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Unlearning Meditation: What to Do When the Instructions Get In the Way

Jason Siff

3.77 · Rating details · 78 ratings · 12 reviews

When we meditate, our minds often want to do something other than the meditation instructions we've been taught. When that happens repeatedly, we may feel frustrated to the point of abandoning meditation altogether. Jason Siff invites us to approach meditation in a new way, one that honors the part of us that doesn't want to do the instructions. He teaches us how to become ...more

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Paperback, 240 pages

Published July 6th 2010 by Shambhala (first published 2010)

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· 78 ratings · 12 reviews

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Jul 10, 2014 Juergen rated it really liked it

Jason Siff has a broad background in vipassana meditation, both with the Goenka/U Bha Khin techniques as well as an ordained monk in the Mahasi Sayadaw lineage. He came to some conclusions regarding the meditation practice as taught in these lines and began to evolve his thinking regarding meditation in general. This resulted in a shift in language, practice, and teaching style that he tries to capture in this book. He brings to bear a style called 'Recollective Awareness Meditation,' which feel ...more

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Sep 22, 2010 Nick rated it it was amazing

This book, and its author's meditation practice, emphasizes an attitude of broad receptivity to experiences that come up during sitting, rather than suppression in service to instructions from a teacher or tradition. Instead, Jason encourages investigation and curiosity, and provides some tools that help us understand the experiences that may come up in your meditation, including a form of journaling that documents the sitter's mental states. I am studying meditation with this method, including ...more

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Oct 11, 2013 Craig Bergland rated it liked it

Shelves: buddhism, meditation

It's an okay book. He has a point about methods getting in the way. In many ways he reminded me of my Christian contemplation teachers who stressed the method of no method, which caused me to struggle as a beginner but now (nearly two decades later) I can appreciate. That being said, to some extent he beats a dead horse with example after example and the book becomes redundant.

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Jul 06, 2010 John added it

If you've just started meditation, this book might answer your questions. If you're an experienced meditator, this book might question your answers.

I liked this:
pg 105
"I didn't consider that there was anything to unlearn about calm states until I began questioning the whole notion of applying effort to become calm."

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Oct 30, 2016 Ml Lalonde rated it liked it

Not for beginning meditators. While I liked this book for tackling some of the issues experienced by long term meditators, it didn't really speak to me.

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Nov 30, 2018 Jackson James Wood rated it it was ok

Unlearning Meditation is for the experienced meditator. It is a counterpoint to many mainstream ways of thinking about mindfulness. Below I will cover my thoughts on some of the focus points of the book, not only on Siff’s thoughts about meditation, but the approach of the author and the readability of the book.

I found Siff’s writing style almost unbearable. As I will mention below, his writing style plays a big part in the accessibility of his work and ideas. I have no doubt he would be an amaz Unlearning Meditation is for the experienced meditator. It is a counterpoint to many mainstream ways of thinking about mindfulness. Below I will cover my thoughts on some of the focus points of the book, not only on Siff’s thoughts about meditation, but the approach of the author and the readability of the book.

I found Siff’s writing style almost unbearable. As I will mention below, his writing style plays a big part in the accessibility of his work and ideas. I have no doubt he would be an amazing speaker, but on the page — I feel — that his prose is generally boring, somewhat patronising, convoluted and needlessly hard to read.

Using journal entries of students was an interesting approach. While I found many of Siff’s observations of himself well removed from my own life experiences, the journal entries played an important role in helping adequately describe some of his main points. In part three of the book they were particularly useful in analysing the meditative process and illustrating how meditation is just another part of life, and like anything in life, there is a spectrum of experience.

Part four, “Leveling the hierarchy of experiences”, seems to end abruptly. For me this was was a big let down. The promise of ‘unlearning meditation’ should all be in this final section, but something is missing. While Siff starts touching on some key ideas, the conclusion of the book doesn’t conclude his thoughts very well or give the reader more than the barest of directions to go in once finishing the boo.

