Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Deep Meditation Advice (JhanasAdvice.com)

Kalyani, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Tina Rasmussen, Stephen Snyder (JhanasAdvice.com)

Awakening Dharma
Jhana (meditative absorption) practice is an ancient type of concentration meditation (samatha).

It promotes serenity and predates written history as a method of purifying the mind/heart. It was taught to the ascetic Siddhartha by his yogi teachers. He practiced, attained enlightenment (by adding insight practices now called vipassana), and taught a path of serenity-and-insight throughout his life.
 
This practice was so fundamental to meditation that it was his last act before he passed away into final nirvana.

Stephen Snyder, Pa Auk Sayadaw, Tina Rasmussen (jhanasadvice.com/Dhammapada 372)
 
Ven. Pa Auk Sayadaw of Burma is considered by many to be the leading Buddhist jhana teacher alive today. Tina Rasmussen and Stephen Snyder were taught personally by this accomplished meditation master, who authorized them to be the first Western laypeople to teach the samatha practices as he teaches them. 
 
Their book, Practicing the Jhanas, is an accessible and direct experiential account of deep serenity practice. The book has been endorsed by the Sayadaw, Joseph Goldstein, Guy Armstrong, Richard Shankman, Dr. Rick Hanson, Wisdom Quarterly, and others. It was updated and released by Shambhala Publications.
 
Rasmussen and Snyder offer several services to practitioners interested in the serenity practices, of which the jhanas are a central part. These services are useful for both experienced meditators interested in deepening their concentration to the point of absorption, as well as new meditators beginning a serenity practice. More

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