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 | | Beyond the Breath by Marshall Glickman ISBN-10: 9781582900438 ISBN-10: 1-58290-043-4 ISBN-13: 9781582900438 ISBN-13: 978-1-58290-043-8 Paperback 2002-11-15 Journey Editions Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description "Beyond the Breath" provides a complete introduction to sensation-based vipassana meditation, which many practitioners believe to be the method used by Buddha over 2500 years ago. Mark Glickman's approach is unique: he examines a meditation practice deeply rooted within a historic Buddhist framework and provides us with a modern-day, scientific explanation. He presents meditation and Buddhist principles in contemporary language, making ideas that can sound archaic or exotic accessible and easy to understand. | ||
Reviews | ||
Creating a Soul Sanctuary "It's been said that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes - and I think that's true - but only if we eventually have success; otherwise we just keep making the same mistakes over and over." ~Marshall Glickman Learning to take care of our bodies by eating correctly and exercising seems a true journey all on its own. When you decide to incorporate a style of meditation into your life then a whole-body Vipassana might bring you more peace of mind. It is a sensation-based style of meditation. Marshall Glickman has a beautiful writing style and his ideas connect perfectly with the modern reader who may or may not be familiar with meditation. His ideas are presented in a way that makes meditation come alive. I used to think meditation was complete stillness and lack of thought, but there are ways to focus on sensation that bring you to a deeper understanding of yourself. Some of the intellectually intriguing aspects of this work include: The Power and Pleasure Principle The Biochemical Basics of Pleasure The Neurochemistry of Karma There are chapters filled with instructions on how to meditate, but the real highlights of this book are the insights into living life effectively and understanding how our bodies function on the chemical level. "Focusing on sensations puts us more directly in touch with what's motivating us, while at the same time helping to free us from the storylines which tend to obscure our feelings. In this way, greater awareness to our sensations increases our emotional sensitivity." ~Marshall Glickman If you have trouble settling into a meditation session, do yoga first. It helps your body to work out all the extra energy that might keep you from sitting still. You can also meditate while reclining in bed or while sitting in a chair. You don't have to meditate in a guru-style seated position. I normally meditate while laying flat on my back after an invigorating yoga practice. Some of the most blissful happy places I've ever been have been after doing a Chakra Yoga workout. I finally understood the place meditation could take you. I like imagining colors inside my body and working with sensations and the release of negative thoughts. I've noticed that when I do meditate I think more clearly and can solve problems more effectively. When I don't meditate, chaos creeps into my life. After reading this work, you may also enjoy Tobin Blake's "The Power of Stillness: Learn Meditation in 30 Days." ~The Rebecca Review | ||
Marshall Glickman fills a contemporary Buddhism explanation niche "Beyond the Breath" is written by a fellow baby-boomer in a style and vernacular completely understandable to people in the West. As such, Marshall Glickman fills a modern Buddhism explanation niche. For example, I'm sure that the First Noble Truth of Buddhism, "LIFE IS SUFFERING" sounds completely dismal and off-putting to the average Westerner - a real hindrance to investigating Buddhism further. Most people I know would probably respond with, "Well, isn't life basically good? Isn't life what you make it?" The author, however, puts a subtle spin on the First Noble Truth which, in my opinion makes Buddhism a lot more appealing. The author suggests that, "Something is always a bit off," or "Things are never just right." I prefer, "Life is good and we can make it better." IMO this positive spin is good for Buddhism. Marshall, however, does support traditional Buddhist notions on materialism by citing a study that found that the pleasure we get from owning things hinges on one-upmanship - hardly a source of lastly fulfillment or happiness. There is also an interesting section on the psychological experiences of organ transplant recipients that dramatically demonstrates the body-mind connection. Another powerful distinction in the book is that true detachment comes from accepting what is not dissociating from or ignoring what is. So paradoxically, acceptance leads to detachment. Like the author, I too have completed several S.N. Goenka sponsored 10-Day Vipassana courses. As a result, I can truly say that "Beyond the Breath" points the reader towards a powerful and personal experience of transformation, which is the essence of Buddha's message. You can read a book on swimming while sitting comfortably in a deckchair and then make up an elaborate and fascinating story about it, or you can read a book on swimming and then jump into the pool. "Beyond the Breath" is an excellent resource for anyone interested in improving the quality of their life using the ancient technique of Vipassana meditation. The information in this book will undoubtedly result in many more people jumping into the pool. Highly recommended! | ||
Outstanding, insightful guide to meditation and mindfulness. This is a practical and insightful guide to meditation as a practice and mindfulness as a way of being. There is also abundant theory in the form of a spritual and psychological approach to life. This is a very clear, personable and well written book which offers a diverse array of insightful quotes from many interesting sources. My only complaint is the picture of buddha on the cover because I believe that this image limits the very universal and secular insights that are presented so well in this book. | ||
