Many books have been published in recent years on the topic of mahamudra, or meditation on the fundamentally clear nature of the mind. This book is different in the systematic way it draws from a variety of source texts in order to construct a complete, graded path of practice informed by an understanding of the particular obstacles faced by meditators in the West. Dan Brown is a clinical psychotherapist who has also spent much time evaluating the experiences of meditators on longterm retreats. He knows the Tibetan literature on mahamudra meditation and has over thirty years of both personal meditation experience and observation of the experiences of others. He co-wrote, with Ken Wilber and Jack Engler, the book Transformations in Consciousness, and he teaches an annual seminar on mahamudra meditation at the Esalen Institute. Pointing Out the Great Way is a spiritual manual that describes the Tibetan Buddhist meditation known as mahamudra from the perspective of the 'gradual path.' The gradual path is a progressive process of training that is often contrasted to sudden realization. As such, this book contains a step-by-step description of the ways to practice, precise descriptions of the various stages and their intended realizations, and the typical problems that arise along with their remedies. Simply put, mahamudra meditation involves penetrative focus, free of conceptual elaboration, upon the very nature of conscious awareness. A unique feature of this book is its integrative approach to the stages of mahamudra meditation. A number of works on Buddhist meditation stages in general and mahamudra meditation in particular are already available in English, yet none, single text or commentary on the stages of mahamudra meditation, captures the inner experience of these stages in sufficient detail to convey its richness. This book represents the needed alternative by integrating material from a variety of root texts, practical manuals, and commentaries. Another unique feature of this book is its relational approach. It is intended as a return to the original teacher/student style of teaching meditation, which may be better suited to Western culture than the monastic or retreat style of practice. The book distills and codifies the experiences of many great masters who have traversed the path of meditation to the point of perfect mastery.

Pointing Out the Great Way: The Stages of Meditation in the Mahamudra Tradition

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Brown, Daniel P.

Alternative Medicine

Wisdom Publications

This important volume applies hypnotic principles to the specific challenges of behavioral medicine. Drawing from extensive clinical evidence and experience, the authors describe how hypnobehavioral techniques can help in the treatment of psychophysiological disorders.

Hypnosis and Behavioral Medicine

Fromm, Erika

Mental Health

Routledge

Giovanni's Europe

Giovanni's Tours, Incorporated

This book "The Pith Instructions for the Stages of the Practice Sessions of the A Khrid System of Bon rDzogs Chen [Great Completion] Meditation" is available in English for the very first time. Originally written by Bru rGyal Ba G.yunG drunG (1242-1290), Geshe Sonam Gurung and Daniel P. Brown, Ph.D. faithfully translate the text from its original Tibetan under the guidance of His Holiness The Thirty-Third Menri Trizin, the head of the Bon Lineage.

Pith Instruction for A Khrid rDzogs Chen

Gurung, Geshe Sonam

Psychology & Counseling

Bright Alliance

This precious set of teachings was translated by Geshe Sonam Gurung &amp; Daniel P. Brown, Ph.D. under the Guidance of H.H. the 33rd Menri Trizin for the Pointing Out the Great Way Foundation. The Six Lamps is one of the main Bon by-passing Great Completion practice manuals from the Oral Transmission lineage. The root text contains pith instructions for pointing out the step-by-step then combined practice of the four primary lamps: (1) the lamp of the universal ground; (2) the lamp of the fleshy heart to enhance direct recognition of awakened awareness; (3) the lamp of the soft white channel, to connect the flow of primordial wisdom from the heart to the eyes; and (4) the lamp of the extensive lasso of the fluid eyes, to set up the direct manifestation of the levels of by-passing visions initially on the surface of the fluid eye lamps at the boundary of the eyebrow fence. The fifth lamp unpacks the levels of visions in greater detail. The sixth lamp addresses comparable vision to be recognized in the dying process and after-death states. The root text also contains more advanced set of “close-to-heart” pith instructions using a series of metaphors to illustrate the meditative experiences and realizations at a more refined level. The two explanatory commentaries explain the main essential points of the root text. The two practice commentaries give different perspective on the actual practice.

The Six Lamps: According to the Zhang Zhung Oral Transmission Lineage of Bon Great Completion

Religion & Spirituality

Buddhism

A main practice manual from one of the four great lineages of Bon Great Completion meditation (rdzogs chen). These lineage teachings started with a fifty-session lesson plan by Ri Khrod, and eventually was reduced to 14 sessions by Bru rGyal ba. This step-by-step practice manual, using ‘intense means’ of pith instruction, covers three broad areas of practice:

Pith Instructions for A Khrid rDzogs Chen: [of Bon Great Completion Meditation]

Bru rGyal ba g. Yung drung

Gurang, Geshe Sonam

The book presents a detailed discussion of the research in the development of a variety of attention skills in infants, children, adolescents, and adults; the alerting system, the orienting attention system, and the executive attention system. The second chapter reviews the varieties of dysfunctional attention in the modern Western world, with emphasis on the vulnerability of children to: mindlessness, distracted concentration, the problem of apportion attention across tasks, mind-wandering, reactivity, lack of coherence of mind, lack of sufficient working memory, and poor metacognitive skills. Emphasis is given to n]how multimedia, video-gaming, web browsing, and mobile devices affect attention in children. The third chapter reviews a wide range of intervention studies on training mindfulness, concentration, training to reduce mind-wandering, the effects of multitasking, and reactivity, and training to increase metacognitive skills, working memory, and executive functions. The argument is made for the importance of training sustained concentration and distraction resistance over other attention skills. The remainder of the book gives detailed instructions for training concentration skills in children, adapted to developmental age: early preoperational children (ages 4-6), late preoperational children (ages 7-9), concrete operational children (ages 8-12), and adolescents (age 13 plus). These instructions have been adapted from standard Buddhist concentration training, from Asanga’s Nine Stages of Staying [Concentrated], modified and adapted for Western children according to developmental age and context. The book also includes field research on how concentration and working memory training is traditionally taught to children in Tibet and Nepal.

The Elephant Path: Attention Development and Training in Children and Adolescents

Bissanti, Michelle

Pasari, Jae

The Twenty One Nails is the companion teaching to the Six Lamps. It is designed to "nail" the realizations of twenty one perspectives on the natural state, such as cutting through delusion and purifying mistakes of practice; establishing the path of dharmadhatu exhaustion; recognizing awakened awareness, the universal ground, the three-fold embodiment of enlightenment, the pure realms of the sacred mandala as right here, and the five primordial wisdoms; and developing the full measure of stable enlightenment. The translation includes the root text teachings transmitted from Tapihritsa to Gyerpung Nangzher Lodpo, as well as a detailed explanatory auto-commentary by Gyerpung Nangzher Lodpo.

The Twenty-One Nails: According to the Zhang Zhung Oral Transmission Lineage of Bon Dzogchen

Tapihritsa

Gyerpung Nangzher Lodpo

Mustang Bon Foundation

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