From Mindfulness to Insight: Meditations to Release Your Habitual Thinking and Activate Your Inherent Wisdom

by Rob Nairn, Choden, Heather Regan-Addis

Building on mindfulness and self-compassion practices, this step-by-step guide to secular insight meditation shows the way to freedom from deeply rooted thought patterns.Discover joy within yourself and heartfelt connection with others by releasing the habitual thought patterns that cause suffering and alienation. Drawing on Buddhist wisdom as well as the latest research in psychology and neuroscience, this book provides you with the tools needed to recognize the habits of thinking that fuel anger, desire, jealousy, and pride. Building on mindfulness and self-compassion practice, it offers a step-by-step series of guided meditations that create the conditions for liberating insight and wisdom to naturally arise. Thousands of people in the last decade have benefited from practicing the exercises in this book, which were developed and taught as part of the curriculum at the Mindfulness Association, an organization founded to deliver training in mindfulness, compassion, and insight.

Genres: Meditation, Spirituality, Buddhism

298 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 2, 2019

About the author

Nairn's first contact with Buddhism was with a Theravadin monk in the 1960s, and he trained in this tradition for around ten years. From 1989 to 1993 he took part in a four-year isolation retreat at the Kagyu Samyé Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre in Scotland.

Currently Nairn is the African representative for Akong Rinpoche and is responsible for eleven Buddhist centres in South Africa and three other African countries.

As he was instructed by the 14th Dalai Lama to teach meditation and Buddhism in 1964 and also instructed by the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa to teach insight meditation in 1979, Nairn spends much of his time teaching and running retreats in Southern Africa as well as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, the United States, Italy, The Netherlands and Germany.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very much. The authors provided a lot of helpful context and background for a variety of techniques and ways of thinking, which often build upon one another. They include the RAIN method, which is pretty well known in certain circles, and which can be very powerful; as well as many other excellent techniques. I learned a lot along way. A lot of these kinds of books have a lot of stories which sometimes feel like filler, but the selective stories/examples provided here are just the right amount. There are a number of exercises, which I thought were reasonable in quantity and helpful in general.

Most self-help books (this might be more than self-help or maybe take it to the next level) are intended to provide insight. This one really delivers, and can help you discover true insight -- both your own and in the wider world. I'll be referring back to this book for while because there's a lot of excellent info, and it will take some time to integrate it into my life.

If you're already pretty familiar with Buddhism and/or its approaches to problems and life, you may not learn much. But I found it to be very well written with excellent explanations of getting to the root of compassion and mindfulness -- which is more powerful than most self-help books. Highly recommended.

I really appreciate the free advanced copy from Shambhala for review!! They're a top-notch publisher.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of Mindfulness and Meditation. The RAIN method of mindful meditation (Recognize, Allow, Intimate attention, Nonidentification) makes it easy to remember and duplicate the practice without stopping to re-read the steps. The examples of each are very well explained so the process doesn't require a lot of effort. If you're not used to meditation, the most difficult part will be staying still and loosely focused without attachment. The authors do a great job explaining how the methods work with your brain's neural network, which really solidifies the scientific nature of meditation and mindfulness. While reading this book and practicing the techniques suggested, you will eventually take the mindfulness with you from your meditation mat into your daily life. For me, this is the true challenge with which this book has become a great tool. I almost can't wait for the next large family function to practice maintaining mindfulness in a situation that most people find is the most stressful experience and the most challenging for mindfulness practitioners. The RAIN method is so easy to recall, that I can recall it naturally. One deep breath and there it is. Like every mindfulness and meditation practice, the key is practice. There is no failure in practice. Just take another deep breath and begin to Recognize, Allow, Intimate attention, and Nonidentification. This book is truly a gem in the thousands of books written about the practice.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of Mindfulness and Meditation. The RAIN method of mindful meditation (Recognize, Allow, Intimate attention, Nonidentification) makes it easy to remember and duplicate the practice without stopping to re-read the steps. The examples of each are very well explained so the process doesn't require a lot of effort. If you're not used to meditation, the most difficult part will be staying still and loosely focused without attachment. The authors do a great job explaining how the methods work with your brain's neural network, which really solidifies the scientific nature of meditation and mindfulness. While reading this book and practicing the techniques suggested, you will eventually take the mindfulness with you from your meditation mat into your daily life. For me, this is the true challenge with which this book has become a great tool. I almost can't wait for the next large family function to practice maintaining mindfulness in a situation that most people find is the most stressful experience and the most challenging for mindfulness practitioners. The RAIN method is so easy to recall, that I can recall it naturally. One deep breath and there it is. Like every mindfulness and meditation practice, the key is practice. There is no failure in practice. Just take another deep breath and begin to Recognize, Allow, Intimate attention, and Nonidentification. This book is truly a gem in the thousands of books written about the practice.

[Fredy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its a great book if you have been practising mindfulness and would like to start practising insight meditation.

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[Gabrielle Jarrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bailed on page 70. Very left brain and filled with references and studies. I read Buddhist books for motivation and inspiration. Nairn's work lacks spirit and empty of soul.

[G utf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lessons learnt:
Anger and jealousy can be recognised and meditated to curb.


other comments:
2 stars because i was not looking to meditate. i feel like this book will definitely be more suitable for people who are looking to meditate

[Steve Gooch · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a manual for practice, I found this work a little heavy going. As a course text, it was spot on and covered its subject matter in depth. I loved the practices towards the end of working with 'on duty/off duty'. I would have liked to have seen more focus on the tonglen practice however. Highly recommended if you want to broaden your understanding of mindfulness meditation.

[Heather Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Mindfulness to Insight is a fantastic book that is well written and full of information. Anyone interested in mindfulness should read this book.