The Issue At Hand: Essays On Buddhist Mindfulness Practice Summary and Reviews

The Issue At Hand: Essays On Buddhist Mindfulness Practice
by Gil Fronsdal

The Issue At Hand: Essays On Buddhist Mindfulness Practice
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Book Summary Information

Author: Gil Fronsdal
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-02-01
ISBN: 061516286X
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: Bookland
Product features:
  • ISBN13: 9780615162867
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Book Reviews of The Issue At Hand: Essays On Buddhist Mindfulness Practice

Book Review: Clarity as craftsmanship
Summary: 5 Stars

For my money, Gil Fronsdal is the neatest Buddhist teacher in the contemporary English-speaking world. His Dharma talks (see zencast.org or dharmaseed.org) are so straightforward and jargon-free that it's easy to mistake them for Hallmark greeting card material. But this clarity is actually the result of exquisite craftsmanship. Gil explains in this book that he's spent some time teaching children, and he's learned how to reduce complex matters to what newspaper journalists call the "nut 'graph" - the shortest and most elegant statement of fact possible within the limits of language. This book follows that model: brief and to the point. Where history or foreign words are necessary to demonstrate a point, Gil draws on his (massive) scholarly knowledge in the Buddhist Canon. But mindfulness is not about what happened in a foreign land 2,500 years ago - it's right here, right now, and that's where he keeps us for the majority of the book. It's as powerful, practical, and fun as the practice of mindfulness itself.

If you're looking for a introductory primer on mindfulness technique, there are better resources. (I'm enjoying Pema Chodron's How to Meditate with Pema Chodron: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind.) If at all possible, you should try to get a live human being to teach you, since mindfulness is essentially a participatory, experiential, trans-rational activity. But if you are a working practitioner at any level, this book will go a long way to supplement and contextualize your practice.

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