Meditation Made Easy [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Lorin Roche (Author, Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 1998

“I prefer it to any other guide, including the one I wrote.” - James Fadiman, Ph.D., author of Personality and Personal GrowthMeditation: It's Easier than you think.

You've probably heard about the benefits of meditation: Sharper thinking, reduced stress, improved concentration, lower blood pressure, even increased sexual pleasure. So what's holding you back? Perhaps you don't see yourself signing up with a guru. Or twisting yourself into a lotus position while repeating a mantra. Or spending hours trying to let go of desire and empty your mind. But what if meditating were as easy and pleasurable as eating a dish of ice cream? In this uniquely accessible guide, Lorin Roche proves that meditation is that easy'and even more enjoyable.

Discover how to:

•Get started with mini-meditations that can be integrated into spare moments throughout the day.

•Overcome meditation obstacles such as boredom, distractions, racing thoughts, and the pressure to “do it right.”

•Develop a customized practice that will become as natural and vital to you as breathing.

Read on one cassette by the author.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"This is come-as-you-are meditation," writes Lorin Roche in Meditation Made Easy. Roche, a meditation trainer for 30 years, knows how to make the uninitiated feel at ease. He debunks the stereotype that you have to follow monastic rules: you don't have to sit still, or empty your mind, or overcome your ego. "Meditation is about being intimate with your deepest self," so imposing techniques and formalities that don't fit you will just interfere. Meditation should be "a direct response to sensing some need in your body or heart ... a pleasurable indulgence ... a mini-vacation." Roche discusses the basics in a warm, friendly, question-and-answer chapter, and then teaches the stages of "getting in" to a meditation. Varied techniques and exercises let you explore what works for you. "Going Deeper" shows you how to turn details of everyday experience--such as drinking coffee--into a mini-meditation. For fun, check out "How to Make Yourself Miserable in Meditation"--for example, "Use a mantra that grates on your nerves"; "Worry about whether your chakras are balanced"; "Choose a tradition that reminds you of the worst aspects of your childhood." This book not only teaches you how to meditate; it makes the process easy and enjoyable. --Joan Price --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"I prefer it to any other giude, including the one I wrote." -- -- James Fadiman, Ph.D., author of Personality and Personal growth

"Inviting, wise, funny, affirming, and marvelously informed." -- -- Belleruth Naperstek, author of Your Sixth Sense and creator of the Health Journeys audiotape series

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: HarperAudio; Abridged edition (November 4, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0694520691
• ISBN-13: 978-0694520695
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,556,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > Books on Cassette > Health, Mind & Body > Relaxation & Meditation

More About the Author

Now 59, Lorin has been meditating since age 18, when he signed up to be part of a research project on the physiology of meditation. He was a control subject, and received no instructions whatsoever they wanted him to just sit in a totally dark, soundproofed room in the lab for two hours a day for several weeks, and measure his brain waves. With no instructions, and never having heard of meditation, Lorin just paid attention to the total silence and darkness, and spontaneously entered entered a state of intense alertness. A few months later, someone handed him a little book describing 112 meditation practices, and he realized that he had experienced many of them while sitting in the lab.

This experience made it clear that meditation is a spontaneous and natural human experience, and that there are many doorways into meditation. After the experiment was over, people began asking Lorin to teach simple meditation practices as part of scientific studies and university classes. One thing led to another, and soon Lorin was running his own College-within-the University, called Experiential Workshops, which offered classes in meditation, Tai Chi, Structural Integration Movement Awareness, Yoga, Dance Meditation, Art Meditation, and Gestalt Body Awareness.

Lorin was born in 1949 and grew up in Southern California, in little beach towns such as Ventura, Malibu and Dana Point, which in the 1950's, 60's and 70's were middle-class and unpretentious. Both his parents were surfers and members of the San Onofre Surfing Club from the 1940's on, and took him into the ocean before he could walk.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, December 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Meditation Made Easy (Paperback)

So many meditation books are trapped in the eastern traditions which they come from that it is difficult for an atheist like myself to get past all of the superficial trappings in order to gain anything from them. This book is different from any other meditation book I have ever read. The author is smart enough to realize that the trappings are unnecessary. He also presents a new side to meditation by explaining that meditation is a wonderfully sensual experience to be enjoyed for its own sake. I like this book a lot. I have been reading it a few pages at a time and enjoying it very much. If you are looking for a book on how to meditate which is very friendly to Westerners and the non-religious, this is very good.

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best book on the subject by far, February 14, 2000

By 

Andy Todes - See all my reviews

This review is from: Meditation Made Easy (Paperback)

best book? big claim, i know. but then again i've read several of 'em, tried several of 'em, and you know what? they all failed to convey the sheer joy of meditation. not this book, however. not by a long way. within a couple of days of merely starting the book i was craving my next meditation session. craving it. and enjoying it way way beyond what i had come to expect. meditation is not hard work. it's not work at all. this book has such a wonderful attitude. is useful. and totally indispensible. thank you, lorin.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the world's finest meditation teachers., October 5, 2002

By 

Wild Justice (NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Meditation Made Easy (Paperback)

Is it possible to write a fun, easy, yet technically brilliant meditation book? After reading, "Meditation Made Easy," the answer is a simple and a resounding, "Yes."

Roche has pulled off something amazing here: simple, powerful guidance COMBINED WITH elegant, common-sense sophistication. (Which brings to mind that wonderful aphorism, "There's nothing common about common sense.")

In other words, there's a precision to Roche's description of meditation techniques that far surpasses other writers and meditation teachers. The language he uses is irresistible; it becomes part of your thinking, spicing and invigorating your own personal meditation, and  this is the point  MAKING IT YOUR OWN.

The beauty of "Meditation Made Easy" is that Roche relates his points to everyday, earthy experience, so that they seem obvious. But they weren't obvious until he pointed them out.

Reading his book with pen in hand, you'll experience over and over those "Aha!" moments of clarity: "Aha! I finally get it! That's how it is for me. Funny I never saw it that way until now ..."

You won't be the only one getting it.

Meditators are finally catching on to Roche. Not to mention meditation (and yoga) teachers.

Over the last couple of years, especially, I've seen Roche's words on the instinctive naturalness and subtle sensuality of meditation, come into use by other writers. (Who else is making meditation this fun, this healthy, and this sexy?)

Keep your (third) eye on Lorin Roche. Grab this book today.