Customer Reviews

Calming the Mind: Tibetan Buddhist Teaching on Cultivating Meditative Quiescence

5 star:		(3)
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This book is a guide to the development of tranquil abiding/meditative quiescence/samatha as taught in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. There is really nothing new here that cannot be found in standard lamrim texts, but the subject matter is fleshed out somewhat in a fairly nice fashion. Its main drawback stems from the conception of the book, which is just a reworking of a series of talks the author gave to a group of Westerners at the beginning of a year-long meditation retreat aimed at developing tranquil abiding. As such, some of what it has to say may not apply to the reader. Also, it will not address some of the peculiar problems any reader might encounter if they themselves set out to do such a retreat. Those wishing to develop tranquil abiding themselves will need to do their own retreat under the guidance of a teacher, but perhaps this book could prove useful by giving them the bare outlines of what it is they are to do and why. An added bonus is the gorgeous tangka on the cover.

So much fluffy stuff has been written about meditation in recent years that it can sometimes be difficult to even know what the word means. This book, through clear language and concise instruction, blows any fuzziness about what meditation is, how to do it, and what to expect from the practice competely away.

Based on a series of instructional lectures and Q&A sessions at a meditation retreat, Calming the Mind is one of the best manuals that a student of Buddhist (or any other spiritual tradition) meditation is likely to find. The lama's straight forward descriptions remove some of the mystification that seems endemic to some other instructional works without oversimplifying what is called for.

Highly recommended for any serious student of internal spiritual development.

Shamatha meditation, a Tibetan name for all meditations that settle, focus, and concentrate the mind, is not unique to Buddhism. In fact in many ways part of Buddhism's fresh approach is that it took this particular kind of meditation and in a sense "secularized" it - essentially removing some of the religious symbolism and esoterism that surrounded the development of concentration in India. Shamatha meditation is unique in that it's "contentless" and provides the foundation for all other religious practices.

This is the most clear, to the point, methodical guide to shamatha meditation I've read. The type of meditation discussed in this book is referred to as calm abiding, meditative quiescence, or shamatha. It involves the elimination of discursive thought within the mind and the related process of developing the ability to focus on an object without distraction. The most common object for beginning meditators is the breath. This text is collected from a few of Gen Lamrimpa's oral instructions, but the presentation is very traditional and easy to follow. This is definitely a book I'll come back to again and again to clarify certain points or to improve my meditation practice. Highly recommended.