The Meditator's Handbook

The Meditator's Handbook teaches you how to:

- meditate if you’ve never done it before

- establish a daily practice

- take your daily practice much deeper

It’s written in a way so that you can skip straight to where you are in your journey. You won’t need to read about how to meditate if what you need to learn right now is how to take your practice deeper.

The Meditator's Handbook gathers teachings from traditional Buddhism and explains them using straightforward language.

First and foremost, it’s designed to be used. That’s why it's called a handbook.

You'll learn:

- 4 different meditation practices – that work together to give you a rounded practice

- How to start and end a meditation session so it feeds into the rest of your day

- The different kinds of distractions – and how to work with them

- How to go deeper in meditation

- How to stay safe in meditation

- How to use the skills you learn in meditation in the rest of your life

Full list of contents

Introduction

1. The foundations of meditation

1.1 Setting up your practice

1.2 Meditation posture

1.3 Ending your meditation well

1.4 Ethical practice

2. Different types of meditation

2.1 Meditation on the breath

2.2 Loving-kindness (metta) meditation

2.3 Zen meditation – ‘just sitting’

2.4 Walking meditation

3. Techniques for effective practice

3.1 Establishing mindfulness – the 4 foundations

3.2 Balanced effort

3.3 Loving-kindness practice – tips and tricks

3.4 Mixing metta and mindfulness

3.5 Distraction in meditation – the 5 hindrances

4. Taking it deeper

4.1 Meditation and the body

4.2 Signs that you’re going deeper in meditation

4.3 Jhana factors: other things to look out for in meditation

4.4 Superconscious states in meditation

4.5 Tranquility and insight

5. Taking it wider

5.1 Taking mindfulness off the cushion

5.2 Meditation and innovation

6. Taking it forward

6.1 The dangers of meditation

6.2 Going beyond

About the author

Padma Gillen has an MA in Buddhist Studies and 20 years of meditation experience.

He runs the My Buddhist Life blog and specialise in translating complicated ideas into plain English.