Customer Reviews

Mindfulness in Plain English

5 star:		(129)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ever start reading a really cool looking
meditation book only to find that the picture on
the cover is the only thing that makes any sense?

Have you ever wondered why the author or
translator never bothers to tell you what those
weird words mean, "Samahadi...",
"Vipassana...", "Dukka..."

Have you finished a meditation book and
understood about half of what was talked about and
figured that half is better than none? (a very 'enlightened'
but often frustrating outcome
especially when these books aren't cheap)

This little known book seems to have addressed
and solved all those problems and more. It is a book
written for people who have no clue how to
start meditating and for those who have started, but
don't know where to look for the answers to
questions that come up during their practice.
The best thing about this book is in
its title,'plain English'.It seems to gently
lead one by the hand through the mystery and
confusion of meditation with a sense of humor
and patience rarely given to the subject.

I have been meditating for nine years now and
have built up a small library of books on the
subject. When friends ask me about meditation
I dig around in all the books with great
covers and reach for "Mindfullness In Plain
English" every time.

Sometimes when I pick up titles on meditation, yoga, or other practices associated with Eastern philosophy, mysticism or relgion, I am overcome with the author's inability to say what they mean in language that is useful to the rest of us. My relief was enormous, therefore, when a friend gave me this book by Venerable Henepola Gunaratana! This book is exactly what the title implies...easy to read and understand because it is not written in mystic hokum, rather it is written in plain english. The result is a manual for the beginning student of meditation that is sufficient to get you well on your way to benefitting from the practice of Insight Meditation.

In "Mindfulness" you will gain an understanding of what mindfullness is, how to cultivate it both during sitting practice and the rest of the time, tips on how to sit and how to overcome some of the most common distractions (including your feet going to sleep and your back hurting), and what to look for and what to avoid. I have not been practicing meditation for long, and this book was of enormous value in helping me identify the things I was doing that served as barriers to effective insight meditation, as well as giving me ideas on how to enhance the effectiveness of my meditation.

This is an extremely practical book for the western practitioner. It draws heavily upon the Buddhist paradigm, but the techniques for effective meditation cross all sect boundaries, and the beginning practitioner of any faith will find this book of enormous benefit. I would strongly encourage the reader to suppliment this book with "The Miracle of Mindfulness" by Thich Nhat Hahn. The two together are a delightfully easy to read but complete and well rounded introduction to the practices of Insight Meditation. If you want to know how but don't want to hire a Yogi to translate, this book is the place to start.

Mindfulness is not an easy concept to explain in words yet H. Gunaratana does a nice job of doing just that. First and foremost, this book is a beginner's guide to the practice of Vipassana (or Insight) meditation. Having it's roots in the Gutama Buddha's life over 2500 years ago, Vipassana meditation is a skill that takes only a short while to learn but a lifetime of dedication to master.

The introduction gives a brief look at the roots of the practice and tells the reader that meditation is intrinsically experiential so the best way to get started is to just sit and try it. In the following chapters, Gunaratana helps the reader to understand exactly what meditation is and what it isn't. From there he goes into more detailed instructions as to what your mind and body should be doing while you meditate. This is accompanied with useful tips on dealing with problems that may arise in your practice, including the 5 major hindrances that nearly all meditators face. The book wraps up with a more in depth look at exactly what "mindfulness" is and how to "take it from the cushion" and integrate it into our daily lives.

I found this book very easy to read and understand and feel it would be an excellent guide for people just getting into Buddhism and meditation. Already being the owner of a collection of books on Buddhism, this book didn't offer any new revelations but I was extrememly pleased with the sections on mindfulness and have already used some of the author's suggestions on integrating it into daily life. The main reason I did not give the book 5 stars is because it offers much more for the new reader than it does for one with more experience.

If you buy this book and still feel like you could use more detailed instructions on meditation, I recommend you also purchase "Change Your Mind: A Practical Guide to Buddhist Meditation" by Paramananda (ISBN: 0904766810).

I am a rationalist. I am not a mystic. I do not believe in chakras, yogic flying, psychic visions or tantric orgasm. I have a western scientific mind, and a very short patience for BS.

I loved this book.

Mindfulness in Plain English is a meditation manual that's been brutally stripped of superstitious hokus pokus. It's focused, straight-forward, practical, yet profound. It says what it means and it means what it says. And if you practice, really practice, you'll find the techniques it describes can honestly change your entire outlook on life in a frighteningly short period of time.

If you're a skeptic, and you're interested in meditation as a psychological exercise rather than a mystical mystery, you'll do well with this book. If you need your chakras petted, look at any of its 10,000,000 lesser competitors in your local flaky pseudo-eastern bookshop.

I love this book. It is straightforward, thorough, and easy to read. I don't know who Gunaratana is, but he does a great job with this book. Even the layout of the book is clean and simple and pleasant.

If you are interested in vipassana or mindfulness meditation, or even zazen, this book is worth reading. It tells you how to do this kind of meditation, and what to do with the problems that come up. It is a practical handbook and it's also fun to read. I'm the author of the book, Self-Help Stuff That Works, and I can tell you with some authority that the techniques Gunaratana describes in this book work, and they are worth applying, even if you don't sit still. You can do your work with mindfulness. You can talk to your child with mindfulness. Anything can be a meditation. Mindfulness in Plain English will show you how. I recommend this book.

