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:
- meditation instructions
- the theory and practice of Buddhism
- 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.
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July 1, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Maia Duerr
Thanks for sharing this list of books, Andre. I’ve found Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Suzuki Roshi invaluable in my own path of practice.
Another one I’m enjoying now is The Attention Revolution by Alan Wallace, though it is perhaps too technical to recommend for people just starting out in meditation.