How To Practice Shamatha Meditation

Description

How to Practice Shamatha Meditation: The Cultivation of Meditative Quiescence

by Gen Lamrimpa, translated by B. Alan Wallace

In 1988, Gen Lamrimpa, a Tibetan monk, led a one-year retreat in the Pacific Northwest, during which a group of Western meditators devoted themselves to the practice of meditative quiescence (shamatha). This book is a record of the oral teachings he gave to this group at the outset of the retreat. The teachings are brought to life by Gen Lamrimpa’s warmth, humor, and extensive personal experience as a contemplative recluse. An invaluable practical guide for those seeking to develop greater attentional stability and clarity, this work will be of considerable interest to meditators, psychologists, and all others who are concerned with the potentials of the human mind.

Gen Lamrimpa, Ven. Jampal Tenzin (1934-2004), was a close disciple of H.H. the Dalai Lama. He lived in meditative solitude in the mountains high above Dharamsala, India, where he gained a reputation for his deep experience of the “stages of the path” practices. He was renowned as an accomplished practitioner of meditative stabilization and tummo (psychic heat) as well as other tantric meditations.