Best Books on Meditation and Mindfulness
I’d never heard the word ‘meditation’ before I saw it on the cover of a book in my local library. I was 13 or 14, and though I usually stuck to Stephen King, I had discovered a shelf dedicated to what would now be called 'self help.' I was a curious, bookish teenager and it caught my interest.
I was young and knew I had a problem with anxiety and chronic shyness. I wouldn't have known how to verbalise this in front of any doctor (this was in the eighties) as I'd felt this way for so long that I just considered it as 'me', but these days I would be diagnosed with extreme social anxiety and suffering from panic attacks.
In social situations I got so nervous that my shoulders and neck actually shook with tension, and if I had to speak in front of people I felt I would shatter into a thousand pieces. I was always known as a 'bit quiet' and have always been ok with that part of my character, but this social anxiety was ruining my teenage years.
Follow the breath
The book title and author is now lost to the mists of time but I remember it being a short volume and to the point. It listed the benefits of meditation, such as improving concentration and reducing anxiety. It was a practical guide, and encouraged readers to follow the breath and improve concentraton by focusing on a single point. There wasn’t a mention of Buddha or anything remotely to do with spirituality.
I was intrigued. Could I practice what I’d learnt in this book to slow down the constant merry-go-round of anxious thoughts in my head - could I even get off? I also hoped it would help me concentrate with my studies. I was willing to try anything. I borrowed a candle from my parents stash from the cupboard above the cooker for when the electricty ran out, and sat cross legged in my bedroom, staring into the flame.
Rest in the space in-between thoughts
I soon moved onto the breath. And slowly, a paper thin gap of space started to appear between my thoughts - just enough to let me see it was there. Slowly, this space got longer until I was able to rest in for a few more seconds. Eventually, after months of trying, I entered into a spaciousness that can only be described as euphoric and serene.
Because the book was about the practical benefits of meditation, I didn’t really know what was happening with these ‘other’ feelings I was experiencing. It did help with my anxiety, but it also kickstarted my lifelong interest in meditation and mindfulness.
Meditation shelf
I have built up a collection of books on meditation and mindfulness and now have my own shelf in my bookcase. I’ve used books to deepen my understanding of meditation and mindfulness, of the benefits it can bring, and increase its importance to my life. There have been many occasions when my practice has floundered, and these books have helped to renew my enthusiasm and get back on the cushion.
Meditation and mindfulness are, at heart, simple practices. I have done a number of guided practices with teachers and would advise others to do the same if they are available to you. And there are some great online courses you can do, but reading about others experiences and how they meditate, offer you the chance to nourish your own practice.
The terms meditation and mindfulness are closely intertwined. I refer to Meditation as my formal practice, where I sit and follow the breath. Mindfulness is a quality I try bring to my everyday existence, where I try to be aware and present in my life. My meditation practice is the cornerstone of my day and I feel it strengthtens my mindfulness.
The lifelong journey
Some of these books may seem like they are too detailed for the beginner. That may be so, but I wouldn’t shy away for them, as they will underpin and strengthen your practice. Meditation and mindfulness bring practical and tangible benefits to everyday living, but if you go deep enough it will also bring you truth and insight that you will want to live your life by.
This list of books is not defintive. As a life long student of meditation, I’ll be learning and practising until I shuffle off this mortal coil. Meditation is a lifelong journey of discovery and awakening, right up until when we draw our last breath.
I don’t think it’s possible to answer the question ‘which is the best book on meditation’ because we are all at different stages of our journey. All I know is that these books have been a great help to me along the road and I hope you too can find knowledge and wisdom on their pages.
Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
“We are simply not paying enough attention to notice that we are not paying attention.”
To me this is a classic of the genre and offers clear and concise instructions to anyone, regardless of their religious background. It is based around a style of buddhist meditation called 'Vipassana' and also introduced me to concepts such as metta, which is about generating and sending love to yourself and others.
“Patience is the key. Patience. If you learn nothing else from meditation, you will learn patience. Patience is essential for any profound change.”
This is a good meditation book for beginners. When you begin to meditate, lots of questions will pop up about posture, breathing and distractions and you'll most likely find the answer here. Meditation is a journey and this book signposts the way and I continue to refer to it. I also liked how Gunaratana lists the different schools of meditation and how they approach the practice.
