How to Meditate : (Revised and Expanded)

Rating:
Summary: Short, simple, yet comprehensive
Review: Because I have been recommending HOW TO MEDITATE for many years, it seems appropriate to add it to my reviews on amazon.com. This little book is packed with great advice on meditating, including a variety of techniques, suggestions for overcoming difficulties with them, and background information to meditation in general.

So many books have been written on meditation since LeShan first published this book in 1974 and this is still the best one I've seen to date. No need to pay for a mantra, get sophisticated instruction, or subject yourself to a guru. Settle into silence and yourself with these instructions and discover which one works best for you.

~~Joan Mazza, author of DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE; DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF; WHO'S CRAZY ANYWAY; FROM DREAMS TO DISCOVERY; THINGS THAT TICK ME OFF; and EXPLORING YOUR SEXUAL SELF (May 2001) in The Guided Journal Series.

Rating:
Summary: A gem of a book
Review: I bought this book in order to have a basic yet comprehensive guide to mediation. I had dabbled a little in the practice over the years and knew the basic breath-counting/mantra technique. But I was looking for additional guidance, having already picked up (and discarded) the "Idiot's Guide to Meditation." For me, that book and others like it spend too much time on details of chakras, postures, and energies. I wanted something broader, something that concentrated on the internal, spiritual aspects of meditation rather than on the specifics of different traditions. All religions have their own schools of meditation, and I wanted commonalities, not New Age cliches. I found what I wanted it in this book.

Leshan, a trained psychotherapist, and researcher presents a concise, comforting, and comprehensive guide to the subject. He's very eclectic in his approach--his sources include Christian mystics, Zen Buddhists, and Hindu yogis. He points out what they all have in common, takes what's useful from each traditiona, and distills them into something that's workable for a beginner. He dispels many of the myths that surround meditation-as-fad in our society and stresses the role of individual discipline. He suggests the general outlines of programs, but leaves the actual choices up to you.

The only problem that I had with this book is probably related to its original date of publication--1973. Back then, meditation was still a "way-out" hippie practice that most people looked upon with suspicion. As a result, Leshan goes to considerable lengths to justify the practice for skeptical Westerners. He does a good job with this, but nowadays those parts of his book are less necessary. Nonetheless, this book retains its value as a classic guide to meditation. For me, at least, it's a keeper.

Rating:
Summary: The Best $5 I've Ever Spent
Review: I wanted to begin practicing meditation again after some years of absence, and wanted a different approach than the Transcendental Meditation I learned in college. I stumbled onto this little book, and it has been absolutely wonderful. It's an overview, and they'll tell you it's just for beginners, but a year later, and probably 10 more "sophisticated" books later, and a lot of time spent meditating, I find myself coming back to LeShan time and time again. He drifts a bit into speculation about the paranormal, but for the most part his teaching is direct, simple, applicable and inspiring. If I was forced to choose only one meditation book from my shelf, this "basic" and wonderful book would probably be the one.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and accessible!
Review: Leshan is a scientist who writes like a poet with the wisdom of a mystic and the pragmatism of an athletic coach.

Rating:
Summary: FINE EXPLORATION OF MEDITATION FORMS & STYLES
Review: LeShan wrote How to Meditate years before the hundreds of popular books presenting easier, more simplistic approaches to meditation. And being a scientist himself, LeShan was compelled to stick to a more clinical, validated -- and thorough -- approach. How to Meditate is an excellent volume for those who've been meditating for a period of time and are interested in expanding into different forms of meditation. LeShan provides sufficient background and helpful lessons for each form. Take note that his approach is not touchy-feely and his writing is borderline austere. This is a slim, but informative book you can refer back to year after year.