Customer Reviews

Five Classic Meditations

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
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This is a short and fairly broad overview of the most common meditation practices. They are mostly derived from the Theraveda Buddhist tradition, but they are nicely packaged for people embracing a Western paradigm.

This CD takes a very practical, straightforward and easy to understand approach. However, it provides enough detail that the practices are useful and you can get a good foundation in them.

The two major practices presented here are breath meditation and Metta or loving-kindness meditation. The loving-kindness meditation deviates from tradition, but it is a very effective and imaginative approach that is a good stepping stone toward a more traditional practice. In short, it's effective and the adaptations are meant to help Westerner's connect with the loving energy inside their hearts. In this, I believe the author was successful.

The other exercises on this CD are not introduced in enough depth to really be able to practice them in other than a superficial way. I don't find this a major shortcoming, however, because even developing breath meditation and loving-kindness meditation is a long-term project. Also, Mr. Young captures the spirit and basics of the other practice and in this sense it is "value added" material.

In my opinion, the Metta is so well done and practical for the average person that it warrants the cost of the CD. It also does a good job of presenting breath meditation which is the foundation for other concentration practices.

If you look under my profile, you will see a list of other meditation resources. I teach meditation and my line of work is in integral psychology which looks at the study of psychology from within the perspective of the world's wisdom traditions. Therefore, I am well read in the meditation literature, see clients on a regular basis and have a better than average perspective on what is available in this area. As a meditation teacher, I also have a good sense of what is appropriate for a beginner which is the target audience for this CD.

Audiotapes are a great way to learn meditation. Much better than a book. All you have to do is close your eyes and follow instructions. I've listened to many meditation-training tapes and Shinzen Young's is my favorite because you learn not only WHAT to do, but WHY you're doing it and what you can expect for results. And he makes everything clear and simple.

Although Young has had extensive training in Buddhist meditation in Japan, he is a born-American and can speak to our needs as Westerners in a modern society. He has successfully stripped away the merely ornamental aspects of meditation and delivers only the essential and fundamental.

Shinzen Young has not only been trained in Buddhist practices in the East, but is an accomplished scholar and successful businessman in the West. He has a practical mind and a lucid way of teaching...If you would like to learn to meditate, or if you want to deepen your practice, Five Classic Meditations contains the kind of teaching that can really help.

Mr. Young is an inspiring teacher, but this tape sounds like it was speeded up to fit on one cassette. He talks so fast that it rather negates the calming intent of meditation. Mr. Young, if you're out there, expand it to two tapes or cut it.

This is my second exposure the Shinzen Young's talks on meditation. My first one was Meditation in the Zone, which I used often during my morning jogs. Among the various meditation tapes that I've listen to, this CD gave the clearest explanation of the variety of meditation techniques, each with a different purpose. It also explains a bit about the origins of these classic meditation techniques. For each technique, there is a lecture followed by a guided meditation. While this is a lot of material to cover in only one CD, I find the variety to be very refreshing. It helps me to appreciate the richness of meditation practices by different parts of the world throughout the centuries.

This is an extremely brief overview of various meditations. I was expecting five guided meditations that would be about 20 minutes each. If you just want the overview then this is a great place to start but I would look for your meditations in other places.