“Somewhere in this process you will come face-to-face with the sudden and shocking realization that you are completely crazy. Your mind is a shrieking gibbering madhouse on wheels barreling pell-mell down the hill utterly out of control and hopeless. No problem. You are not crazier than you were yesterday. It has always been this way and you just never noticed. You are also no crazier than everybody else around you. The only real difference is that you have confronted the situation they have not.”
With each and every breath by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
There are lots of meditation techniques, and I've probably tried them all at some point. I enjoy walking meditation when my mind is particularly agitated. Metta meditation is good when I feel angry. When I arrived in Belfast for university, I joined a transcendental meditation group. I was given my own mantra during a pleasant ceremony and I kept to it for a while but found over time that it wasnt working for me.
One of the 'dangers' of meditation is that you get attached to experiences and try to replicate them. During my first few attempts at meditation, with no preconceived notions, I experienced what can only be described as a spaciousness and oneness that brought me peace of mind, total clarity, and filled my heart with joy. Like everything in life, we introduce effort when we are trying to achieve something. This doesn’t work in meditation - in fact, it hinders progress.
So perhaps the simplest technique is the best. And what can be better than the breath? When we come into the world we take one, and it’s the last thing we’ll do when we leave. It’s always there for us to keep returning to, especially during times of stress.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Ajahn Geoff), a Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest tradition, introduces the reader to anapanasati, an ancient method of following the breath as taught by the Buddha, and I think the first 25 pages or so are as good anything I've read on breath meditation. Later parts go into more detail, on subjects such as jhanas and disruptive emotions. This will be useful to the more seasoned practitioner but I think it’s always good to know what’s ahead on the road when you set out on a journey.
It's also freely available to download here.
The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer
“There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind - you are the one who hears it.”
When I was going through my 'Catholic' phase, when I was around 17/18, I used to study the bible. I was quite dogmatic and was looking for 'rules' to live my life by. I suppose I was young and was trying to find my way out of anxiety and depression and felt that one of the ways was to 'pray' my way out of trouble. Though it did give structure to my life, and I enjoyed the early morning services and the regular routine of mass, I can see that I was looking for answers outside of myself.
What meditation did show me, and what this book shows us, is that we have an intuitive intelligence. Meditation gives it the space to blossom and it has a naturalness and quality to it that we instinctively feel to be true. Everything else falls away and we are left with what you could probably call ‘truths’.
I love this book because it describes these ‘truths’ in grounded, eloquent language. Michael A. Singer has an understanding of the wisdom that we uncover when we get out of the way of ourselves and let ‘it’ flow.
This is another book that helped me realise I am not my mind nor my thoughts- everything is rising and passing. The voice in my head, the emotions I feel - I can watch them and not get caught up in them. It might be a short book but it's a great one to savour and contemplate to help us understand this path that we are on.
‘The Untethered Soul’ also talks about the importance of letting go. Meditation and mindfulness give us the techniques to release these blockages, leading to inner freedom and joy. By being fully present we can experience life on a deeper level and achieve joy.
“If you want to be happy, you have to let go of the part of you that wants to create melodrama. This is the part that thinks there’s a reason not to be happy. You have to transcend the personal, and as you do, you will naturally awaken to the higher aspects of your being. In the end, enjoying life’s experiences is the only rational thing to do. You’re sitting on a planet spinning around in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Go ahead, take a look at reality. You’re floating in empty space in a universe that goes on forever. If you have to be here, at least be happy and enjoy the experience. You’re going to die anyway. Things are going to happen anyway. Why shouldn’t you be happy? You gain nothing by being bothered by life’s events. It doesn’t change the world; you just suffer. There’s always going to be something that can bother you, if you let it.”
Mindfulness - A practical guide to Awakening by Joseph Goldstein
I have to include something by Joseph Goldstein. I’ve read a number of books by him over the years, and he's also a regular guest with Sam Harris on the ‘Waking up’ app, so I listen to him a lot on my meditative walks.
“Whatever has the nature to arise has the nature to cease.”
I've included the one I read most recently, because along with Hilary Mantel’s 'Wolf hall' trilogy, it sustained me during lockdowns. I'd rise early every morning, make my matcha tea, sit on a bench at the back of the garden and read another few pages from 'Mindfulness - a practical guide to awakening.'
“One of the great misconceptions we often carry throughout our lives is that our perceptions of ourselves and the world are basically accurate and true, that they reflect some stable, ultimate reality. This misconception leads to tremendous suffering, both globally and in our personal life situations.”
At 480 pages, its pretty definitive and it might seem overly long or wordy. But don't worry - Joseph Goldstein is one of the warmest and most engaging teachers out there. Joseph’s teachings come from the vipassana, or insight meditation tradition, and this is a deep dive into the heart of mindfulness.
There are deep discussions on the dharama in here, the teachings of the Buddha, and you mightn’t understand them first time around. But as you deepen your practice, the truth will start to reveal itself as your mind becomes clearer and more open. There are times during you practice that you will reach impasses, seemingly unable to progress: the answer will most likely be found in these pages.
“How does feeling our breath or taking a mindful step help anyone else? It happens in several ways. The more we understand our own minds, the more we understand everyone else. We increasingly feel the commonality of our human condition, of what creates suffering and how we can be free. Our practice also benefits others through the transformation of how we are in the world. If we’re more accepting, more peaceful, less judgmental, less selfish, then the whole world is that much more loving and peaceful, that much less judgmental and selfish.”
Waking up by Sam Harris
Sam harris is one of the best writers around at taking complicated subjects and breaking them down for a general audience. Known as a neuroscientist, author, and podcast host, in this book he turns his atention to meditation and spirituality.
Harris is also known as an atheist, and in this book sets out to look at religion and spirituality from a scientific perspective. He writes about his own experiences with meditation and it's here that the book really excels. It is possible to remove religious dogma from spiritual practices and enjoy meditation, mindfulness and contemplation.
This is a thought provoking and perhaps a challenging read, which reminds us you are not your thoughts, but the observer of your thoughts, in the same way that your mind is the sky and your thoughts are the weather.
It was through this book that I discovered Sam’s 'Waking up' app - for my money, one of the best meditation apps around. As well as his own foundational course, there are other meditation programmes from teachers such as the aforementioned Joseph Goldstein, Adyashanti and Loch Kelly to name a few. For me it's indispensable, for both beginners and those further along the road.
“There is nothing passive about mindfulness. One might even say that it expresses a specific kind of passion—a passion for discerning what is subjectively real in every moment. It is a mode of cognition that is, above all, undistracted, accepting, and (ultimately) nonconceptual. Being mindful is not a matter of thinking more clearly about experience; it is the act of experiencing more clearly, including the arising of thoughts themselves. Mindfulness is a vivid awareness of whatever is appearing in one’s mind or body—thoughts, sensations, moods—without grasping at the pleasant or recoiling from the unpleasant.”
You are here by Thich Nhat Hanh
In truth, I could have included a couple of books by the renowned Zen monk known affectinately as 'Thay'. I've settled on this one because it was my first introduction to his teachings and came during a particulary unsettled period.
I sometimes dislike talking about covid and lockdowns. Maybe enough time hasn't passed yet but the uncertainty of that time, the stress of it, still seems recent. But it did allow me to put some things I had learnt to the test.
Metal is forged under the strongest of pressure. And so I felt that all I had learnt up until this point about meditation and mindfulness was under examination; it was time to put to the test these skills I had been practising previously. Not that my life hadn’t been free from stresses and strains - but it felt like this was going to be a sustained period of pressure.
Like I said previously, I'm always reading about meditation and mindfulness. And it just so happened that it was Thay I was reading during this period. I coudn't have picked a better teacher. I used my small garden to walk around, sensing the breeze on my face, listening to sounds such as birdsong, and feeling the various parts of my body as I moved slowly. This helped to take my mind of the pandemic and the incoming void wave.
Allowed to walk within a 5km radius, I took to the country roads, listening to the peaceful words of Thay via audiobook. It was one of the positives of those turbulent times, walking between the hedgerows of rural Ireland with barely any traffic to worry about, listening and walking, listening and walking. I'd pause the audiobook, allowing the words to settle with me.
“This body is not me, I am not caught in this body. I am life without boundaries. I have never been born, and I shall never die. Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars, manifestations of my wondrous true mind. Since before time, I have been free. Birth and death are only doors through which we pass, sacred thresholds on our journey. Birth and death are just a game of hide and seek. So laugh with me, hold my hand, let us say goodbye, say goodbye, to meet again soon. We meet today. We will meet again tomorrow. We will meet at the source at every moment. We meet each other in all forms of life.
This is a book that will help you realise the importance of mindfulness in your life. Thay takes the teachings of the Buddha and updates them for modern living. If it seems at times that it's repetitive and he's labouring the point, maybe it's because he has to. Maybe
You are afraid of the pain in you, and so whenever there is a gap in your day, you fill it up with books or television so these blocks of suffering do not come up to the surface….
…..Some people live as though they are already dead. There are people moving around us who are consumed by their past, terrified of their future, and stuck in their anger and jealousy. They are not alive; they are just walking corpses. If you look around yourself with mindfulness, you will see people going around like zombies. Have a great deal of compassion for the people around you who are living like this. They do not know that life is accessible only in the here and now."
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice by Shunryu Suzuki
“Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.”
A few years ago I was in Australia on holiday and found this on a friend's bookshelf. I hadn't lifted it from my own shelf for a few years and I thought I’d check it out again.
I couldn’t put it down - escaping a hot Adelaide summer, one of my favourite cities to visit - and found it was perfect for dipping into. This isn’t a book to be rushed. I found myself reading a couple of paragraphs then letting the words filter down.
Based around a series of talks, this a wise and in-depth discussion about Zen Buddhism and is written in a simplistic, easy to understand style. that I think really helps to demystify buddhism
"Each of us must make his own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way. This is the mystery. When you understand one thing, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything. The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything. So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others, and you will be helped by others. Before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you. To be independent in this true sense, we have to forget everything which we have in our mind and discover something quite new and different moment after moment. This is how we live in this world."
I know others have said that this book is too advanced for beginners but I disagree. It's a great introduction to Zen buddhism and you can read one sentence or a page a day. It's ok to just be with this book, to sit with it and let the wisdom gather.
Suzuki also says - Don't worry about what you understand or don't understand - you will understand what you are supposed to understand right now. So be happy in knowing you are where you are supposed to be and know what you are supposed to know.
This is a book for the journey and I hope to have it close to hand the rest of my days. It was a blessing to rediscover it in Adelaide.
The Tibetan book of living and dying by Sogyal Rinpoche
This book was given to me to as a Christmas present during my first semester at university by a very considerate girlfriend who knew about my interest in meditation. Up until this point, I had mostly been interested in the practical and beneficial aspects of meditation but this book opened up a whole new dimension.
I was undergoing a spiritual crisis at this time. I'd been raised a Catholic, and had used the discipline of attending daily mass to help when my studies went off the rails when I was 16. I was reading the bible a lot and exploring the power of prayer, discovering Erasmus and Aquinas.
This book had a profound effect on me and was the beginning of my lifelong interest in Buddhism. Being young, I didn’t tend to think about my own demise much but this book showed me that understanding death helps us to live more fully. There is so much loss in our lives, and as I get older this book resonates with me even more so. I find so much solace in it and there are so many passages that I have savoured over the years.
“Perhaps the deepest reason why we are afraid of death is because we do not know who we are. We believe in a personal, unique, and separate identity — but if we dare to examine it, we find that this identity depends entirely on an endless collection of things to prop it up: our name, our "biography," our partners, family, home, job, friends, credit cards… It is on their fragile and transient support that we rely for our security. So when they are all taken away, will we have any idea of who we really are?
Without our familiar props, we are faced with just ourselves, a person we do not know, an unnerving stranger with whom we have been living all the time but we never really wanted to meet. Isn't that why we have tried to fill every moment of time with noise and activity, however boring or trivial, to ensure that we are never left in silence with this stranger on our own?”
This book also introduced me to the power of metta, which is a loving kindness meditation. You radiate love first to yourself, then to those around you, then into the wider world. It’s particularly powerful when you are dealing with feelings of anger and it was a revelation to me when I first tried it. It’s a meditation that I continue to do to this day.
“Above all, be at ease, be as natural and spacious as possible. Slip quietly out of the noose of your habitual anxious self, release all grasping, and relax into your true nature. Think of your ordinary emotional, thought-ridden self as a block of ice or a slab of butter left out in the sun. If you are feeling hard and cold, let this aggression melt away in the sunlight of your meditation. Let peace work on you and enable you to gather your scattered mind into the mindfulness of Calm Abiding, and awaken in you the awareness and insight of Clear Seeing. And you will find all your negativity disarmed, your aggression dissolved, and your confusion evaporating slowly like mist into the vast and stainless sky of your absolute nature.”
The Mindful way through Depression by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Sagal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn
Throughout my life, I've suffered spells of deep depression. There have been occasions when I've been out of action for months at a time, others a few days or weeks. When the black dog visits, it's hard to know how long he's staying around.
As Oscar Wilde once wrote - behind every emotion there's another emotion. Only behind sorrow, there's nothing but pure sorrow.
