On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 10:53 AM, Sriram Karra <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 10:47 PM, Thaths <[email protected]> wrote: >> For what purpose? Are you looking for spiritual/self-help purposes or >> for academic reasons? > Spiritual/Self-help it is.
Buddhism, in my experience, is a hands-on spiritual practice. Meditation is the foundation of this practice. I found the following 6-class audio introduction to meditation very helpful: http://audiodharma.org/talks-intromed.html That introductory class was part of a 6-week course. I recommend listening to one audio lecture a week and practicing every single day for 15-20 minutes (also do the homework you find on that page). If you want reading material, here are some good ones: * Mindfulness in Plain English (http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html) * My colleague Gurmeet Singh has documented his experience of going to a 10-day Vipassana retreat at http://gurmeetsingh.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/vipassana-meditation-taught-by-s-n-goenka-part-i/ - though it must be noted that Goenka's organization/style has its critics * Any introductory book by Stephen Batchelor (http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Batchelor/e/B000ARBI4K/) or Jack Kornfield (http://www.amazon.com/Jack-Kornfield/e/B001H6OABQ/) Thaths -- "Lisa, Vampires are make-believe, like elves, gremlins, and Eskimos." -- Homer J. Simpson Sudhakar Chandra Slacker Without Borders
