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Mindfulness and meditation are two aspects of the Eight Fold Noble Path taught by the Buddha in 500 BC. Buddhists have been practising these for many centuries and have made a valid contribution to create peace in people's lives. Today people think Buddhist teachings are scientific, logical, practical and sensible. Buddhism does not need science to prove the authenticity of its teachings. It only needs people to engage in meditation and promote it as such, without watering it down for the purposes of mere stress reduction and performance enhancement. A large number of people have taken on what is known as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Therapy and it has been promoted as if it was developed by someone in recent years, without giving credit to the teachings of the Buddha. Elsewhere, others try to promote the same by calling it Compassion Based Stress Reduction Therapy. The form of meditation the Buddha taught and practiced is called "Calm Abiding Meditation" and it is the remedy for all 84,000 afflictions - not just stress. The teaching of the Buddha is wisdom based reduction and elimination of all afflictions and sufferings. This handbook consists of notes compiled primarily to accompany the 8-Week Course on Calm Abiding Meditation that I conduct for students of Buddhism and the general public. I have been conducting these courses for over 18 years. There are also many of my students who have been facilitating this course on a regular basis throughout Australia and New Zealand. Nowadays, a few Tibetan Buddhist centers are starting to offer classes on Calm Abiding Meditation, but they are usually taught as a philosophical explanation of the topic without devoting any time to sit in quietness and do the practice of meditation. Over the years I have adapted these courses to provide practical techniques for the general public. It is not necessary to hold any religious beliefs in order to benefit from Meditation. Calm Abiding Meditation might also be useful for people of other faiths who wish to enrich their religious life. You will gain the most benefit by practicing every day, even for just a few minutes, rather than from longer occasional bursts of enthusiasm. Even when you are not meditating formally, you can carry the benefits into your daily life by doing everything with a sense of purpose and a gentle attitude.
Taming the Elephant Mind: A Handbook on the Theory and Practice of Calm Abiding Meditation, Lama Choedak Rinpoche , Gorum Publications, Paperback, 2013, 87pp, $10.00
Lama Choedak Rinpoche was born in the yak hair tent of a nomad family on the Tibetan plateau in 1954. His family fled the Chinese Red Army invasion of their homeland to eventually re-establish their lives as refugees in Pokhara, Nepal, where they have remained for the last fifty years. Rinpoche took ordination as a monk while still attending high school and became the first Tibetan refugee to attain a Nepalese secondary education certificate. As a novice monk Lama Choedak was accepted by the great Tibetan master His Eminence Choegye Trichen (1920-2007), one of a handful of monks helping to establish His Eminence�s new seat in exile, at the birthplace of the Buddha, in Lumbini, Nepal. Rinpoche proved to be a particularly bright student and was close to His Eminence, acting as his personal attendant for six years. He completed twelve years of rigorous monastic training under Choegye Trichen's guidance, including a traditional three-and-a-half year solitary meditation retreat, which was sponsored by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
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