Teach Yourself Meditation Book

Dedication     vi
Sources     vii
Preface     viii
Introduction     xx
Beginning: the first step     1
Getting ready     2
The spiritual path     6
Focused awareness: the path of concentration     9
Subjects for meditation     11
Opening: the inner frontiers     16
East and West     17
The Cycle of Meditation     19
Meditation: the way of change     26
Meditation and physiology     26
Meditation and spirituality     27
The meditation journal     28
Establishing: the integrated life     30
The spiritual life     31
Illusion and reality     33
Denial, deception and delusion     35
Mindful living     39
Daily awareness     41
Developing: the greater blueprint     44
Patterns for living     45
The Wheel of Becoming: a monastic way     46
The Tree of Life: a mystical way     49
Unfolding the lotus: an esoteric way     52
The Natural Blueprint     56
Deepening: the way of the heart     60
Theknowing heart     61
Opening the heart     63
Finding the seed of compassion     67
Unlimited friendliness: the Metta Sutta     69
The Way of the Bodhisattva     70
Being: the creative response     74
The creative mind     75
The breath of inspiration     76
Sacred art     78
Seeing with the mind's eye     80
The inner world: the mandala     84
A Western mandala     85
Doing: the way of activity     88
The integrated life     89
Ecological spirituality     90
Zen archery     92
The cosmic dance     95
The allegorical garden     97
Sacred shrines     98
Changing: the flow of life     101
Time and tide     102
Flowing with daily life     105
Being here and now     106
Impermanence: the teacher     111
Openness: the illumined mind     114
The light of consciousness     115
Koans: puzzles without solutions     116
Making space in the mind     119
The royal road     121
The light of insight      125
The light of wisdom     126
Hearing: the power of sound     129
The sound of silence     130
Listening     131
The sounds of Nature     132
Creative sound     133
The sounded word     135
The sacred voice     141
Growing: the paradox of selfhood     143
Who am I?     144
The mystical moment     147
The mystical state     152
Models of self     153
Searching for the self     154
No boundaries     158
Waking: the enlightenment breakthrough     160
Waking up     161
Enlightenment: the inner light     163
The Buddha within     168
The central mystery     169
Bodymind - the new frontier     172
The physical brain     174
The chemical brain     175
The emotional brain     177
The electrical brain     180
Meditation and neuroscience     181
The whole life - the happy life     184
Glossary     187
Notes     189
Taking it further     193
Further reading      193
Websites     195
Index     197