I’ll let you know after i put it into practice a fair bit

Quite basic. Lots of words and metaphors but the book doesn't feel convincing. I would've expected something else. I guess I prefer other approaches in explaining the usefulness of such practices.

While not all aspects of Buddhist philosophy are for everyone (including me), this is a clearly written, accessible introduction to the Buddhist method. It was refreshing to read something on this topic which emphasised developing compassion for others as opposed to the standard self-help perspective.

The art of meditation is a great short read for those seeking more knowledge on meditation and/or learning to meditate for the first time. The author answers the why meditate, what to meditate on, and the how to meditate. He covers all the benefits of meditation and a basic meditative posture. As someone who has experienced meditation over the last year and actively attempting to awaken my kundalini energy and chakras I felt this book was geared more for beginners or those contemplating meditati...

The Art of Meditation is about much more than meditation - but then, meditation is about a lot more than just sitting on a cushion and being still. This book explains how we get stuck in habitual ways of thinking, and how they make us unhappy - then shows us how to re-route those patterns. Ultimately, and after some practice, you can train yourself to spot unhelpful thoughts before they really take hold and affect your emotions, and then, sometimes, your actions. Ricard includes dozens of practi...

Presented in a generous and helpful way. It is a very good way to realize the potential for transformation that resides within. Matthieu Ricard took his experience and focus on sharing what he knows and created a book that is a very clear and insightful starting guide. The way he constructed this guide made it, from the start, a good structure and meditation inspiration, with thoughts and teachings from the great masters. This can become the guide for the first weeks of getting into mindfullness...

It’s a short book, with bibliography it reaches 191 pages, but Ricard manages to make it seem bigger than it is. I think it is a pretty good book for anyone interested in meditation. It goes into why, and how of meditation, and does it in an interesting manner. There are only a few places where I think it might have been better thought out, but all in all a good book. This is the first book, but probably not the last that I read by Matthieu Ricard. He’s a good writer.

it delivers its purpose. Nothing special. But maybe what makes it special is how simple it is.

I sought help when my depression was getting too much to bear and nothing else seemed to be working. After some research, I stumbled upon meditation again, and I say that since I used to "meditate" during Tae-Kwon-Do classes when I was a kid. I figured it'd at least get me back in touch with it, as I do remember it helping.I was amazed by the sheer amount of instruction this book contains. Matthieu Ricard makes a complete effort that addresses basically any question a beginner may have with what...

I have always been curious about meditation and the effects that it has had, and continues to have, on people's lives. As someone who suffers from both anxiety and depression I have sought natural and non-medical approaches to help myself live with this illness. This book was both thorough and thought-provoking without it completely bombarding me with religion and extremely technical terms. I found that it was relatively easy to grasp the concepts that Ricard wanted the reader to take away from

I've been meditating for years and periodically I ask myself, "Why?" Why do I spend this time every day just sitting and breathing? What do I hope to get out of this? I decided to look for a book that discussed this issue and checked Goodreads and the library. And of course I found this book.And, yes, this book gave me excellent reasons to continue meditating as well as suggesting some specific meditations to do in addition to the ones I already practice.I knew the reasons before I read this but...

This is a beautiful little book, short and lucid. I recommend it to people who are considering starting a meditation practice, or to people who have been meditating for a few months and want a nice perspective. This can't be your only book; I highly doubt you could base a serious practice entirely on the "how to" advice in this book, which in turn implies Ricard could have cut a lot of that and made an even shorter book, although perhaps then it would have been too short to sell? But if you're n...

As a novice I found the first 1/3 of the book useful. The last 2/3 too full of, to me, meaningless phrases: 'rest in state of perfect equilibrium' etc.

This books got more meditations than a Chinese has dollars. Not a bad book. Perhaps would be better for beginners of meditation. Therefore I’d have been better off reading this 6 months ago. Good tips though and insights on meditation. Probably give it to my NOOB friends like Lakhan and Jamie. Elton the square head cunt ain’t even worthy to be classed as a NOOB so he’s off the list.

This is a book I will read again and again. Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk and his guide to meditation is very practical and written with a secular reader in mind. Ricard is also involved in the Mind and Life Institute, (http://www.mindandlife.org/) dedicated to the collaboration between Buddhism and modern science. Universities such as Princeton, Harvard and Berkeley are conducting intensive studies on meditation and its long-and short-term effects on the brain (page 21) and Ricard himself

Quite simply, this is not what I was looking for. This is not a guide to meditation, an explanation of meditation or an examination of meditation. It is a guide to Buddhist meditation. If that's what you're looking for then this may be the perfect book for you but if you're looking for anything more general then it really isn't.

This book is a brief and concise description of the main type of meditative practices in Tibetan Buddhism. I am a practitioner with less than a year of being inmersed in Tibetan Buddhism, and have a prior three-year experience in and out in meditation. So I had been exposed by teachings and readings, attending to meditation retreats, and there have been a numerous meditative practice instructions, some detailed to some extent and others that I have just heard but not being trained for. Still, I

It is a complete guide to meditation, an act to calm our mind and free it from massive floods of thoughts. The book explains two types of mediation in Buddhism, Shamatha and Vipashyana. In Sangkrit, the first technique is used to seek “peaceful state of mind”, whereas the later aimed to “liberate the mind” to a deeper insight. Metaphorically, they could be used to calm the lake or sea in order to see what beneath her ground. A powerful idea I learnt from the book is that we have no power to stop...

Super practical. Will read it continuously!

Not only why meditate, but how: Ricard explains both clearly and in surprising detail for such a short book. I'm no expert, but I had previously read a fair amount on meditation and done some practice; now I suspect this might be the only book I ever needed on the subject!The content is deeply rooted in Buddhist tradition, but Ricard pointedly addresses a non-Buddhist audience here, eschews digression into the history or other teachings of Buddhism, and keeps crystalline focus on meditation as a...