Desert Island Dharma Books

Last night I finished teaching an “Introduction to Meditation” evening course (in French) for the University of Ottawa’s Center for Continuing education. I really enjoyed that and I’m looking forward to doing this again next year.

I wrote some notes for the students about the basic instructions on the practice of mindfulness.  Included in those notes was a minimalist bibliography of recommended books that covered some of the basics in:

1. meditation instructions
2. the theory and practice of Buddhism
3. a range of Buddhist traditions

and preferably available also in French.

This is the list I came up with:

• Bhante Guranatana - Mindfulness in Plain English (on-line version)
  (commercial, expanded edition version)
• Thich Nhat Hanh - The Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings
• Ajahn Sumedo - The Mind and the Way
• Mathieu Ricard - Happiness
• Damien Keown - Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction
• Sharon Salzberg - Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness
• Sylvia Boorstein - Pay attention, for goodness’ sake: Practicing the perfections of the heart—the Buddhist path of kindness

In retrospect, I would have done well to add a few more:

• Larry Rosenberg – Breath by Breath
• Thich Nhat Hanh – Peace is Every Step

Don’t ask me why I don’t have Jack Kornfields “A Path with Heart” or Kabat-Zinn’s “Wherever You go There You Are” on the list – I’m quite sure I can’t explain that. They just don’t seem to be books I go back to or that have stayed with me.