The Heart of Buddhist Meditation: The Buddha's Way of Mindfulness

Don’t think just get the book. If you’re getting stuck in practice Nyanaponika has an approach to meditation and mindfulness that may work for you. Mindfulness is Often something we go back to the beginning and start over and over again. At times a restart with new approach helps ten folds. (I) definitely needed a reproach and reminder of what the three fold guidance is. Breaking down the satipathana sutta is the way Nyanaponika teaches. This may not be for beginners but if you’re intermediate in studies getting stuck and can’t find what is wrong, get the book!

Among the Buddha's teachings to achive final liberation, the Four Establishment of Mindfulness is the most classical method of mental training which include shamatha and vipashyana metohods.Nyanaponika Thera is a eminence in the Theravada school so I trusted him to learn about this meditative training for the first time.Unfortunately the book was clearly wrote for people who already receive and practice these methods under the guidence of a presencial teacher . There are some key points not clear at all specially if you came from another tradition outside the Theravada school - which is my case. The Thera wrote the commentary in general manner not as a handbook for beginners practitioners but more like to reinforce to what the person has already been introduced.I found the training in the FEM very complicated and intrincated to put into practice, not suitable for me, but help me a lot to improve my own shamatha practice.About the general content, after a general introduction by the Thera, it comes the comentary to the FEM instead of the Sutta which should always goes first, or like in other cases the Sutta is comented line by line. Then comes an incomplete comentary to the Anapanasati Sutta, again the Sutta itself is separated in the final chapter. This separation makes you to do an extra effort jumping from one page to another in order to associate and understand the Buddha's words with the comments of the Thera. The final chapter contains excerpts from several Suttas where Lord Buddha remarks the fundamental importance of the practice of FEM.

It is for a narrow group of "esoteric" people who can actually enjoy reading a teaching of ...most likely...this extraordinary man. But... those who are just beginners, and simply want to get some basic knowledge, look for something more conventional and written in a plain English. Meditation for dummies , or something like this. Sam Harris' "Waking up" is not "for dummies", and quite complex, but it is written by a western philosopher and neuroscientist, therefore it is much more clear for a conventional reader.

Have you ever heard “Pay attention to what you are doing or it’s all in your head “? This book explains that when you are very calm things look different. You can learn to change your perceptions. Best explanation of Buddhist philosophy I have read.

No less than 30 typos.

Having read many other books on Vipassana before, I was surprised to discover that this book was the precursor of them all. Extremely engaging and lucid.

This seems to be the best intro, comprehensive and with both a helpful Part Two with an early text, and more commentary.

Where mindfulness started. Saw it recommended by Jon Kabat-Zin in one of his books.

If the Truth we all seek were to be found at the top of a hill Mindfulness provides, perhaps, the most complex and lengthy path to reach it. In the book's claim not to be dogma the Buddha's teaching feels very much to be just that, largely because of its understanding that the mind is the dominating force in our lives, an entity that needs to be trained.This is though a book of great wisdom in its approach to human relationships on a challenged Earth. The wisdom of the ancient tribes echoed in the text has been increasingly ignored as Western culture has taken root, something for which all that lives on our precious Mother Earth is now paying the price.This is a beautiful book which I recommend to those with a serious interest in Mindfulness. It is not for those seeking a "quick fix" in this ancient Practice which, like so many today, has become fashionable and commercial rending a great disservice to something so precious.

Herein lies the true meaning of Mindfullness. We owe a depth of gratitude to the author for the Reminder.

MBSR und MBCT haben erkennbare buddhistische Wurzeln. Wer sich für diese interessiert, und zwar im Hinblick auf Praxis und Hintergrund klassischer Achtsamkeitsmeditation, kommt an diesem Klassiker nicht vorbei.

Probably the most informative and well structured book on meditation I have read to date. I can easily understand that people consider this book unique in its genre. Nyanaponika Tera talks to us as the Buddha probaly did in his discourses to his disciples. This is a must read book for those interested in Meditation.

Si vous ne deviez lire qu'un seul livre sur la méditation, ce serait naturellement celui-ci. Le plus complet et le plus profond jamais écrit.