(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best christian meditation books

>Why are there so few comparative resources

Lots of the popular, definitive, comprehensive paths/techniques are built so that you can jump in and stick with it. One byproduct of that is that some people can get the sense that there's nothing else out there if that's all they stuck with. The comparitive-resource-stuff is good for academics, or adventurous types, or experts who want to 'make their own' techniques, but for a lot of people they just want something that makes them feel better, and if they find that, then stopping what works and turn to textbooks and videos about history and culture doesn't add much (I speak as a fan of jumping around, just generalizing).

>Are there Intro to Meditation classes or books that expose students to a few different styles

Try--> 'The Meditative Mind: The Varieties of Meditative Experience' by psychologist (and meditator) Daniel Goleman

>encourage them to seek out more information on the one that works best for them

It's not that teachers discourage seeking information, they just work with what they know and promote what has worked for them. That can look like bias for their style, and that can happen a lot, but a lot of the time it's just the teacher/students being fans of that approach.

>Why are teachers (and some posters in this sub) so reluctant to label the style they're teaching?

I'm not sure what you mean. The label depends on the context: must I say that I practice 'mindfulness,' because it's also called Satipatthana, by others it's called Vipassana, or maybe I should turn around and take the National Institute of Health's label of 'open monitoring' style... I find that getting into the labels isn't as helpful as just dealing with you as an individual, speaking about consciousness, attention, health, and wellbeing based on your tradition of choice.

>Many Eastern traditions, like Yoga, Zen and Taoism, incorporate a range of styles, but in the West only a single style from each of those traditions is popular - why is that

What do you mean? You said 'Eastern traditions' have a range of styles. Ok. Next, you say one single style (of each tradition?) is popular? So are you saying that only one style of Zen is popular in the West, one style of Yoga, and one style of Taoism...or are you claiming that each of those traditions is syncretic in some way in the East while in the West we don't add-in things from the surrounding regional culture/et-cetera?

Sure, happy to! Chogyam Trungpa's The Myth of Freedom is one of my favourite books. The World of Tibetan Buddhism by His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a good overview and covers some of the complexities of Tibetan Buddhism and the differences in kinds of buddhism. Likewise: HHDL's The Four Noble Truths and The Power of Compassion are lovely books that explain some of the philosophies behind Mahayana practice. Chogyam Trungpa's The Path is the Goal is a classic, as is Start Where You Are by Pema Chodren. I have all of these on the shelf and continue to use them after all these years. Also, Hermann Hesse's classic Siddhartha is a lovely novel that outlines the story of Shakyamuni Buddha. I read it when I was 14 and it still resonates with me. Feel free to ask me any questions you'd like. I lived in a Buddhist Monastery for 4 years. I'll do my best to answer them. Depending on where you live, I could very likely recommend a monastery or retreat centre for you to visit, if you were interested. Glad you are exploring!

I have never cared for the book nor the teacher myself, but many seem to benefit from it so I have never mentioned it. It's just my preference.

You might try Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield's Seeking the Heart of Wisdom.

Also, Thich Nhat Hanh's The Blooming of a Lotus has over 30 meditations and is quite worthwhile.

There are many good resources out there. Shinzen Young has a great website and fantastic videos.

Very possible.

However, I'd suggest you visit a local monastery for a short period of time. Initially perhaps just for a couple of days, then the next time for perhaps for a week, and so on. If the way of life seems worth pursuing then by all means go to Thailand for a long stay.

Note that monasteries may not allow you to stay for long unless you have initially spent a shorter period of time with them, to check out whether you'd find it suitable.

My local monastery, Cittaviveka, is part of Lung Por Chah's line, which includes Amaravati in the UK, Abhayagiri in California, and Wat Pah Nanachat in Thailand, amongst others. While I've only visited Cittaviveka here in the UK, I can say that it's a lovely place to be, and the sangha is very open, caring, and friendly, so I wouldn't be surprised if the other monasteries were similar.

I'd suggest familiarising yourself with some of the teachers and approaches used in whichever monastery you decide to visit. For example, Lung Por Sumedo's book The Sound of Silence might be a good place to start. Similarly I can recommend the podcasts from Cittaviveka and Amaravati too.

Have a great time, and do report back here to let us know about your experience.

I am moved by the stories of the Desert Mothers and Fathers. The common themes are solitude, silence, and prayer. Meditation can take us into the interior world of deep silence where we can indeed commune with the divine. Silence and prayer are supports for this.

