Meditation: The Complete Guide: Techniques from East and West to Calm the Mind, Heal the Body, and Enrich the Spirit

Patricia Monaghan · Eleanor G. Viereck

Oct 2011 · New World Library

About this ebook

Uniquely comprehensive, this one-stop resource describes thirty-?ve distinct meditation practices, detailing their historical background and contemporary use, ways to begin, and additional resources. The what and why of meditation in general are discussed, with emphasis on helping readers discover what particular type of meditators they are. Disciplines grounded in Buddhism, Tantrism, Taoism, Judaism, and Islam are included, as are contemplative prayer, Quaker worship, and indigenous traditions. Drumming, trance dancing, yoga, mindfulness, labyrinth walking, gardening, and even needle crafts are explored in a spirit that invites and instructs novice, devotee, and healing professional alike. How to choose an approach? The authors ask questions that steer readers toward options that match their habits, preferences, and needs.

About the author

One of the leaders of the contemporary earth spirituality movement, Patricia Monaghan has spent more than 20 years researching and writing about alternative spiritual visions of the earth. Raised in Alaska, where much of her family still lives, she considers herself blessed to have learned the ecology of the taiga, the sub-arctic forest, in her youth. She was a writer and reporter on science and energy-related issues before turning her attention to the impact of myth on our daily lives. The worldwide vision of the earth as feminine — as a goddess, called Gaia by the Greeks — led her to recognize the connection between ecological damage and the oppression of the feminine. Much of her work since that time has explored the role of feminine power in our world, in an inclusive and multicultural way. Her book, Wild Girls, focuses on the revival of girl power.

Eleanor G. (Teri) Viereck drove to Fairbanks, Alaska, from Massachusetts in 1954 and has never looked back. Since then, she has earned a PhD in ecology, married the forester and ecologist Leslie Viereck, raised three children, kept goats and horses, climbed mountains, played ice hockey, and raced with a cross-country ski team. Her book, Alaska’s Wilderness Medicine, is the classic text on edible and medicinal plants of Alaska. She has practiced and taught yoga for more than forty years and has studied with Sufi, Buddhist, indigenous, and pagan teachers. She currently teaches courses in embodiment and awareness, sings in several choirs, plays classical piano, and explores authentic movement.