That one is great. Especially worth recommending in a place like this where I'd expect more people than average would prefer a resource that isn't full of religious stuff one might not agree with.
I loved it, as while this book was written by a Buddhist monk, apart from an odd reference here and there, the book is a "manual" first and foremost. It describes the mechanics of mindfulness meditation, rather than the Buddhist spiritual basis for it. It doesn't make any promises of supernatural results, and in general is a reasonably painless read for atheists or people who otherwise don't share the authors beliefs. The only mentions of Buddhism is for historical context.
Buddhism does not really fit the (Western) context of a "religion" anyways - probably that's why. That is especially true for the more ancient forms of Buddhism - which the author of this book subscribes to.
Comments
That one is great. Especially worth recommending in a place like this where I'd expect more people than average would prefer a resource that isn't full of religious stuff one might not agree with.
I loved it, as while this book was written by a Buddhist monk, apart from an odd reference here and there, the book is a "manual" first and foremost. It describes the mechanics of mindfulness meditation, rather than the Buddhist spiritual basis for it. It doesn't make any promises of supernatural results, and in general is a reasonably painless read for atheists or people who otherwise don't share the authors beliefs. The only mentions of Buddhism is for historical context.
In a similar vein, I'd recommend Gil Fronsdal's "Introduction to meditation" series of podcasts: http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/
They're a great companion to Mindfulness in Plain English, and they're also largely religion free and no-nonsense.
Buddhism does not really fit the (Western) context of a "religion" anyways - probably that's why. That is especially true for the more ancient forms of Buddhism - which the author of this book subscribes to.
i second Gil Fronsdal's work, The Issue At Hand. Great insight, no pun intended :-) http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/the-is...