The Meditation Handbook: The Practical Guide to Eastern and Western Meditation Techniques

by David Fontana

"The Meditation Handbook" provides a comprehensive overview of meditation techniques, including those taught by the great spiritual traditions. It describes the many benefits of the practice, and aims to provide readers with much of what they need to know in order to decide if meditation is right for them. Each of the most important techniques is described in its essential details, using concepts that can be easily understood by the general reader - although the book will also be helpful to those with experience who wish to develop their practice further. Professor Fontana emphasises that meditation is an outstanding technique not only for developing harmony and inner peace and for enhancing physical and psychological health, but also for enabling the practitioner to explore the mysteries of the mind and the spiritual dimension to existence. The book is unique in its breadth and scope, in its freedom from doctrine and dogma and in the authentic wisdom it builds upon - the author has personal experience of many major Eastern and Western traditions. Written in accessible language throughout, it concludes with sections on the nature of enlightenment and on the mysteries of life and death.

Genres: Spirituality

244 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2009

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

David G.J. Fontana FBPsS was a British psychologist, parapsychologist and author. He was Professor of Psychology at Cardiff University. He was also visiting professor at Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Algarve.

Reviews

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book on meditation. Not too verbose, and it tries to keep things simple and understandable for people who are trying to begin to include meditation in their daily lives. I would say this is a pretty great place for the layperson to start, and that it puts out an easily remembered set of practices to progress through for the beginner.

[Nikos · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book have some nice ideas on meditation. But the most part of it is full of spiritual writings. Not for me

[Steve Goble · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read about half of this and moved on to other stuff, not because of any real fault of the book itself but because the early going covered material I was familiar with and because I was just in a mood for something more fun. This was a bit dry, at least in the early chapters.