Meditation Now or Never [Paperback]

Steve Hagen (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 28, 2007

National bestselling author and teacher Steve Hagen strips away the cultural and religious jargon surrounding meditation and provides an accessible and thorough manual for newcomers and experienced practitioners alike. Inside you will find:

• Simple practices to avoid needlessly complicating meditation
• Where most of us get stuck in meditation—and how to get unstuck
• A unique focus on meditation not simply as a spiritual technique, but as a way of living

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Zen priest Hagen, author of Buddhism Plain and Simple and Buddhism Is Not What You Think, offers a brief and wonderfully accessible primer on meditation, which can be a surprisingly difficult practice for many beginners. He helpfully defines meditation via negativa: meditation is not a self-help program, a quick fix, a mind-training technique or a way to relax before jumping right back into the fray of our busy lives. It's a lifelong practice that can, and should, seep into every arena of the quotidian, so that when we're attentively folding laundry or taking out the trash, we're doing meditation. It involves teaching the mind just to be here, says Hagen. Three dozen microchapters are organized into sections on getting started, establishing a daily practice and doing meditation for the long run. While there are a few black-and-white illustrations to get readers to try seated meditation in different postures, Hagen emphasizes that it's also okay to sit in a chair (without slouching), stand, walk barefoot or even lie down. The key is to be constant, meditating at precisely the same time every day and allowing the mind to settle into the present. Meditation isn't something we apply to our life, Hagen insists. Rather, we take it up as our life. (Sept.)
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Review

“I wish I had found such a book when I began meditating.” (Stephen Levine author of A Gradual Awakening)

“A lucid, no-frills introduction to Buddhist meditation …[and] a timely reminder of what meditation is all about.” (Stephen Batchelor, author of Buddhism without Beliefs)

“A brief and wonderfully accessible primer on meditation...” (Publishers Weekly)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne (August 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061143294
• ISBN-13: 978-0061143298
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 7.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #85,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steve Hagen is a Zen priest and long-time teacher of Buddhism. For fifteen years he studied with Zen Master Dainin Katagiri. He lives in Minneapolis and teaches at Dharma Field Meditation and Learning Center in St. Paul.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Mediation Plain & Simple April 7, 2008

By deb

Format:Paperback

Gentle prying apart of common preconceptions of meditation. Practical explanation of what meditation is and is not, what you can discover there, how to get started and how to keep coming back every day.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars nuts and bolts of meditation August 28, 2009

By William J.

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

"Meditation Now or Never" strips down the misconceptions of meditation and gets down to the "nuts and bolts" of the practice. A wonderful book that stesses what meditation is and not what it does. A must for anyone who wants to understand the here and now.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Zen for Americans October 19, 2008

By D. Dzuryachko

Format:Paperback

This book is broken down into the most american understanding of meditation of any book I have read so far. My power of "here and now" has advanced by leaps and bounds.