These are some of my favorite books and other resources that I have used to develop my meditation practice. Starting with practical guides:
- The Mind Illuminated: A complete meditation guide integrating buddhist wisdom and brain science by Culadasa John Yates, PhD, Matthew Imergut, PhD, and Jeremy Graves – Great book, my favorite practical guide to meditation.
- Mindfulness in Plain English by Henepolaa Gunaratana
- The Magic of Awareness by Anam Thubten, Sharon Roe.
- Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shyunryu Suzuki
Buddhism and Buddhist meditation:
- The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh – This book was amazing!
- Why Buddhism is True – The Science and Philosophy of Enlightenment by Robert Wright
- The Path is the Goal by Chogyam Trungpa
- Enlightened Vagabond by Matthieu Ricard – entertaining and educational stories from Patrul Rinpoche’s life. Quite a few good nuggets in here.
- The Tibetan Book of the Dead – preparing for death by understanding the process.
- The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche – I read this when I was a young adult and it got me interested in Tibetan Buddhism.
- Embracing the Unknown: Life Lessons from the Tibetan Book of the dead by Pema Chodron, great lectures on compassion.
- The Art of Living by Thich Nhat Hanh
- Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungpa – how to avoid materialism on your path to enlightenment.
- The Way of the Boddhisattva by Shantideva – how to cultivate love, compassion, generosity, and patience.
- The Path is the Goal by Chogyam Trungpa – practical guide to Buddhist meditation.
Science of meditation:
- How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, actually a book about psychedelics and what they can teach us about consciousness and how we can use them clinically.
- Altered Traits: Science reveals how meditation changes your mind, brain and body by Daniel Goleman & Richard J Davidson.
- Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom by Rich Hanson
- A Symphony in the Brain by Jim Robbins – this is the book that started me on this journey and encouraged me to purchase the Muse headset.
Philosophy and Story:
- Kosmic Konsciousness by Ken Wilbur
- The Future of Spirituality by Ken Wilbur
- The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin – I read this a couple years ago and it inspired me to make this a project that I would document.
- Designing your Life – How to build a well-lived, joyful life by Bill Burnett and David Evans
- Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
- The Buddha and the Badass by Vishen Lakhiani
- The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer, great story about surrendering to the universe and letting things flow. Great story-telling.
- The Art of Solitude by Stephen Batchelor
- No Self, No Problem by Chris Niebauer
- The Urban Monk by Pedram Shojai
- The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer.
- The Code of the Extraordinary Mind by Vishen Lakhiani
- Less is More by Vandenbroeck
- The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi
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