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    Buddhism for Beginners
    Buddhism for Beginners
    Buddhism for Beginners
    Ebook61 pages45 minutes

    Buddhism for Beginners

    By Tai Morello

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    About this ebook

    Mindfulness meditation is everywhere these days, from the therapy couch to the Google campus, from prisons to athletic events. But what are the origins of this surge in mindfulness? What kind of worldview and lifestyle went along with these ancient techniques of meditative training? And, beyond the questionable metaphysics and well-worn pop-psychology bromides, what is meditation actually for?

    This book explores the Buddhist ideas behind the mindfulness techniques that have seen such a groundswell of popularity. It covers meditation not just as a body of techniques for relaxation and stress relief to accessorize our busy modern lives, but as part of a radical system of self-transformation that offers the possibility of profound liberation.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTai Morello
    Release dateApr 19, 2017
    ISBN9781370697304
    Buddhism for Beginners

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    4.5/5

    17 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Easy for beginners to understand Buddhism. We loved reading it. Thank you

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Great book to learn the basics. It helped me learn where to go to next in my reading.

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    Buddhism for Beginners - Tai Morello

    Buddhism for Beginners

    A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

    Copyright © 2015 by Tai Morello

    Smashwords Copyright Note

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

    Table of contents

    Introduction

    Chapter 1: Worldview

    Chapter 2: Lifestyle

    Chapter 3: Meditation

    Chapter 4: Schools of Buddhism

    Conclusion

    Introduction

    For many years now, mindfulness has been all the rage. Spearheaded by leaders such as Jon Kabat-Zinn with his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), mindfulness meditation has revolutionized the practice of clinical psychology. It is a key piece of the so-called the third wave of cognitive and behavioral therapy. Inasmuch as it has triggered a paradigm shift in research and therapy, meditation is a bona fide big deal nowadays.

    The influence of mindfulness meditation is not just limited to the field of psychology, however. Its influence has spread far beyond that field into the self-help industry, corporate culture, education, and our daily lives.

    At one time, meditation was the exclusive domain of the 60s counterculture and the small religious movements it left in its wake—that is, whenever it was to be found outside of the cloistered halls of Asian monasteries.

    But now it's modern, cutting-edge, evidence-based—and, most of all, scientific. Far from just a passing fad, it's beginning to transform our lives and our culture in a number of ways.

    This book is not just for those who want to know what all the fuss is about. It's for anyone who is curious about the original source of all this mindfulness—that is, the philosophy and lifestyle of Buddhism. The aim of this book is not to convert you to a new religion. You don't have to sign a contract or join a group. Whether you're religious or secular, Christian, Muslim, or Jewish—or whatever—you can derive some practical benefit from the Buddha's teachings. The aim of this book is therefore to present Buddhism not as a religion, but as a practical philosophy of living with greater freedom and genuineness.

    * * *

    About 2,500 years ago, there lived in India a man who gave up a life of comfort and privilege for one of poverty and homelessness. He wanted to remove any kind of distractions from his quest. He was in search of answers to the questions that plagued his mind, namely questions of why we suffer and what we ought to do about it. He pursued this knowledge single-mindedly, always having the guts to look at his own mind unflinchingly and never shying from any hardship or challenge that came his way. As a result of his dedication and courage, he found the answers that he sought. He is now respected throughout the world as the Buddha, or Awakened One.

    He presented his findings to his contemporaries, not as a new religious dogma to be obeyed or a new pantheon to be worshiped, but as a comprehensive course of action for exploring our minds and undoing the deep habitual patterns that condition our experience and cause us to make unnecessary suffering in our lives. In other words, he left behind a complete system of instructions for replicating his results and reaping the rewards for ourselves.

    He explained his new prescription for a nobly lived life in any number of ways, but the main way we will explore in this book divides up the path in three parts:

    Worldview, which provides a framework for understanding the path

    Lifestyle, which prescribes an ethical way of living based on nonviolence and genuineness to oneself and others

    Meditation, which is the practice of calming your mind,

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