Books on Buddhist Meditation -when we need books as Gurus

The Watercooler
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Books on Buddhist Meditation -when we need books as Gurus

There are nearly as many books on Buddhist Meditation as there are cookbooks, I spent some time on amazon. com and Google as well as the message boards to see some of the names of writers of books on Buddhist Meditation, after all, in the second 500 years after the passing of the Buddha into Nirvana it is supposed to be books we turn to. This is the list I came up with.

What do you think of these books and writers?

Visuddhimagga

Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa
was a 5th-century Indian Theravada Buddhist commentator and translator. He worked in the Great Monastery (Mahāvihāra) at Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka
●
The Heart of Buddhist Meditation
Nyanaponika Thera
Born: July 21, 1901, Hanau, Germany
Died: October 19, 1994 (age 93 years),
Kandy, Sri Lanka
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The Seven Contemplations of Insight
A Treatise on Insight Meditation
&
The Seven Stages of Purification
and The Insight Knowledges
A Guide to the Progressive Stages of Buddhist Meditation
by the
Venerable Matara Sri Nanarama Mahathera Late meditation master of the Nissaraóa Vanaya Hermitage Mìtirigala, Sri Lanka
Born: December 11, 1901, Matara, Sri Lanka
&
Died: April 30, 1992 (age 90 years), Kahawa, Sri Lanka
●
The Path of Serenity and Insight
Henepola Gunaratna
Born: 1927 (age 96 years), Henepola
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Ayyā Khemā
Within our Own Hearts
Born: August 25, 1923, Berlin, Germany
Died: November 2, 1997 (age 74 years), Oy-Mittelberg, Germany
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Calm and Insight
Bhikkhu Khantipalo
Born: 1932 (age 92 years), North London, London
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Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
With Each & Every Breath
Born: 1949 (age 74 years), Long Island, NY
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Mindfulness, Bliss and Beond
Ajahn Brahm
Born: 1951 (age 73 years), London, United Kingdom
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Mindfulness of Breathing
Bhikkhu Analayo
Born: 1962 (age 62 years), Germany
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A History of Mindfullness
Bhikkhu Sujato
Born: 1966 (age 57 years), Perth, Australia
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If you’re going with that, you gotta take Vimuttimagga into consideration as well.

Ledi Sayadaw also needs a special mention probably. Goenka too.

For influential historical treaties on Meditation, Fukanzazengi by Eihei Zenji likely deserves a special mention for setting off a whole school.

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Isn’t the Vimuttimagga a first run at what the Visuddhimagga became?

And how close are those folks you mentioned in youre 3rd paragraph to Theravada?

Thanks

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That’s a way to look at it. There’s quite a bit of doctrinal difference between the two.

Ledi Sayadaw is Theravada thoroughly. Goenka follows theravada meditation closely. Eihei Zenji is Mahayana / Zen.

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Strange list. Why The Path of Serenity and Insight instead of Mindfulness in Plain English? Why Mindfulness of Breathing instead of Satipaṭṭhāna?

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I have no overview of this. I simply had the name of books and/or books I’ve seen in threads. You have obviously been around and know the landscape.

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Buddhist meditation (in the core teachings of EBT) has two kinds: samadha (i.e. the practice of sati ‘mindfulness’) and insight (or ‘vipassana’, i.e. the practice of ‘right view’):

Why didn’t the Buddha provide a meditation manual? - The Watercooler - Discuss & Discover (suttacentral.net).

I think books as gurus for Buddhist meditation are the mentioned SN/SA suttas themselves.