Customer Reviews

Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I loved that the book is really written from a Western perspective. Allows the reluctant mediator (like me) to approach the topic from many different angles. This book helped moditvate me to meditate more regularly. Explains the paradox of meditation (i.e. the goal is to give up the goal) better than any book I've ever read.

I picked up this book after a professor read excerpts from it out loud in a class. I was taken with the author's wit and writing skill. This is an absolutely essential guide to meditation, great for beginners, advanced students, and folks like me who are just interested. Very clear, entertaining, lots of antecdotes. Not a dry tome by any means, but not a frivelous book either. It does get to be a bit repetitive at times, but otherwise, well done!

I am one of those people who wish it was easier to sit for an hour a day. I am one of those who is struggling to motivate myself to pursue what I have come to believe is an essential part of my life. This book is one that constantly makes my efforts and my struggles easier and keeps me motivated. I just wish I could do justice to this author's efforts in sharing what he has had the good furtune to have gained. I have given my copy of this book away on a few occasions just to replace it with yet another copy soon after. If you are a meditation enthusiast, make sure this book is on your bookshelf, if not right next to you, always.

This book is wonderful. Rosenberg's approach to meditation and Buddhism comes without the baggage of superstition and folklore that attach themselves to some books on these topics. Rosenberg offers not only basic instruction, but a path for advancing one's practice through the various contemplative steps beyond that, using the anapanasati sutra. I also love the fact that his background is from the East Coast of the U.S., and Jewish. I get a little tired of the condescending attitude toward Westerners from some of the more traditional Eastern authors and teachers. Rosenberg doesn't have a built-in cultural bias toward the East, and is clearly an experienced, dedicated and wise teacher with a sense of humor. I'm usually too cheap to buy the hard-back version of any book (sorry, Amazon), but this one's hard-back, and I'm glad for it because it's a keeper.

The Anapanasati Sutra is the simplest of the several teachings of the Buddha on mindfulness and meditation. In many ways it is the very basis of the Vapassana tradition and the core of Insight Meditation. Mr. Rosenberg does not get carried away with this teaching, but approaches the sutra in a traditional manner. Of the many meditation books I have read, including better known Insight Meditation books, this is the easiest to understand and follow. Mr. Rosenberg is a very experienced teacher of this approach to meditation and the book shows it.

This was the only Dharma book I took on a self-guided meditation retreat last winter. I am now on my third reading of it and I am finding it as helpful now as the first time. If you are interested in a basic approach to Insight Meditation and a clear description of the Buddha's most elementary teaching on meditation, this is for you. I give this my highest recommendation.

This is an excellent introductory book for any meditation student, but it particularly well suited to a serious beginner.
The book is targeted to a Western audience and presents the essential concepts of Insight Meditation using the Apapanasati Sutra and the practices of the Theravada tradition as a framework.

I feel this book goes into more depth than most popular books on the subject, but it is still very readable and contains a wealth of information. It is also contains essential Pali definitions without getting bogged down in too many Pali terms or esoteric language. He is also very clear in his explanations and complete in terms of presenting the important concepts.

For an even deeper dive, try Mindfulness with Breathing by Buddhadasa Bhikku. This is a more difficult read, but well worth the effort. In fact, Larry Rosenberg based a lot of his book on his contact with this meditation master and he references him in his bibliography. Rosenberg also wrote the forward to Mindfulness with Breathing. In short, I think both books are complimentary and together form a comprehensive introduction.

Insight (Mindfulness) Meditation - the Vipassana Meditation of Theravada Buddhism - can change your life whether you are Buddhist or not, and this is one of three books that can take you there. To get acquainted with this excellent meditation method and for lots of inspiration to try it, start with "Wherever You Go, There You Are" by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Then, to learn more about just how to do it, move on to "Mindfulness in Plain English" by Henepola Gunaratana. Now you're ready for the Big Leagues of Mindfulness - Larry Rosenberg's outstanding book, "Breath by Breath: the Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation". He takes the potentially complex topic of how to do this meditation just as the Buddha taught it, and explains the entire Anapanasati (Mindfulness with Breathing) method in a way that Westerners can understand and relate to.

I've practiced Insight Meditation for more than a decade, and have accumulated a pretty good library of books on Buddhism and on Meditation. Larry Rosenberg's book - which I've read and re-appreciated several times - is one of the last ones I'd be willing to part with.

Larry is an extremely experienced and mature mediation teacher. He understands meditation to be a whole life activity, a way to understand being a human -- the way to make sense out of our lives. This book is the result of many years of teaching students how to develop a Buddhist practice which is almost non-sectarian in it's simplicity. Finally his teachings are in book form, long overdue. Now more students can benifit from his wisdom.

Much impressed by the technical (and I mean that as a complement) detail. So many meditation books are wishy-washy. This is not. It is experiential and practical. Much impressed by the discussion of mindfulness in action - that the mindfulness of breathing during daily action is not something seperate from the persons actions, but simultaneous. (Those interested in Gurdjeiff may draw analogies with the similar split attention involved in Selfremembering.)

A must read for anyone who wants to take their meditation practice further. Larry explains indepth how to use the breath to be in the moment. Humor and real life stories help convey this wonderful technique. Whether a bigger, like me, or a meditator of many years, you will benefit by reading this book.