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Calming the Mind: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on Cultivating Meditative Quiescence
To stabilize the mind in one-pointed concentration is the basis of all forms of meditation. Gen Lamrimpa was a meditation master who lived in a meditation hut in Dharamsala and who had been called to teach by the Dalai Lama. He leads the meditator step-by-step through the stages of meditation and past the many obstacles that arise along the way. He discusses the qualities of mind that represent each of nine levels of attainment and the six mental powers.
This book was previously titled Shamatha Meditation.
This book was previously titled Shamatha Meditation.
- GenresBuddhismNonfiction
148 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 24, 2022
This slim volume by a Tibetan monk and meditation master is perhaps the best single volume on shamatha meditation available in English.
In 1988, in a retreat center near Castle Rock, Oregon, a group of meditators embarked on a year-long retreat devoted to shamatha or "calming the mind." The leader of the retreat, Gen Lamrimpa, gave a series of talks at the outset to set the retreatants on the right path. The talks were brief but rich in the knowledge gained from Lamrimpa's many years of solitary practice and study in the mountains above Dharamsala, India. Above all, they were practical: these were the things for a practitioner to know when embarking on a program of serious meditation.
The talks, in edited form, are reproduced here in this little book. I've been practicing shamatha off and on since 1986, and I feel as though an inestimable treasure has come into my hands. The view of the practice, the nine levels of shamatha, obstacles and antidotes--they're all here, and given by someone who has a lot of first-hand experience.
If you're interested in shamatha meditation, don't even think about it--get this book.
In 1988, in a retreat center near Castle Rock, Oregon, a group of meditators embarked on a year-long retreat devoted to shamatha or "calming the mind." The leader of the retreat, Gen Lamrimpa, gave a series of talks at the outset to set the retreatants on the right path. The talks were brief but rich in the knowledge gained from Lamrimpa's many years of solitary practice and study in the mountains above Dharamsala, India. Above all, they were practical: these were the things for a practitioner to know when embarking on a program of serious meditation.
The talks, in edited form, are reproduced here in this little book. I've been practicing shamatha off and on since 1986, and I feel as though an inestimable treasure has come into my hands. The view of the practice, the nine levels of shamatha, obstacles and antidotes--they're all here, and given by someone who has a lot of first-hand experience.
If you're interested in shamatha meditation, don't even think about it--get this book.
April 10, 2013
This is a very good manual on Tibetan Buddhist Meditation, and I suspect that a lot of the credit goes to Alan Wallace for his lucid and straightforward translation. The book is based on the oral teachings that Gen Lamrimpa, a Tibetan monk, gave in 1988 to a group of meditators whom he was leading through a multi-month retreat. Unlike many meditation guides, which simply tell you what to do, Calming the Mind answers the questions, elementary and more complex, that many of us ask as beginning or more seasoned meditators. Although coming to the book with a basic understanding of Buddhist thought would be useful, it's by no means required in order to derive benefit from it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews