Meditation: How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind by Pema ChödrönMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
“But the Buddhist teachings are not only about removing the symptoms of suffering, they’re about actually removing the cause, or the root, of suffering.”
It took me a while to read this, not because it was difficult, but because I'm reading several books and this one kept moving down on my Kindle list.
If you are new to meditation, I recommend this book. Pema Chödrön's writing/teaching style is simple, but not simplistic. There is a lot of depth to what she writes/says. This depth comes from studying such works as Shantideva's The Way of the Bodhisattva, etc.
If you read this and actually do the exercises and put into practice what is being taught, I believe you'll be well on your way to a meditation practice to be happy about.
That's not really what it's about though. Too many times we believe that meditation will make us better people, that it will magically make us more relaxed, more this or that. It's not about good or bad, but about waking up. Meditation is a key ingredient on that path. Not because of the merit we gain or the attainment of some degree of saintliness. It is because we learn to see the world as it is instead of how we perceive it to be.
I'm going to shut up now and let you read it. If you want to, of course!
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