Looking for books about the subtler details of meditation

On a sidenote: Anybody know "Mindfulness in Plain English"? Is it a good book, worth the read?

If not, what is?

I'm looking for books that intricately describe the fine subtleties and states encountered in meditation in plain English. What happens to your breath, to your thoughts, to your emotions, to your body, to the sensations, what changes how, what arises, what moves out of awareness, how your perception changes...

Optimally described by an experienced person instead of taken from any other source.

Because while many books describe techniques, most if not all cannot accurately describe what you find. How can then the practitioner accurately "verify" the progress, the experience, anything? I know there are people who like to take this from ancient or older scripture, but to me that just means you can not even be sure in hindsight, because often enough our interpretation of a language that is no longer ours is at best errorprone.

This may not be the best example, but I actually read Bardon who wrote in my mother tongue, and the language does no longer fully decode, which seems to show in the English translations which struggle with this as well AFAIK. So how can we even hope to decode a text that was written many generations ago in another culture, another time, by a person of a very different world view and level of development?

I'd rather look for books that actually can accurately describe this in the terms of these days. Anybody know some?

PS - I'm not interested in any "meditation poetry" where basically people endlessly describe something without saying anything. I'd love a book in Robert's style - just the facts, explained modern and straight-forward. No quantum theories either. ;)

Thank you,
Oliver

Is it possible that some experiences cannot be described so that everyone understands them because of their subjective nature? I've had some that left me with a big case of the *wow*s but when I describe them there's nothing that spectacular.

I don't think so. ;)

If somebody feels that they rather give techniques because the experience is hard to describe or they don't want to fill people with expectations, that's a choice. It's okay for some.

But I don't think there should be books who do, actually. I've seen books from people that are accomplished meditators but simply cannot describe - I don't think that's a failure of the experience to be describable at all, but of the author's talent and skill.

Oliver

But there are people (who ask often enough) who just want techniques from people who are accomplished, and don't care to know what to expect. Surely you don't mean to say they shouldn't have the option?
And there is also the meditator who thinks he's giving a good description but in fact isn't?
Being a book editor must be hard....

I'm not looking for those because I'm not one of those. There are plenty of books for them. I've seen them. I'm looking for the other books. If there are any.

Oliver

Okay. What are you planning to accomplish with meditation?

Aunt Clair should write a book.
that would be some read! :shock:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tom

Okay. What are you planning to accomplish with meditation?

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I want to learn the workings of the mind. How emotions and thoughts get created, how to relax them away, how to resolve the conflicts in my inner world and find lasting peace. I'm looking for the telltale signs along the way and for the specific mind phenomena that will lead there.

Thanks,
Oliver

That sounds like a lot of long term goals and I don't really see a way of measuring how well it is working. Do you have something more short term in mind?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Korpo

I want to learn the workings of the mind. How emotions and thoughts get created, how to relax them away, how to resolve the conflicts in my inner world and find lasting peace.

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I don't think you'll find that in a book. :wink: