning 18y ago
  A bit off topic, but related: There have been many complaining about the pain in sitting. I am not a meditation expert, I have had numbness to my legs after 20 mins of sitting and I tried Kneeling- sitting such that, your balls of the feet touches your butt and the bottom part of the feet is completely parallel to the floor. (http://media.wiley.com/assets/6/99/0-7645-5116-7_0703.jpg http://media.wiley.com/assets/6/99/0-7645-5116-7_0703.jpg) why? this forces you to have a natural posture i.e. keeps your spine in its natural state, thus prolonging your meditation time. But, don't wear any footwear. PS: I found the image doing a google search, this link is hotlinked to a "meditation for dummies", where there are more postures described. I won't post it here and make it messy. I trust your knowledge in doing a google search!
  • khafra 18y ago
    It depends on your anatomy. I have a pronounced negative camber to my shins, so kneeling like that puts almost all my weight on my metatarals. Unfortunately, my hips aren't flexible enough to allow sitting crosslegged, either, so standing, laying, and walking meditation are about it for me. Some systems of meditation I've encountered encourage experimentation to find a posture that works for you.
• k0n2ad 18y ago
  Zen is wonderful. In my opinion, a mindfulness or meditation program shouldn't just have a profound impact on your life - it should make your life start to have a profound impact on you! I highly recommend the following books, which really help you chew through the layers of expectations, belief and doubt when it comes to Buddhism (and in particular, Zen): http://www.amazon.com/Ending-Pursuit-Happiness-Zen-Guide/dp/0861715535/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241186153&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Ending-Pursuit-Happiness-Zen-Guide/dp/... http://www.amazon.com/Buddhism-without-Beliefs-Stephen-Batchelor/dp/1573226564/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241186214&sr=1-2 http://www.amazon.com/Buddhism-without-Beliefs-Stephen-Batch...