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The Foundations of Mindfulness: How to Cultivate Attention, Good Judgment, and Tranquility
An Essential Addition to Mindfulness LiteratureWho among us does not want to discern right from wrong and useful from useless in any situation? Thirty years ago—long before the modern mindfulness movement—Eric Harrison began teaching meditation as a secular, science-based therapy. Paradoxically, he rooted his practice in the Buddha’s original the Satipatthana Sutta. The 13 steps in the Sutta offer readers the full benefits of attention, good judgment, and tranquility. Now—informed by a lifetime spent teaching tens of thousands to meditate—Harrison offers both a new translation of the Sutta (the first in modern English) and lucid guidance on how to apply it today.
338 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 18, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 11, 2023
This is a book about meditation, not a meditation course. I find this book highly valuable. Author Harrison offers a modern, lucid translation of the Buddha's instructions, and commentary which describes the elements of meditation practice in everyday English. A glossary conveniently placed at the beginning of the book explains terms in the Buddha's ancient language used by meditators today (though others appear - you may want to take notes as you read).
Conflation of meditation practice with Buddhist dogma, hierarchy and asceticism, New Age fluff, cults and self-promotion had put me off and obscured the essentials of mindfulness practice centered on breathing and centering in the moment. As I took up meditation using a modern tool - a smartphone app - this book was a big help in clearing away confusion. From the start, author Harrison is clear to distinguish the meditation techniques laid out by the Buddha, still the essential ones after 2500 years, from the societal constructs, traditions and beliefs connected with them -- the Buddha's own, which were rigidly ascetic, as well as its descendants, the major Buddhist traditions, ancient and modern.
After a month with the introductory crash course of the meditation app (Sam Harris, Waking Up), I became disillusioned, finding it dry, impersonal, joyless and humorless -- while I seek connectedness and find joy in laughter. Harrison came to the rescue, describing categories of mindfulness practice related to different roles in life.
The stereotypical meditative practice works toward ascetic disengagement, but people with other roles and goals - "man in the street,", athlete, mother, soldier, high-stakes specialist, psychologist, student, connoisseur, contented person - need to train and focus their attention - a word which Harrison prefers as a translation of the Buddha's sati over the rather diffuse term "mindfulness."
As a teenager, I was exposed to the religious education program of the Unitarian-Universalist church, which gave me a grounding in understanding the different strains and traditions in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It wasn't much of a leap beyond that to understand the polytheistic ancient Greek, Roman, Norse traditions - after all, we have echoes of them in the names of every day of the week, and in many other contexts; Hinduism is not a far leap from them either. Buddhism remained a mystery. Its practice is so inward-looking that there isn't much to see on the outside. Harrison's book demystified it for me.
Harrison is grounded in Western philosophical and cultural traditions and places Buddhism, its history and different strains, ancient and modern, in historical context. His approach may put you off if you just want to stay within the boundaries of a Buddhist belief system, but will ring true for anyone who, like me, wants to have historical and contextual ground to stand on but is also exploring meditation practice.
Conflation of meditation practice with Buddhist dogma, hierarchy and asceticism, New Age fluff, cults and self-promotion had put me off and obscured the essentials of mindfulness practice centered on breathing and centering in the moment. As I took up meditation using a modern tool - a smartphone app - this book was a big help in clearing away confusion. From the start, author Harrison is clear to distinguish the meditation techniques laid out by the Buddha, still the essential ones after 2500 years, from the societal constructs, traditions and beliefs connected with them -- the Buddha's own, which were rigidly ascetic, as well as its descendants, the major Buddhist traditions, ancient and modern.
After a month with the introductory crash course of the meditation app (Sam Harris, Waking Up), I became disillusioned, finding it dry, impersonal, joyless and humorless -- while I seek connectedness and find joy in laughter. Harrison came to the rescue, describing categories of mindfulness practice related to different roles in life.
The stereotypical meditative practice works toward ascetic disengagement, but people with other roles and goals - "man in the street,", athlete, mother, soldier, high-stakes specialist, psychologist, student, connoisseur, contented person - need to train and focus their attention - a word which Harrison prefers as a translation of the Buddha's sati over the rather diffuse term "mindfulness."
As a teenager, I was exposed to the religious education program of the Unitarian-Universalist church, which gave me a grounding in understanding the different strains and traditions in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It wasn't much of a leap beyond that to understand the polytheistic ancient Greek, Roman, Norse traditions - after all, we have echoes of them in the names of every day of the week, and in many other contexts; Hinduism is not a far leap from them either. Buddhism remained a mystery. Its practice is so inward-looking that there isn't much to see on the outside. Harrison's book demystified it for me.
Harrison is grounded in Western philosophical and cultural traditions and places Buddhism, its history and different strains, ancient and modern, in historical context. His approach may put you off if you just want to stay within the boundaries of a Buddhist belief system, but will ring true for anyone who, like me, wants to have historical and contextual ground to stand on but is also exploring meditation practice.
August 6, 2018
This could have been an excellent read and useful guide to practice, but virtually the entire second half was devoted to hair-splitting over the meanings of various words used by Buddha. It seemed as if the primary purpose was to find pedantic criticisms of what the author refers to as "Modern Mindfulness " and various denominations of Buddhism he disagrees with. Oh, well ...
July 29, 2018
Not really what I expected. It was dense with philosophy and theory and very little how-to. Wish I had known about the author's other works prior to checking this out from the library.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews