Breathe easy with meditative states (audio)

Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

This is hard when I try to do it alone!

Buddhist meditation is a vast topic, starting with serenity and culminating in liberating insight. Blissful states of calm center and concentrate the mind/heart, making it coherent. This is the foundation for insight (vipassana) practices the historical Buddha taught for the realization of the Truth and liberation from all further rebirth and suffering.

Buddhist meditation with Ajahn Brahm

This British Theravada teacher (Ajahn Brahm) is an enlightened Western monk, who studied with the famous enlightened Thai Forest Tradition meditation master Ajahn Chah of Thailand.

Let go of all efforting. Just sit.

He explains the basics of Buddhist meditation and the foundational necessity of meditative absorption (jhana, a Pali word which means "meditation," like the Japanese word zen, the Sanskrit word dhyana, the Chinese word chan).

"Meditation" is not concentration but rather "stillness" (samadhi), a vital factor of the Noble Eightfold Path.