Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond: A Meditator's Handbook [Paperback]

Ajahn Brahm (Author), Jack Kornfield (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2006

“Better than sex!” That's how Ajahn Brahm describes meditation, and his enthusiasm is contagious. A self-described meditation junkie, Brahm, the author of the popular Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?, shares his recipe for bliss in this practical, energizing new book. The Meditator’s Handbook is a complete, stem-to-stern guide to the subject, with precise step-by-step instructions for traversing the stages of practice and overcoming obstacles. Drawing on his working-class roots, Brahm explains difficult concepts clearly and easily, so that beginners understand them, while those who already meditate gain new insight. Full of surprises, delightfully goofy humor, and entertaining stories that inspire, instruct, and illuminate, The Meditator’s Handbook encourages novices and gives a shot in the arm to more experienced practitioners.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Most Buddhist writers are not often lighthearted or zesty, but the British-born monk Ajahn Brahm is a delightful exception. Even though meditators are taught to not expect anything, since that represents an attachment, meditation should bring you joy and bliss, according to Brahm. The bliss states of meditation (jhanas) are little-taught, so this book is an addition with value in a crowded niche. Trained in the Thai forest tradition by the Buddhist master Ajahn Chah, Brahm is a clear communicator of the ineffable. He is able to write about a variety of mental states and visualizations with precision and discrimination, drawing on his own experience. He is step-by-step systematic, which helps demystify what happens in meditation. Also useful is the specificity with which he describes the kinds of problems meditators encounter and what to do to resolve them. Meditation is difficult to teach on the page, but Brahm, who began life as an academic at Cambridge, fulfills his calling as teacher. He projects both energetic conviction and calm equanimity. The promise of bliss he describes in this excellent manual is elusive, but remains a compelling goal. (Sept.)
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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Wisdom Publications; annotated edition edition (August 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0861712757
• ISBN-13: 978-0861712755
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The REAL guide from the REAL deal in meditation, September 17, 2006

By 

Sean Hoade (Las Vegas, Nevada USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond: A Meditator's Handbook (Paperback)

For over thirty years, Ajahn Brahmavamso has been a monk in the Thai "forest tradition," a branch of Theravada Buddhism known for its strict adherence to both the spirit and the letter of the Buddha's teachings. Tibetan Buddhism is exotic and Zen is aesthetically pleasing, but for the meditation that led the Buddha himself to enlightenment, we must look to the Theravadans.

Now one of the best-known faces of Buddhism in the world (although just becoming known in the States), Ajahn Brahm is one of the most admired meditation teachers in the world, and this book shares EVERYTHING. You can take this book to your hut in the woods (or spare bedroom in your house) and work its plan to ultimate bliss.

I was lucky enough to meet Ajahn Brahm last year in Chicago at Transitions Book Place, when he was visiting in support of his book of teaching stories, Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung? (An excerpt from the interview with him appears below.) As wonderful and inspiring as his first book is, Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond is what we've all been waiting for, an encapsulation of the meditation wisdom Ajahn Brahm has cultivated since 1973.

If you're interested at all in what happiness comes from meditation, PLEASE do yourself a favor and read this book. It is everything I had hoped it would be -- and let me tell you, that was a tall order after meeting the writer himself!

Q. People call you "the Elvis of Buddhism," "the Seinfeld of Buddhism." They want to make you into a celebrity. Do you ever have difficulty reconciling that with being a monk--and not just a monk, but a forest monk, which is very different from living as a famous person?

A. You know, I think one of the first times when it really hit me is I was giving a talk in Singapore. There was a huge crowd of five thousand, cheering as if they were watching a basketball match or something. Huge crowd. In the front where I was sitting, I was just by myself on this huge stage. As I walked in, I thought, now what am I doing? But then I thought of my teacher, Ajahn Chah. I thought he would be very happy that I was spreading Dhamma to so many. So you never think of yourself; you think of your teachings. You think of what you're doing, rather than who's doing it. So you actually depersonalize everything.

Q. That's how you avoid the cult of personality?

A. [You get] where you can actually play the role without being the role, so you get up there and you can really connect with your audience. You can enjoy the interaction between yourself and five thousand [other people]. That way you are not shortchanging the Dhamma. Too often, people -- because they're concerned about their ego -- don't actually put themselves forward enough to be able to present the Dhamma in a beautiful way. Whatever you believe in, you just give it everything you've got, you go for broke. If you're going to talk to ten people, it might as well be ten thousand. It's the same as how I'm talking to you now. You just connect and just give a talk to the very best you can, and then off you go. So it's very powerful. If you've got a good teaching, then go out there and give it.

Q. Do you see yourself and your popularity as a vehicle for the Dhamma?

A. Sure, yeah, sure. I mean, when I started [as abbot and giving talks], I thought, "Well, I'll give it everything I've got. If it works, great. If it doesn't work, I can be a nice, peaceful, solitary monk." So you've got nothing to lose.

Q. It's funny. You almost have to disguise your useful teachings in an entertaining and funny way --

A. Packaging, that's what it is.

Q. -- but you're known for being totally scrupulous to the Vinaya. In the evening, you'll have orange juice while other people are having their steak dinners, things like that. That gives you a kind of authority that simply being a monk or an abbot doesn't necessarily confer, because there are scandals every day with religious figures.

A. That's correct, yeah.

Q. So what do you think that the Theravada tradition as practiced and taught by Western monastics has to offer that maybe the other traditions don't?

A. I think it's just clarity. Clarity and simplicity. That just shows that you can keep all your rules scrupulously without being uptight. If you see a person who really keeps those rules, they just so easily go along with it and they're just relaxed because it's one of those almost, like, koans of life--the more rules you keep, the more freedom you feel. People think, "Ah, if you keep precepts and you keep these rules, you feel just so enclosed. You can't go where you want. You can't do what you want." But [monastics] don't feel it that way at all. All these rules -- I can't do this, I can't do that -- seem so free and liberating.

