Meditation for Beginners Author: Jack Kornfield | Language: English | ISBN:
B00341851I | Format: EPUB
Meditation for Beginners Description
NOTE: The ebook does not contain the spoken-word audio component included in the original printed edition.
Have you ever thought about trying meditation, but didn't know how to get started? With Meditation for Beginners, trusted teacher Jack Kornfield shows you how simple it is to start-and stick with-a daily meditation practice.
"Insight" or vipassana meditation is the time-honored skill of calming the spirit and clearing the mind for higher understanding. Now, in this course created especially for beginners, Kornfield offers a straightforward, step-by-step method for bringing meditation into your life.
Using the meditations included in this book, you will discover how easy it is to use your breath, physical sensations-and even difficult emotions-to create tranquility and lovingkindness in your everyday life. These simple, elegant practices are so easy to learn that you will begin enjoying the benefits immediately-while laying the foundation for a lifetime of inner discovery and awakening.
Table of Contents:
Chapter One: The Ancient Art of Meditation
Chapter Two: Why Meditate?
Chapter Three: The Benefits of Meditation Practice
Chapter Four: Meditation 1: Connecting with the Breath
Chapter Five: Meditation 2: Working With Sensations in the Body
Chapter Six: Meditation 3: Working With Feelings and Emotion
Chapter Seven: Meditation 4: Witnessing Your Thoughts
Chapter Eight: Meditation 5: Forgiveness Meditation
Chapter Nine: Meditation 6: Loving Kindness Meditation
Chapter Ten: Meditation 7: An Eating Meditation
Chapter Eleven: Meditation 8: A Walking Meditation
Chapter Twelve: Meditation and Social Responsibility
Chapter Thirteen: How to Cultivate a Daily Meditation Practice
Excerpt:
Meditation for Beginners offers the central trainings and teachings found in the best Buddhist monasteries translated for Western society. In Meditation for Beginnings, you will find some of the simplest and most universal of the practices of meditation-in particular, the practices of mindfulness and lovingkindness.
The point of these teachings has nothing to do with becoming a Buddhist, or learning any Eastern ceremonies or rituals or bowing. The point is that you learn how to work with meditation in order to find benefits from it in your life. When we take time to quiet ourselves, we can all sense that our lives could be lived with greater compassion and greater wakefulness. To meditate is to support this inner potential and allow it to come forth into our lives.
- File Size: 153 KB
- Print Length: 106 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1591799422
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00341851I
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,179 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #11
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > Buddhism > Rituals & Practice - #23
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Meditation
- #11
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > Buddhism > Rituals & Practice - #23
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Meditation
I have been a practicing Yogi for many years and have a library full of books, videos, tapes and CD's on Yoga, meditation, sprituality and the like.
This program by Jack Kornfield (available as a video as well as audio) is the best single place I can think of starting from if you want to begin a meditation practice..
Jack Kornfield is a perfect teacher of meditation, especially for Westerners because he approaches it in a non-sectarian way. He gets to the heart of the practice, uses clear explanations and stories to give the listener/viewer some sense of the depth of the practice. He leads the meditations in a way that gives enough guidance without becoming a distraction. He also has a very soothing voice which enhances the overall experience of the program.
The program starts with the most basic form of meditation on the breath, and leads through ever slightly more subtle forms of Vipassana Meditation.
Very Highly Recommended!
Some other related meditation programs I would highly recommend are: Plum Village Meditations w/ Thich Nhat Hanh and Sister Jina which are guided Meditations. I have been using this tape for about 7 years daily. I use it during the day prior to lunch to renew myself for the rest of the day.
Stephen Cope's "Yoga For Emotional Flow" which has 2 CD's, the 1st CD is about Yoga Philosophy and the 2nd has guided practices which I find very helpful in my life. Also check out his book "Yoga and The Quest for the True Self" which is contains the ideas of the 1st CD in an in depth manner, one of the best books I've ever read (and I'm re-reading it for the 3rd time).
I like this DVD because it's a good introduction for people who have never meditated and for people who might not be the typical audience for such topics.
Jack Kornfield was a monk in Thailand, but is also a Western clinical psychologist. He approaches introducing people to meditation very gently and from a practical standpoint. While it is clear he is committed to a Buddhist path, he presents meditation in an unbiased, impartial and often humorous manner.
While the guided meditations aren't particularly long or deep, they give the listener a good taste of what meditation is about without making it seem esoteric. There are also some very nice stories on the DVD, which is worth getting just for this reason.
Something that distracts from the DVD is the timing and volume of bells sounding. Here and there this is bordering on corny, but I didn't find it a problem in any MAJOR way. It doesn't change the credibility of the core message or value of the instruction.
The biggest strength of this DVD is Jack Kornfield's ability to tell stories and use powerful analogies. For example, he compares "training the attention" to house breaking a puppy! He says, you gently bring the attention back to the breath as you would bring a puppy back to a newspaper and you do this over and over again patiently. You don't kick or beat the puppy and you don't judge yourself for letting your mind wander! I found this to be a very clever and useful analogy.
In my opinion, this is not Jack Kornfield's best work. However, it's a good resource for a lot of people. My favorite Jack Kornfield book is "A Path with Heart" and my favorite recorded material is your "Buddha Nature.
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