Nothing I've read comes close to "Mindfulness in Plain English." Besides explaining how to meditate, and why to meditate, Gunaratana lays out a lot of the underlying fundamentals of Buddhist thought. He provides by far the best description of nirvana(nibbana) that I've ever seen. Read this description, and you'll feel you understand the concept for the first time.

He explains a variety of ways to meditate, details the kinds of problems you'll confront, and offers a variety of methods to deal with those problems. Instead of telling you "the" way to meditate, he helps you find your way to meditate.

That's why this book is one you'll use, rather than just read. It's not like all those other trophy books we read once and then leave out for display, for ourselves or others.

His writing style reminds me of the Dalai Lama's; it is eloquent, yet to the point. It's profound, yet practical. His writing is grounded in your immediate experience. It is not abstract, esoteric or grandly philosophical.

I can't agree with the notion that this is a fast read. This isn't because it's a difficult read. There is a lot to absorb in a few pages. I found myself wanting to reread many chapters, just so I could articulate it myself. It is a very thought-full book.

This book is really good. Text is clear. Nuts and bolts book about how to meditate. I feel good every time I think about this book. Writer is not only good meditation teacher, he is also good writer. If you don't know what to do with your mind, this book is for you.

This book is by far the clearest explanation I've ever read on what meditation is and how to do it (and I've read quite a few). This book covers Vipassana ("to see clearly"; AKA, Insight) meditation, which is the type of Buddhist meditation practiced in Southeast Asia and India. It's also the type of meditation the Buddha taught. Over the 2500 years Buddhism has existed, other schools have developed, but Vipassana does not conflict with any of them. This is the core of Buddhist teaching.

Mindfulness in Plain English explains exactly what meditation is (at least what Vipassana meditation is, although it very briefly explains what other Buddhist meditation systems are about, again very clearly), why it's a worthwhile activity, and how to do it. It also answers the questions that meditators invariably end up asking of teachers. If you have a good meditation teacher, then you SHOULD buy this book. If you want to learn to meditate without relying on an experienced teacher as your guide, you MUST buy this book.

I wouldn't call this book a light read. However, it's by no means a difficult read. The author is an EXCELLENT writer, but he's covering what is essentially a technical subject, and it's virtually impossible to cover such a topic in a way that is fun.

If you're looking for a light read on Eastern spirituality, I instead strongly suggest Ram Dass' (AKA, Richard Alpert's) delightful, classic book, Be Here Now. I could also suggest, but much less enthusiastically, Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda (whose name I undoubtedly just misspelled). If you want to read an absolutely beautiful, WONDERFULLY-written book, full of great stories, that's a good introduction to Vipassana meditation and, more broadly, the spiritual life, I strongly recommend Jack Kornfield's book, A Path With Heart. If you actually want to learn to meditate, read Mindfulness in Plain English.

Okay, I only gave this 4 stars because there were parts of it where I'd have much appreciated even more information and explanation.

That said, I will admit that some of those parts dealt with processes that are hard to explain adequately in a book. But I still sat there at times thinking, "what? how, precisely, do I do that?" For example, in the section on dealing with problems that crop up during meditation, the author advises the reader to deal with physical pain by relaxing tensed muscles one by one, doing so very thoroughly. Now, that may sound simple to you. Perhaps I'm a dolt. I dunno. But I haven't a clue how to relax each muscle one at a time. I'm constantly amazed to find I have muscles where previously I thought I had none. ;-) I'm supposed to accomplish this muscle relaxation strictly through thought processes? Okay, I believe that's possible, but what do I do? Ack. Right after that, the author advises the reader to continue by going after the mental resistance next.

Now, to be fair, the author admits there are no human words to precisely explain this process. And I feel in my gut that he's right, but I'm disgustingly literal and really require precision in explanation in order to think I can get my head around something new and challenging.

Have I turned you off? If so, let me now say that I LOVE this book. I've never read anything that so clearly was written to help someone understand how to meditate for insight. The writer takes great care to explain the process as much as he is able to. The stuff that he doesn't explain--well, it's just not enough of a factor to make me dislike this book.

After reading this book, you'll find yourself much more prepared to begin insight meditation, to begin walking a path of mindfulness, and hopefully, ultimately a peaceful and compassionate path. The goal of this book is not to teach you how to chant and simply relax (although relaxation is a wonderful side effect). Rather, the goal of this book is to change your life, to help you become more mindful, to see life as you really have it before you, to truly understand so that you can become fully present in that life. The author makes clear that this is a long process, one that will require dedication and courage from the meditator, and I truly respect how clearly he has communicated what will be expected of me.

I plan to give copies of this book to people I love.

Somehow I feel that a long review would be unfaithful to the spirit of this great book. Not since I discovered Alan Watts some ten years ago have I read such clear words in the context of buddhism. You will find great introductions to meditation in your local bookstore, from which I recommend the books of Chogyam Trungpa, his student Pema Chödrön, the American Surya Das, and last but not least Sogyal Rinpoche (all from the Tibetan tradition). But "Mindfulness in Plain English" (from the Theravada tradition) stands on a class of its own. If you are a rookie practitioner like me and you do not have the good fortune of having a qualified teacher around, I believe this little manual alone, and discipline, can take you a long way. And you will not exhaust it in one reading. The language is deceptively simple and the book contains some very nuanced discussions (e.g. the distinction between "mindfulness" and "concentration" should be required reading to philosophers of the mind; by the way, when will the Searles and the Dennetts ever discover the buddhist insights about consciousness?) This review is long enough: read the book and meditate everyday. You will be better and so will the world.