How to Meditate: A Practical Guide

Great explanations

After purchasing 5 books on meditation this is the first book that actually teaches you how to meditate step by step. Most books on meditation tell you "what" to meditate on and seem to forget to tell you how to do it, this book tells you how to do it. It's very easy to read and it gives even the first time meditators the instructions needed to start meditating. It starts with the very basic (but very effective) way of meditation and then progresses through the book to more in depth meditations covering many different ideas to meditate on. I highly recommend this book to the beginners in meditation and also to the more experienced.

This book has enormous value for anyone who wishes to begin a meditation practice. Kathleen McDonald is a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, but I feel that this book offers useful advice to anyone of any spiritual persuasion. I have to disagree with some of the other reviews who feel that this book is for aspiring Buddhists only. Meditation can be correctly seen as a highly effective technology that can be employed to tame the mind. In fact, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has stated that Tibetan Buddhism exists somewhere in between science and religion.I also want to comment on the warmth with which McDonald has crafted this text. She writes with great simplicity, yet she manages to impart a great deal of valuable and sophisticated information. If a book can be described as being " friendly ", that would certainly apply here. Clearly interested in creating a book that in no way intimidates or overwhelms, her approach is gentle and reassuring. This is a wonderful book!

I've read a number of books on meditation, some good and some not so good. It's a tough topic. But this book is a primer on a gift-basket of techniques in Tibetan Buddhist meditation. Clear, encouraging, simple instructions make it easy to read and easy to use. I'm a lousy meditator with a mind that loves to start jumping from topic to topic. This book is the first tool to help me start developing past all that. As another reviewer pointed out, this book is teaching in a specific tradition. If you have some knowledge about Tibetan Buddhism and know it's not for you, skip this book. If you're new to meditation, or open to techniques in this tradition, this book is a gem.

This is a real find. Just scrumptous! The author is a Tibetannun in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism (the same as the Dali Lama). So you will be taught to meditate in the same way that the Dali Lama meditates! She does try to cover all schools of meditation. But she still teaches primarily Tibetan. Andher meditations are mainly Gelugpa. What is so wonderful about this book is that it is for beginners. But intermediates likeme can learn so much from it as well. And for advanced practioners, I have no doubt that they can learn a thing or two as well. You will find out how to sit. When to sit. How long to sit. How to pick out a certain meditation. Dealing with problems frequently encountered in meditation. How to dealwith negative problems such as depression, anger, and anxiety.Nevertheless, I would only recommend this book to people who think they might want to practice in the Tibetan tradition. Orfor people who want to practice Buddhist meditation but don't care what tradition they practice in. This is really a great and helpful book. Thank you.