I can remember periods when I could physically not get out of bed. Motivating myself to brush my teeth became the high point of my day. When you're down in the pit, it can be nearly impossible to pull yourself out of it. And there are times when you simply can't, and over time I've learned how to batten down the hatches until it passes, no matter how hard that can be. I have gotten better at dealing with it - and one of the best ways has been to face it head on and not to self medicate in an attempt to hide from it.
I bought this very book during a particularly stormy time. It got so bad that I couldn't even read; understanding words in sentences required mental energy I didn't have, so I also own this title on audiobook. It was money well spent as there have been lessons I've learnt here that I've carried throughout my life.
The book was written by four CBT and mindfulness teachers - Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Sagal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn. It comes with some excellent guided meditations, that you can access via the publisher's website.
You can't think yourself out of depression. It's like a loop that exists between emotions, thoughts, and bodily feelings. You become trapped in the cycle. But this book and the strategies suggested allow you to begin to break the chains.
The exercises are straightfoward and simple to practrice. We move from our ‘thinking mind’, to our ‘being mind’. An accepting, non judgmental mind allows us to move from hating ourselves to self love. It takes time and practice, and nothing is here is a quick fix, but when I first read this and began practising, those tiny chinks of light were enough to give me hope. I could see a way out.
The black dog still vists; I’m still fighting the good fight and I always will be. Over the years I've become more accepting of him. This too shall pass. Fighting depression requires a toolkit and there are parts of this book that offer practical and invaluable help.
“Get out of our heads and learn to experience the world directly, experientially, without the relentless commentary of our thoughts. We might just open ourselves up to the limitless possibilities for happiness that life has to offer us .”
This book also reminds me of a poem by Portia I read many years ago that has stayed with me.
“I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place.
But, it isn't my fault.
It still takes me a long time to get out.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in. It's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault. I get out immediately.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
I walk down another street.”
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
“Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”
Not a meditation manual, but perhaps the book I recommend most to others when they are having a difficult time, as previously mentioned in this blog post. It’s one of the best books about meditation and mindfulness that I gift to others. I first read this as a university student and it had a profound effect on me.
“Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?" That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.”
The book follows a man called Siddhartha, alive during the time of Guatama Buddha. Dissatisfied with the pleasures and experiences in his own life, Siddhartha realises that the journey he needs to make is inwards, if he wants to find serenity and lasting peace.
For me this is a book the distills perfectly the teachings of the Buddha and I always have it within reach. Siddharta is us, the common layperson, and the book is written from his point of view, helping us to understand Buddhism and its teachings.
“And all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life.”
Awake - It’s your turn by Angelo DiLullo
As you can probably tell by now, there are lots of different books about meditation on this list. There’s lots of variety in terms of traditions and teachers, because that’s the route my path has taken. I usually go with whatever teaching resonates with me - I’m not big on gurus or dogma.
When I heard Angelo DiLullo talking about ‘Awake: It’s your turn’ his words resonated with me instantly. This doesn’t always happen, but I had an immediate reaction to Angelo talking about Non-Duality. So of course I went out straight away and bought his book.
Sam Harris and Rupert Spira have probably been the teachers who have got me interested in non-duality, which is ‘the recognition that there is one single, infinite, and indivisible reality, whose nature is pure consciousness.’
It’s not as complicated as that perhaps sounds. Simply, there is just experience, awareness - call it what you want. This is our true state, and it is there all of the time. Realising this, we awaken. The simplicity of this is it’s beauty.
Angelo has a particular gift of speaking in a jargon free way that explains this topic in a practical and informative manner. As I was reading ‘Awake’ there was just so much of it that was clicking with me; it was just the right book at the right time. I could almost physically feel the revelations. That’s another of the benefits of having a meditation bookshelf - I can reach for these books at any time, which I often do. Something that didn’t resonate at an earlier stage can make complete sense when our understanding has deepened.
There is a section on meditation in the book, where Angelo goes through the different methods, but it’s not really a practical guide to meditation. What I found most useful in this book were the chapters on self-enquiry, a process that I have not properly understood before, but this book transformed this practice for me. Who am I? Who is the one that is thinking the thoughts?
This book has completely revitalised my practice and I’m grateful to have discovered it. For me it is another sign post on the path to awakening.
So there you have it - those books are my answer to the question ‘Which are the best books on meditation?’ I think there’s a book among those titles that will suit you, whether you are a beginner meditator or further along in your journey. If there are any books I’ve left out that you think may be useful, please let me know in the comments below.
May you be happy, may you be well, may you be free from suffering.