Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition

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.

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.

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.

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 bookwritten 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.