Q. And part of the clarity of the Theravada is that there are not a lot of cultural accretions added to it.

A. That's right. Of all of the types of Buddhism, Theravada has been the least cultural and most international. [As] a Theravadin, I can go to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, and the other traditions -- old traditions and new traditions -- and know exactly what I'm doing. Like last night, I stayed in the Sri Lankan temple in Toronto. Tonight is in the Thai temple [in Chicago]. So you just fit in so easily. If you're a Theravadin monk or nun, it's like having a Diner's Club card or gold card, and you can go to any of these hotels called "monasteries" in the whole world and get free bed and board. [Laughs.] It's a great, great club to join.

89 of 105 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting But Be Careful..., March 4, 2007

By 

Gerald R. Johnson "GRJ" (Taipei, Taiwan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond: A Meditator's Handbook (Paperback)

Ajahn Brahm is certainly one of the most dynamic and charismatic Buddhist speakers nowadays. His Friday Night Dhamma talks and seminars have now gained worldwide acclaim and have even won over my mother. Indeed, along with Ajahn Sucitto and Jack Kornfield, Ajahn Brahm was one of the first masters I encountered when I was first introduced to Theravadan Buddhism. His talks have since provided me with a lot of inspiration over the years and have helped me through some very trying times. His previous book "Truckload of Dung" contains many of his jokes, stories and anecdotes that neatly illustrate the main aspects of Buddhism and is vintage Ajahn Brahm at his best.

I must confess, however, that I found his latest book "Mindfulness, Bliss..." along with his most recent Dhamma talks on enlightenment to be somewhat troubling, not necessarily in their content, but in their absolute tone or attitude towards Buddhist practice and enlightenment. While this book contains many useful insights and references about jhanas, his relentless and recurring insistence that experiencing and attaining jhanas is the only true way of achieving enlightenment, borders on the dogmatic and could be misleading especially for beginners in Dhamma practice.

His assertion that achieving or experiencing jhanas is either the best or only way to enlightenment flies in the face of other teachings by renowned meditation masters including more senior teachers such as Ajahn Sumedho and even his own teacher Ajahn Chah. The jhanic bliss or nimittas experienced during meditation should not be attached to, nor do they in themselves constitute enlightenment and nor are they a necessary or sufficient condition for enlightenment. Jhanas and nimittas are just concepts and conditions of the mind, possibly helpful along the path (indeed, they have been for me at certain times), BUT they are neither more nor less than that and do not constitute the sole purpose of meditation, nor are they the pinnacle of Buddhism nor do they represent the totality of Dhamma practice. Please read Ajahn Sumedho and Ajahn Chah on this subject.

As Ajahn Chah used to say, there are many roads to enlightenment and achieving deep jhanas is but one possible portal; however, danger lurks if one gets attached to these blissful states or if one becomes too eager to experience them and depressed if one doesn't. Then they can become a defilement and impede healthy spiritual development. Really, jhanas and nimittas just happen, if they happen at all.

Furthermore, the focus on discovering one's own past lives and reincarnations is yet another common spiritual red-herring found in this lastest book and a few of Ajahn Brahm's latest Dhamma talks (though curiously absent in his earlier talks). I find this a bit disappointing since one of the cornerstones of Buddhism is to be at ease with the Unknowable, to be fine with the Uncertain and not to waste too much time on the Speculative (such as past lives and reincarnations). This is really the realm of other more esoteric forms of Buddhism and New Age speculation. It's especially mystifying since Ajahn Brahm used to devote a considerable amount of his time alerting practioners to these dangers and advising them to put more practical effort into here-and-now mindfulness.

I also found it interesting that Ajahn Brahm uses a lot of heavy scriptural references to support his claims in this book (one wonders if Ajahn Sujato had a partial hand in ghost-writing this book) and yet he often dismisses reliance on scriptural references in his Friday Night Dhamma talks since "these scriptures weren't written by the Buddha anyway." If "Mindfulness, Bliss" were merely presented as an anectdotal reference, or simply as a shared experience or even as a "viewless view" of what can and might happen during meditation, I think it's usefulness would increase dramatically.

It is vital to carefully read Jack Kornfield's excellent foreward, a thinly veiled caveat, before immersing yourself in this book. Furthermore, if you are a beginner to Buddhism or meditation, to gain proper perspective on this subject, I'd strongly suggest reading a few classics before tackling this lastest from Ajahn Brahm:

Ajahn Chah - Food For The Heart
Ajahn Sumedho - The Mind And The Way
Jack Kornfield - A Path With Heart
Henepola Gunaratana - Eight Mindful Steps To Happiness

As the old Buddhist chesnut goes, "Never believe anything anyone tells you, not even the greatest and most famous master and not even the Buddha himself. Test it out for yourself."

3 stars for a thorough discussion of jhanas, minus 2 stars for the misleading tone of the book and the confusion it might cause those who may be new to Buddhism.

Good Luck!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars thank you Ajahn Brahm, December 3, 2006

By 

desiree (south carolina) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond: A Meditator's Handbook (Paperback)

This book has jolted me out of complacency with my meditation practice. I don't think it's really for beginners but if you've been meditating seriously and want to go deeper, this is an excellent guide. Ajahn Brahm is adamant about the importance of jhana to experience insight and he gives a step-by-step explanation of how to get there and what to expect along the way. Although I certainly haven't gotten there yet, the effort itself has helped my focus. This book has a straight-forward explanation of many of the Buddha's teachings (such as nibbana)in contrast with what is popularly understood.