Wisdom Wide And Deep

"If you are interested in Dharma study, this book belongs in your library."---Phillip Moffitt, author of Dancing with Life "This book can be the guide for cultivating the inner calm we long for."---Christina Feldman, author of Compassion: Listening to the Cries of the World "This handbook respects both the ancient tradition and the needs of contemporary lay practitioners, without compromising either. Shaila Catherine blends scriptural references, personal examples, and timeless stories with detailed meditation instructions. The combination of pragmatic style and theoretical knowledge produces a striking invitation for the reader to apply these instructions and master the complete practice for awakening."---from the foreword by Pa-Auk Sayadaw, author of The Workings of Kamma "Catherine has managed a difficult feat---to be simultaneously encyclopedic and charming, all with extraordinary clarity. This meditation manual is a first for the West and will surely become a classic and a support for generations of practitioners."---Kate Wheeler, editor of In This Very Life: Liberation Teachings of the Buddha "Wisdom Wide and Deep is a powerful inspiration both for those who would like a glimpse of what's possible and for those intrepid explorers of the mind who want to bring these teachings to fulfillment. Highly recommended."---Joseph Goldstein, author of A Heart Full of Peace "Written in clear, practical language, this book converts theory into direct experience. It is a detailed exploration of deep calmness as well as insight. The West needs such manuals."---Christopher Titmuss, author of Light on Enlightenment "A valuable work as both a practice guide and a reference manual."---Guy Armstrong, insight meditation teacher

Wisdom Wide and Deep is an extended introduction to an in-depth training that emphasizes the application of concentrated attention to profound and liberating insight. With calm, tranquility, and composure established through a practical experience of jhana or deep concentration, meditators are able to halt the seemingly endless battle against hindrances, eliminate distraction, and facilitate a penetrative insight into the subtle nature of matter and mind.

Now ordinary meditators (and non-meditators) can understand how to attain non-ordinary states with relative ease. Blended with contemporary examples, pragmatic exercises, and ''how to'' instructions that anyone can try, Focused and Fearless provides a wealth of tools to cultivate non-distracted attention in daily life and on retreat. Shaila Catherine has a friendly, wise approach to the meditative states (jhanas) that lead to liberating insight. Focused and Fearless is about much more than merely meditation or concentration. It offers a complete path towards bliss, fearlessness, and true awakening.

Focused and Fearless is a rich step-by-step guide to the jhanas-a powerful meditative technology that leads us to fearless and deep joy, radiant clam and a truly abiding happiness. Filled with practical guidance and many everyday life exercises, this is a book that will become an invaluable companion to meditators of every stripe. Focused and Fearless offers the richness of an ancient meditative tradition as interpreted through the practice of a contemporary American lay woman. This orientation represents a landmark shift in Theravadan Buddhism by bringing jhana into the reach of ordinary, busy practitioners. Focused and Fearless speaks to ordinary meditators (and non-meditators) who want to understand how to attain non-ordinary states with ease. It offers a creative and contemporary slant to this ancient path of happiness and wisdom. Blended with contemporary examples, pragmatic exercises, and "how to" instructions that anyone can try, this book provides a wealth of tools to cultivate non-distracted attention in daily life and retreat. Focused and Fearless presents an accessible, friendly, and wise approach to establishing ecstatic meditative states that lead to liberating insight. This is more than a book about concentration. It offers a complete path for awakening that is firmly based on the power of a unified mind.

Learn how to overcome distraction in meditation practice and develop clarity in your relationships, work, and activities with this new guide from a beloved meditation teacher. The mind can be a potent tool, used to guide extraordinary achievements, inspire good works, and incline your spiritual path toward peace and awakening. But the mind can also produce thoughts that lead to suffering. For many people, thoughts run rampant and seem to oppress or control their lives. Even the Buddha tells us that before his enlightenment, he sometimes found his mind preoccupied by thoughts connected with sensual desire, ill will, and harm. But he figured out how to respond to thoughts skillfully and developed a step-by-step approach to calm the restless mind. Now, Insight Meditation teacher Shaila Catherine offers an accessible approach to training the mind that is guided by the Buddha’s pragmatic instructions on removing distracting thoughts. Drawing on two scriptures in the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, Shaila shows you how to overcome habitual modes of thinking, develop deeper concentration, and discover the insights into emptiness that are vital for a liberating spiritual path. Following the Buddha’s pragmatic approach, Shaila guides you through five steps for overcoming distraction and focusing the mind: 1. Replace unwholesome thoughts with wholesome thoughts. For example, if you find yourself thinking thoughts of ill will toward a person, try thinking instead of their good qualities as an antidote. 2. Examine the dangers of distracting thoughts. Weigh the costs of allowing thoughts of ill will, lust, greed, and so forth to obsess your mind. The costs of dwelling on distracting thoughts nearly always outweigh any supposed benefits. 3. Avoid it, ignore it, forget it. Develop the skill to turn your attention away from habitual distractions. Remove the fuel and let the fires of distraction die out. 4. Investigate the causes of distraction. By understanding the conditions that perpetuate habitual thoughts, you can learn to free yourself from those patterns. 5. Apply determination and resolve. Supported by wisdom, you can make a firm decision to stop dwelling on patterns of thought that are not supporting your deepest values and goals in life. Each chapter includes exercises and reflections to help you cultivate the five steps to deeper concentration. You’ll learn about your mind and develop your ability to direct your attention more skillfully in meditation and daily activities. And ultimately, you’ll discover for yourself how these five steps boil down to one key realization: In the moment you recognize that a thought is just a thought, you will find yourself on the path to a life of remarkable freedom.

Experience new levels of joy, calm, and clarity with this revised and enhanced edition of the bestselling Focused and Fearless. The Pali word jhana literally means “to meditate.” It also refers to a traditional series of states of absorption, each deeper than the last, in which the mind is undistracted by sensation, thoughts, or moods. Shaila Catherine’s friendly, wise approach, blended with contemporary examples and pragmatic "how to" instructions that anyone can try, will show meditators (and non-meditators) how to attain these extraordinary states with relative ease. But jhana practice is about much more than just meditation or concentration; it offers a complete path toward bliss, fearlessness, and true awakening. From the introduction: Jhanas are states of happiness that can radically transform the heart, reshape the mind, imbue consciousness with enduring joy and ease, and provide an inner resource of tranquility that surpasses any conceivable sensory pleasure. Jhanas are states of deep rest, healing rejuvenation, and profound comfort that create a stable platform for transformative insight. In this approach to jhana, we use the calming aspects of concentration to support the investigative aspects of insight meditation. The fruit of concentration is freedom of heart and mind. This new edition of the meditation classic clarifies crucial points and offers twenty-one additional exercises, making this a great book for both those new to jhana practice and those looking to deepen their practice.

This is a clear and in-depth presentation of the traditional Theravadin concentration meditation known as jhāna practice, from two authors who have practiced the jhānas in retreat under the guidance of one of the great living meditation masters, Pa Auk Sayadaw. The authors describe the techniques and their results, based on their own experience.

Explores mindfulness from its roots in Buddhist psychology to its role in contemporary psychological science. In-depth case examples illustrate how and why mindfulness training can help people move from distress and suffering to resilience and flourishing