Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition

With over a quarter of a million copies sold, Mindfulness in Plain English is one of the most influential books in the burgeoning field of mindfulness and a timeless classic introduction to meditation. This is a book that people read, love, and give to everyone they know—a book that people talk about, write about, reflect on, and return to over and over again.

If you'd like to read about meditation and then go back to your regular life, don't get this book. Henepola Gunaratana, a monk from Sri Lanka and venerated teacher of Buddhism, warns us that vipassana meditation is "meant to revolutionize the whole of your life experience." In one of the best nuts-and-bolts meditation manuals, he lays out the fundamentals of basic Buddhist meditation, the how, what, where, when, and why, including common problems and how to deal with them. His 52 years as a Buddhist monk make Mindfulness in Plain English an authority on a living tradition, and his years of teaching in America and elsewhere give it the clarity and straightforwardness that has made it so popular. If you'd like to learn the practice of meditation, you can't do better. --Brian Bruya

"A masterpiece. I cannot recommend it highly enough." -- Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are

"Of great value to newcomers...especially people without access to a teacher." -- Larry Rosenberg, Director, Cambridge Insight Meditation Center