Notes on the December Meeting

We enjoyed our usual tasty treats compliments of Claudine and Ginny and began our discusssion with Nadine relaying her experience of noticing the rising of a thought before it had been formed into words. That morphed into various topics on how to share ones practice with friends who are unfamiliar with Buddhism without proselytizing, how to handle insights that arise in the process of our sitting practice, the distinction between concentration and contemplation (mindfulness) in sitting practice, and others.
    
Ginny and Claudine shared their experience of the Sharon Salzberg weekend, and we disussed a request to add another book - one on the basics of Buddhism, to the book club. Bob suggested Essential Buddhism, A Complete Guide to Beliefs and Practices, by Jack Maguire (see description and Amazon link below). Please go ahead and get the book if it interests you. We will brainstorm how to work it into our meetings while still continuing with Mindfulness in Plain English at our next gathering. Which by the way, will be the third Sunday in January. Sunday January 17th.


Essential Buddhism by Jack Maguire
Available at Amazon both new and used.
Description:
Four hundred million people call themselves Buddhists today. Yet most Westerners know little about this powerful, Eastern-spawned faith. How did it begin? What do its adherents believe? Why are so many Westerners drawn to it?
Essential Buddhism responds to these questions and many more, offering an accessible, global perspective on the religion's past, present, and future. It identifies how the principal concepts and practices originated and evolved through diverse cultural adaptations into three basic formats:
* Theraveda (including Vipassana, brought from Vietnam in the 1960s and including such practitioners as Jack Kornfield and Jon Kapat-Zinn)
* Mahayana (including Zen Buddhism, originally brought to America by Japanese teachers after World War II and popularized by Jack Kerouac and Thomas Merton)
* Vajrayana (including Tibetan Buddhism, from the teachers who fled the Chinese takeover of Tibet in the 1950s as well as the Dalai Lama, and embraced by Allen Ginsberg, Richard Gere, and countless others)
Essential Buddhism is the single best resource for the novice and the expert alike, exploring the depths of Buddhism's popularity and illuminating its tenets and sensible approach to living. Written in the lucid prose of a longtime professional storyteller, and full of Buddhist tales, scriptural quotes, ancient stories, and contemporary insights, Essential Buddhism is the first complete guide to the faith and the phenomenon.