There are some great wikipedia pages about them as groups and then also pages on individidual ascetics/saints linked at the bottom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Mothers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Fathers

There are some excellent books on the individual saints as well as their practices and sayings. Here are some that I value:

https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Mothers-Spiritual-Practices-Wilderness-ebook/dp/B00C122V7U/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1503763502&sr=8-2&keywords=desert+mothers

https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Desert-Mothers-Sayings-Christian-ebook/dp/B00DRE2BIA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503763502&sr=8-1&keywords=desert+mothers

https://www.amazon.com/Praying-Desert-Mothers-Mary-Forman/dp/0814615228/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1503763502&sr=8-9&keywords=desert+mothers

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Heart-Spirituality-Fathers-Mothers-ebook/dp/B01GCBUP64/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1503763502&sr=8-11&keywords=desert+mothers

Elizabeth Elliot? I'm not a huge fan but lots of people are.

Susannah Spurgeon? Her biography was hugely impactful to me, and that was pre-children.

Noel Piper has a book, "Faithful Women and their Extraordinary God" or something like that.

Elyse Fitzpatrick writes toward that audience too.

SGM has some here.

Edit: if you are hoping to have children, it's never too soon to start getting your heads in the game, either. ;)

The quote is from Dogen's Fukanzazengi or Universal Instructions for Zazen. It is chanted every night in Soto Zen Temples.

People talk about how, when they first heard the Heart Sutra, they knew it was right and felt it in their hearts etc etc. Well, not me. For me, this was what got me. To me it has everything in it. I was lucky enough to, on my own, study it pretty throughly. In addition to many of the resources I had access to, this commentary was very good too.

I don't know a lot, but I do know that this chant struck a deep cord in me. Sometimes hearing truth's can do that, and I will never forget it. And I enjoy sharing this with people, but I try to walk a line to not get into a masterbatory argument.

It's based on several Near Eastern myths.

Man being created from clay is very common theme. For example, in the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, Enkidu is created in this manner. There are also Egyptian and Babylonian myths with the same theme.

The idea of a perfect garden where there is no sickness and death, and where all the animals live in harmony is also pretty common. For example, the Sumerian legend of the island of Dilmun.

The tree of life occurs in several Babylonian myths.

The serpent is a very common character, usually symbolizing wisdom (aka knowledge) and fertility, which is what he gives to mankind in Genesis 2 (although here he is punished for it).

However, it would be a serious mistake to see the story in Genesis 2 as having the same message as the stories on which it is based (same goes for Genesis 1 and many other parts of Hebrew Bible). Most historians now believe that the authors of the Bible composed the stories for an audience that was familiar with the Babylonian and Sumerian myths, and that their retelling was a sort of subversive polemic against those religions. The stories are drastically de-mythologized, with various deities being reduced to natural events (this is particularly evident in Genesis 1 and Esther). Multiple gods get merged into one (most notably, El, Marduk, Baal, and YHWH), and other gods get demoted to animals (like the snake), natural entities (like "the deep" in Genesis 1), or people (like Esther and Mordechai, though there is less evidence for this claim).

Nahum Sarna's books are probably the best sources to learn about similarities and differences between the Hebrew Bible and other Near Eastern mythologies. Here's a series of blog posts that summarizes his view of Genesis 2: http://knowinginpart.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/genesis-chapter-2-and-the-garden-of-god-nahum-m-sarnas-understanding-genesis/

...or you could grab a copy of his book on this subject: http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Genesis-Heritage-Biblical-Israel/dp/0805202536

If you have more time, I also highly recommend this Yale lecture series: http://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-145#overview

And Marc Brettler's How To Read The Bible: http://books.google.ca/books/about/How_to_Read_the_Bible.html?id=39nQafdJ_ssC

> Again as an individual you'd have no way to know if you're living at the global maxima ideal, or just a very nice local maxima.

Yeah, I agree this is a problem. I haven't read a ton about this, but the Buddhists are aware of this problem. They teach to be wary of false enlightenment states. In fact, I've read that the actual practice doesn't begin until "enlightenment" - in the sense that there are different stages of enlightenment that are all qualitatively different.

> Also this scientific method for objectively studying personal experiences is interesting. Any resources you could direct me to that gives an overview of that?

I'm not familiar with any teaching or sutra that explicitly lays out a scientific method the way we have in the West, but I've read many books where they systematically break down and quantify experiences in a way that is very familiar to my rational brain. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful here; I suggest that you check out your local library (or even better, your campus library if you're a student) for some books on Buddhism. Here are a few books that I recall being especially scientific:

• The bridge of quiescence: experiencing Tibetan Buddhist meditation by B. Alan Wallace
  
• Tsong-kha-pa's final exposition of wisdom by Jeffrey Hopkins
  
  Everything I've seen by those two authors is very technical, which I appreciate, but can also be overwhelming if you aren't familiar with Buddhist thought in general. I still recommend you check them out though, so you can get a sense of what I'm talking about.
  
  On an unrelated note, are you familiar with the works of David Pearce? He talks about eliminating suffering from a transhumanist viewpoint (genetic engineering, drugs, etc.), but he also mentions the problems of local maxima and how to avoid them.