Job well done Marshall! Its very hard for me to write this. I practiced vipassana for seven years and talk about some highlights in my review of John Coleman's book elsewhere on my review list. Marshall does a really good job of explaining vipassana and many of the points he makes particularly on morality and ethics - which are frequently lost in the hunt for "groovy feelings" - are exactly the points I would make. I have very fond memories of goenka-ji and sitting with him - his discourses are masterly (though as one with "the gab" too I distrust eloquence without active right action being manifest in the speaker - something hard to judge without knowing the teacher intimitly.) I take issue with simplistic "no-self" positions - I am not an individual - I am more like a flock or a school of being within - neither am I viable without the matrix of fellow beings of which I make a part outside this skin. But what I am does not have to be ugly, futile or absurd and deciding to look for this ugly "truth" and "surprise surprise" finding it within the (locally) "unconditioned state" does not impress me. The high buddhist state is not a summit of insight - it is merely an apex in a multidimensional polygon of many apexes - several of I have visited and returned in a worse state than Messner after conquering Everest alone without oxygen. The are not ultimate truths - they are evidence of the shape and edges of reality - my place is somewhere in the middle. I no longer formally meditate nor look for peak experiences (my poor old mind is a bit done in after "The lap of god watching him build the world" (where there is no chaos - nor random neither "noise" only "signal" throughout) followed a year later after five nights without sleep and before being taken to the nut house speachless and almost without movement - by "Sitting in the place of god being the builder of the house" (Best left to Him/Her/It) Since then I have visited only one lower peak this spring "Where the world is just getting ever so slightly better each instant rather than ever so slightly worse" otherwise known to buddhists as the buddha in the Pure Land (not talking about chanting meditation here folks nor any formal meditation.) What do I do and have I done these last years since stopping formal meditation as no longer fruitful? I follow harder precepts. #Always try and tell and do the truth. #Take complete responsibility for your actions. (this trumps the former) #Watch desire and aversion like a cat at a mousehole. (this is essential for the other two) Now I sweep creation with the contemplation of the ebb and flow of desire taking place perhaps of the ebb and flow of breath - and sweeping the entire conscious sense plane - or rather letting it sweep itself as directed by desire/aversion in its new responsible grown-up guise. I live through a very great deal of (objective) suffering mine and others'. I live through it cleansed and encouraged and not downhearted. I shout and get angry - I drink and sometimes am drunk - but always with compassion (founded in responsibility) to the fore. I bicker enthusiastically with my latin wife. I have acess through my exploration of desire to a number of past lives - my task is to ease them with new truths unavailable to them. We have moved on 2,500 yrs since the bodhi tree - truth has evolved - no one man can hold it in this era - we all have to have our little piece and to proceed with scientific method and knowledge of both our evolution and of reality. I am diagnosed (you should know) with Type one Bipolar disorder at times 'Schitzo affective') It is like having a wooden leg or a scarred face - no handicap to wisdom or its promulgation. Mind you "Just because you're seriously ugly doesn't mean you get to be in the Fellini Movie" May all beings share my blessings - may all wake up to find themselves part of the tending and gardening of the Pure Land. that is always in the making and never perfect. (The adjective "pure" - otherwise evil - is tempered by the noun "land" unable to be an absolute - just "fine stuff".) "Perfection" is the new evil "Sin" (getting it wrong) is the new prayer "Groovy Feelings" are the new gold of Mammon". Waking through the mall and watching yourself buy just something you need - is the new meditation. (More correctly these things are "contemplation") Messner has "discovered" the summit of Everest in the true and human way - as part of our home planet - no need to go there again - any apex is "the edge" - Damma is about the Middle - that has not changed since the new moon in June 1956 when I was born. Nicely in time for this new dawn. See my other reviews to be sure I'm too crazed for my opinion to matter! (Arf!) (I am a member of no group or cult though I find myself articulate and "initiate" in all I've come across - good or bad) Now Marshall - go back to that very nice man with the big stick. - Who said what he did was "wrong" and if so what's the problem? - it was effective and deeply compassionate it seems to me. Perhaps you should ask him to do it again so you can see why it affronted you so. Personally I'd have done it with my tongue and you'd have liked it even less. Don't crave or dread "The end" the world is not a movie that you consume. "What about the suffering in Africa?" - we CAN and must fix it - if necessary with concrete things and systems like tanks (hopefully the type that hold water), policemen and the banning of secret off-shore banking. (My "practice" is four hours a week with "The Economist" - small print, deep samadhi!) If in doubt walk in nature. READ "THE WISDOM OF CROWDS" ( see my review of it) to undrstand why there can be no Arhat knowing more than all of us and rendering consciousnesss redundant. | ||
An Interesting Inquiry into Vipassana Meditation Vipassana Meditation As Taught By S.N.Goinka is, indeed, a jewel. Unfortunately, because of the way his organization is structured, there are few sources of information or perspective on this meditation technique or on the experience of meditation apart from those written by S.N.Goinka himself or his teachers. "Beyond the Breath" by Marshall Glickman is a valuable addition to this too small body of literature. In "Beyond the Breath" Marshall discusses Buddhism in general, Vipassana meditation in particular, and the scientific and biochemical underpinnings which make Vipassana meditation so effective. All of this in a simple and accessible style which both beginners and experienced meditators will read with enjoyment. Marshall points out some of the critical points concerning Vipassana mediation such as the fact that it is a gradual process; like "a dawn" rather then "a lightning bolt", that we must learn not to "confuse pleasure with happiness", and that the mind-body connection is such that it is possible to understand the term "mind" as including not only the brain and it's congnitive processes but also the body and it's physical sensations. He then goes on to explain how these and other abstract ideas from Buddhist philosophy and cosmology are realized in meditation practice and how such insights lead to a greater happiness. I would, however, express reservations (or perhaps further stress similar assertions made by Marshall) concerning the practical and specific recommendations and meditation instructions contained in this book. I'm not certain that this form of Vipassana can be effectively learned by most people outside of a 10-day course. I would recommend reading these sections of the book as the particular opinions, perspectives and experiences of one meditator rather then as an instruction manual. | ||