Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation - Hardcover

Rosenberg, Larry; Guy, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 157062335X ISBN 13: 9781570623356

Publisher: Shambhala Pubns, 1998

Synopsis

Freedom from suffering is not only possible, but the means for achieving it are completely within our grasp—literally as near to us as our own breath. This is the 2,500-year-old good news contained in the Anapanasati Sutra, the Buddha's own teaching on cultivating both tranquility and deep insight through the full awareness of breathing. In this book, Larry Rosenberg brings this timeless meditation method to life for people today, using the insights gained from his many years of practice and teaching. With wisdom, compassion, and humor he shows how the practice of breath awareness is quietly, profoundly transformative—and also supremely practical: if you're breathing, you've already got everything you need to start.

About this title

Review:

In any meditation class, one of the first things one learns is the importance of breathing. For Larry Rosenberg, a seasoned instructor of insight meditation, the breath is everything. And he is not in bad company since the Buddha himself delivered a sutra on the subject. Rosenberg's Breath by Breath is an elaboration on this short classic, but couched in familiar language liberally spiced with anecdotes from Rosenberg's decades of practice and teaching. It's Rosenberg's earthy humour and patient instruction that make him such a popular teacher and that make Breath by Breath a rewarding read. He takes the beginning student from the wandering "doggy mind" to becoming a chicken, along the way getting a teacher's bite and sitting like a frog. For the hurried and harried, he includes a nutshell two-step version of the sutra's 16-step practice (appended is the full text of the sutra). More of a coach than a disciplinarian, Rosenberg takes a "see what happens" attitude. "You don't make liberation happen", he says. "To contemplate breathing is to contemplate life itself". --Brian Bruya

Review:

...a book that every beginning meditator as well as experienced ones should read.
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, author of Mindfulness in Plain English

..a unique contribution to our understanding of the path of meditation... wonderfully accessible and relevant
--Joseph Goldstein

About this edition

• Publisher: Shambhala Pubns
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 157062335X
• ISBN 13: 9781570623356
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 215