A good, short book to read about mindfulness is Be Free Where You Are by Thich Nhat Hanh (the link will take you to the book on Amazon).

I do mindfulness meditation every day. It consists of sitting and focusing on my breath. I've been doing it every day since July 19 (according to the app on my phone that has a timer with a pleasant sounding bell and also has guided meditations of different lengths with and without relaxing music). It's tough "just sitting and breathing" but it seems to help with my anxiety. I had a bad experience with a customer last week and got very anxious and stressed out and down about myself, doing the meditations has definitely helped me go in to work every day. I do the short ones on my breaks at work. It's like "me time" where you just breathe and focus on breathing.

There's also mindfulness "in action". It's like breathing where you're basically living in the present moment. Your mind is in the present moment. Your body is in the present moment. Lets say your task is to wash the dishes. It's not "I'm washing dishes and thinking about what movie I want to see next and then humming a song in my head" it's "I'm washing dishes and I'm thinking about washing dishes and feeling the soap on my hands and feeling the sponge washing the dishes and then rinsing the dishes and then putting them on the drying rack. Now I pick up the next dish. Feel the sponge in my hand. (So on and so forth)" You're just there, being the experience.

FTFY-BOT ACTIVATED!!!

> Dear /u/WanderingRonin77:
>
> Today I would like to share my views about this "Dogen" character with you.
>
> Certain texts have come to my attention, that suggest he was not an actual Zen Master. I know, I know, this might sound shocking, so please, I kindly ask you: bear with me.
>
> Many negative characteristics of Dogen's disciples and tradition tend to support this claim. These are really negative facts that are hard to ignore, including unethical sexual behavior, among other things.

> BUT... since we're talking about Dogen and not his disciples, let's focus on the facts about the guy himself.
>
> There are three books that helped me see the questionable nature of this character, and I'd like to share them with you now:
>
> - Bielefeldt's Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation
> - The Sound of One Hand
> - Pruning The Bodhi Tree
>
> Granted, you seem keen to him, so you might not be interested in going through the trouble of reading all this material. But I promise: This is not "ANTI-DOGEN" material. These are factual accounts and unbiased analysis of texts that, far from trying to convince people to hate Dogen, merely paint a historically accurate picture of him, his methods and his intentions.

> We all have lots of stuff we want to read, and probably reading books that random strangers want me to read is not high on the priority list.
>
> But I wanted to share it nevertheless.
>
> I hope you have a fantastic day, and if some day you get to read one of these books, we could discuss them earnestly and enrich each other's point of view.
>
> With love,
>
> /u/ewk.

Thich Nhat Hanh has translated and updated a ton of these. They are called "gathas". His book of them with commentary on each is Present Moment, Wonderful Moment: mindfulness verses for daily living.

They are also simply listed out on various places on the internet. Such as here.

They are great if you can remember them. You can also write them on note cards and put them around the house which can help.

I use the guided meditations in meditation for busy people

It's by a Buddhist dude but I think he's Scots so sounds less mystical haha and doesn't bang on about anything other than 'the now' and feelings on oneness.

The audiobook is showing as free on Amazon uk and the audio tracks are readily available out in torrent land

You can find some books that might be considered religious about meditation, like Zen stuff, that are actually more like meditation exercises. Zen Training is a good one. Two Zen Classics is also good if your intrested in zen.

The book Taoist Meditation has selections from classic Chinese texts related to the subject. I picked up a copy cheap at a used book store. It's an interesting read, and fairly short, although it definitely reads like a Taoist classic, so don't expect a lot of to the point instruction. But a valuable source nonetheless.

You're better off doing a meditation retreat to give Buddhism a serious try. I would read The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation for a seriously good, concise intro to Buddhist meditation.

Somewhat related, I'm currently reading Dalai Lama's "How to Practise: The Way to a Meaningful Life" and I find it very interesting. It outlines some Buddhist ideas and practises in a general "don't take my word for this, try and see what works best for you" way.

I just got an amazing book, although not for the timid. Just started reading it. "Beyond Thinking, A guide to Zen Meditation" by Zen Master Dogen. Check it out if you are interested in "advanced koans".

http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Thinking-Guide-Zen-Meditation/dp/1590300246/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253360004&sr=1-1

The Dalai Lama calls himself "a simple monk", and maybe it's his humility and human qualities which make him so approachable.

As you probably already know, esoteric teachings are generally not for the public, for many reasons. This is probably his best book, as dzogchen is a 'higher' teaching of Tibetan Buddhism. I see there are used copies if you are really interested: https://www.amazon.com/Dzogchen-Heart-Essence-Great-Perfection/dp/1559392193

You might want to take a look at Thomas Keating's The Human Condition he's a Christian first but recognizes many of the similarities in Buddhism.