Who is the intended audience? Even as someone who has been meditating for over five years and who has read multiple books, attended multiple retreats, classes, and meditation sessions, I found Siff’s pitch hard to decipher. It’s definitely not aimed at newbies to meditation as it relies on at least a bit of experience and having an ingrained practice to begin with. It’s not aimed at anyone who is happy with their current practice, because the tone of the book suggests his approach is better, and minimises the overall effectiveness of other approaches (more on that later).

Is the book really about “unlearning meditation”, or is it just another approach to meditation? For me, none of Siff’s ideas particularly challenged my practice. He gives examples of traditions where the approach is very narrow, and contrasts to his approach which is more unstructured and encompassinging — but still just another approach to meditation. While this questioning of approaches to meditation does add value, I’m not sure the title lives up to its promise of acknowledging “your mind as it is [and exploring the] tension that exists between that and instructions”.

As mentioned earlier, I feel Siff minimises the overall effectiveness of other approaches to meditation. He openly denies that he is doing this, and is careful to say that results may vary, but he has a somewhat patronising tone that his way will lead to better results. He may be right, and I agree taking a more curious approach to all aspects of meditation and trying different methods is very important — as is acknowledging your mind, and tension, and all parts of a sitting. But at the end of the day, Siff’s approach is just another method

While I found Unlearning Meditation helpful, the way it is written detracted from the message. Siff preaches an open exploration of unguided mindfulness, and encourages not sticking to one tradition or approach, but still wraps his words in jargon terms from certain approaches. Another bone of contention I had was with his rejection of authority figures in the world of mindfulness, while setting himself up as an authority figure.

In saying that, if you remove the lenses Siff analyses meditation through, from the page-filling dross, you have some powerful tools to critique your own approach to mindfulness. Of particular use for me was his break down in part three about multiple meditative processes. As mentioned above, looking at a meditation as a subset of everything else that is happening in your life with a spectrum of experiences during those moments you do sit in contemplation, is a facet many other meditation books seem to ignore.

While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book, especially to newbies to mindfulness/meditation, I will definitely draw on Siff’s teachings in my own exploration as a meditator and teacher.
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Sep 03, 2011 Steve Woods rated it really liked it

Shelves: meditation, buddhism, life-changers

After 7 years of fairly disciplined practice based largely on the Thervada traditions of Thailand I found that there was much in my meditation experience that seemed to run across the fairly ascetic interpretation of the process in which I was involved. I did not push myself into the strict mould prescribed but seemed to allow quite a lot of latitude in accepting what came up. There is no denying that there have been major changes within as a result of all that practice, but somehow I always fel ...more

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Jan 14, 2016 Andrea Seiffertt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: meditators experienced and new

My second read of this, this time because I'm in the teacher training program and needed to take some notes so I can hopefully answer student questions more coherently. Really great synopsis of the 'technique' (that isn't a technique), and Jason does actually talk like this- very practical, compassionate, and thoughtfully listening to concerns and questions before he formulates a response. Highly recommend! :)

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Aug 03, 2010 Caroline rated it really liked it

Shelves: meditation

The first few chapters make this book worth reading. The end flutters to a close. Highly recommended for people who find it hard to use breath as an anchor for meditating and people who have an adversarial relationship with meditation "directions."

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Dec 07, 2015 Amy Karon rated it really liked it

Lots of good ideas. Not the most compelling writing or teaching style, but well worth reading for those who've reached an impasse or are otherwise struggling with traditional meditation instructions.

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Sep 17, 2010 Kent rated it really liked it

Good for people who want more freedom in their meditation practice, or people who think "I don't meditate right" and feel guilty when they don't meditate "the right way."

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Jan 15, 2019 Amy is currently reading it · review of another edition

***
Restarted on January 14, 2018 after starting originally in September 23, 2014 and abandoning after it was due back at the library and I didn't bother to renew...

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