Download The Art and Skill of Buddhist Meditation Mindfulness Concentration and Insight Richard Shankman Books

Product details Paperback 160 pages Publisher New Harbinger Publications; 1 edition (November 1, 2015) Language English ISBN-10 9781626252936 ISBN-13 978-1626252936 ASIN 1626252939

The Art and Skill of Buddhist Meditation Mindfulness Concentration and Insight Richard Shankman Books Reviews

• Richard Shankman's Art and Skill of Buddhist Meditation is part of an emerging trend in Buddhist meditation in the West that presents an integrated path of meditation practice, one that brings together mindfulness, deep meditative stillness (samadhi, sometimes translated as "concentration"), and liberating insight. In many practice traditions in both East and West, these three currents have become separated into schools or traditions, each of them often segregated from the others. In this volume of practical guidance, Shankman succeeds at reintegrating the Buddha's path of practice in a way that can benefit meditators at all stages of development.
  
  The book is written in an easy and personable style that captures Shankman's spoken voice and conveys his special approach to one-on-one and group coaching of meditators. Shankman reveals himself here to be a gentle and attentive guide, one very attuned to the great variety of individual experience in meditation. He provides knowledgeable support for many different ways of meditating, with a consistent emphasis on finding the integrated practice that works for you and on doing "the best you can" in all circumstances.
  
  Throughout the book, Shankman takes the view from inside the meditating mind—an unusual perspective in a field of books that tend to focus on concepts and descriptions from the outside. Shankman's perspective makes his book invaluable for understanding the full array of experiences that can arise in meditation, how to make sense of them, and how to work productively when they arise. Shankman is also one of the very few authors brave enough to actually talk about what samadhi (and the associated jhana states) actually feel and look like; in doing so, he demystifies and normalizes experiences that have all too often been made out to be rare, rarified, and hush-hush. Doing so is important because, as Shankman shows, the collected and still mind, a natural capacity of mind that we all share, is a rich field for deep insight.
  
  The book is refreshingly free of jargon and adroitly sidesteps the tendentiousness and rancor that have sometimes characterized discussions of the various currents of practice that are skillfully blended here. Shankman doesn't explore the fascinating history of how the integrated path of practice laid out in the Pali canon, the earliest record of the Buddhist teachings, became divided into separate practices in 19th-century Burma and the 20th-century West. But that history is now well covered elsewhere Shankman keeps the focus on the practical issues that confront meditators in daily practice.
  
  I highly recommend this book to all meditators, but particularly to those who find themselves confused by the varied, sometimes conflicting, instructions or guidance that they have received from teachers about the importance of focusing on mindfulness to the exclusion of samadhi, samadhi to the exclusion of mindfulness, or insight to the exclusion of both. This book can truly help you bypass all that unnecessary "thicket of views" and deepen your meditation practice in an integrated way that suits your temperament and the realities of your daily life.
• One of the best guides to meditation I've ever read, but prospective buyers of the book in format should be aware that the formatting leaves a great deal to be desired. There's no table of contents, no index - just one long chapter. 5 starts for the content, 1 star for the format. Buy the paperback!
• With impressive clarity and precision, Richard Shankman has managed to express in words the wide range of deeply nuanced and subtle meditative experiences that characterize the path that progresses from beginning meditation to highly advanced states of concentration. He successfully avoids jargon and scriptural verbiage that may be intimidating to the beginning meditator or the practitioner outside Theravada Buddhist tradition. He provides helpful, specific instructions on how to fine tune the meditation as it deepens, and how to address specific obstacles that arise. Importantly, throughout the book he returns to the essential goal of meditation practice to deepen our ability to see where we are clinging and creating our own suffering and to develop the skills and abilities required to live life from a place of non-reactivity, with a wise and open heart. What stands out is Shankman's obvious compassion for his readers and his understanding of how hard this practice can be. There is essential dharma in this book.
• GOOD READ MUST HAVE
• If you want an open-minded, very thorough book of quality -- this is the one. You will know the path and the way.
• Richard Shankman's book is excellent for beginners as well as established meditators. The chapters cover beginning meditation instructions through mindfulness, concentration and insight. His writing is concise, accessible and very practical. I highly recommend this book.
• This book belongs to a new genre of meditation books that present the theory and practice of Buddhist meditation without the esoteric and confusing language found in meditation books.
  
  In the 1960's and 70's many meditators in the west migrated to the East seeking spiritual enlightenment, the ones that were enlightened realized the true essence of the matter without the esoteric fluff.
  
  This master is one of them, he summarized it and kept the the essence only.
• He gives good directions to meditators, but nothing special.