Recommended Books
There is nothing quite like absorbing oneself in a book about meditation. Allowing an experienced teacher's voice to fill our minds for a few hours can be very helpful in developing a deep and fulfilling meditation practice and even life beyond. Given to variety it can be daunting knowing where to start and where to go next.
Luckily there are many books available from some of the best meditation teachers of the 20th and 21st century. I have included books here in different sections to help those with different experience levels and interests choose. I'm keen to build this list up with high quality so please get in touch to let me know your suggestions.
Introduction to Secular Mindfulness
Mindfulness has its routes in Buddhism and other religious traditions such as Islam and Hinduism. However, the success and popularity of mindfulness over the last fifty years has been in large part due to the teaching of mindfulness without the need for any particular religious belief.
This is now the most popular mindfulness course worldwide and has an overwhelming evidence base for use with stress and depression, to name a few. Jon Kabat-Zinn took the meditation he had learnt with several Buddhist meditation teachers, removed the overtly Buddhist elements, turned it into an eight-week course, tested this extensively and built an evidence base - Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBSR). This book is the definitive guide to MBSR. Whilst quite a tome, the writing is engaging and takes the reader through many aspects of mindfulness in lots of detail. He emphasizes movement and yoga than other approaches which may appeal to you.
Across the Atlantic cognitive scientist at the University of Oxford were looking to develop a form of therapy to prevent depression which has been successfully treated once from returning. They encountered Jon Kabat-Zinn's work (see above) and the result was Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). This short, accessible introduction is written by Mark Williams, one of the aforementioned cognitive scientists. It is more psychology-heavy than MBSR and includes more thought exercises with less physical exercise focus.
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