A comprehensive, authoritative presentation of the deeply refined Buddhist science of meditation, from an inspiring modern meditation master

Wisdom Wide and Deep is an extended introduction to an in-depth training that emphasizes the application of concentrated attention to profound and liberating insight. With calm, tranquility, and composure established through a practical experience of jhana or deep concentration, meditators are able to halt the seemingly endless battle against hindrances, eliminate distraction, and facilitate a penetrative insight into the subtle nature of matter and mind. It was for this reason the Buddha frequently exhorted his students, Develop concentration, one who is concentrated understands things as they really are.
This book, Wisdom Wide and Deep, follows and amplifies the teachings in Shaila Catherines acclaimed first book, Focused and Fearless: A Meditators Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity.
Readers will learn to this profound stability to the meticulous discernment, analysis, and contemplation of reality as it is actually occurring and learn how to sustain an in-depth examination of the nuances of mind and matter to unravel deeply conditioned patterns that perpetuate suffering. This is a profoundly practical guide, the fully detailed manual for the mind sure to become a trusted companion to many inner explorers.
Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana, Shaila Catherine, Wisdom Publications, 456 pages, $34.95

Shaila Catherine began her meditation practice in 1980 and has accumulated eight years of intensive silent retreat experience. For nearly a decade, Shaila studied with masters in India, Nepal, and Thailand. Since 2003, she has focused on using the deep concentration of Jhana as the basis for insight, and since 2006, her practice has been guided by the teachings of Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw of Burma (Myanmar). Shaila has taught meditation since 1996, and in 2006 she founded Insight Meditation South Bay, a Buddhist meditation center in Mountain View, California. She authored "Focused and Fearless: A Meditator's Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity" (2008), and she leads retreats and courses on the cultivation of concentration and mindfulness-based insight practices internationally.

Contents: WISDOM WIDE and DEEP: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana by Shaila Catherine
Foreword by Pa-Auk Sayadaw	xv
Acknowledgments	xvii
Introduction: Approaching Deep Calm and Insight	1
SECTION I. ESTABLISHING CONCENTRATION THROUGH MINDFULNESS WITH BREATHING	7
1. Clearing the Path: Overcoming the Five Hindrances	9
2. Leading the Way: Enhancing Five Controlling Faculities	29
3. Eleven Supports for Developing Concentration	55
4. Beyond Distraction: Establishing Jhana through Mindfulness with Breathing	61
SECTION II. CONCENTRATION BEYOND THE BREATH	93
Introduction to Section II: Concentration Beyond the Breath	95
5. Embodying Your World: Contemplating Thirty-Two Parts of the Body	101
6. Expanded Perceptions: Ten Kasina Circles	117
7. Infinite Perceptions: Four Immaterial Jhanas	133
8. Boundless Heart: Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Appreciative Joy, and Equanimity	147
9. Reflections on Death: Contemplating the Corpse	179
10. Eleven Skills for Jhana Meditation	191
SECTION III. DISCERNING ULTIMATE REALITIES	201
11. Concepts and Reality: Penetrating the Illusion of Compactness	203
12. Explorations of Matter: Four Elements Meditation	215
13. Nature of Mind: Discerning Ultimate Mentality	253
14. A Magic Show: Emptiness of the Five Aggregates	295
15. Causes and Effects: Twelve Links of Dependent Arisings	309
16. A Thorough Examination: Recognizing the Characteristic, Function, Manifestation, and Proximate Cause	355
SECTION IV. REALIZING THE DEATHLESS LIBERATION	387
17. Liberating Insight: Contemplating Three Universal Characteristics	389
18. Release from the Bonds: Ten Fetters, Four Stages of Enlightenment, and Sixteen Knowledges	429
19. Of Lasting Benefit: Practice in the Midst of Daily Life	465
Notes	475
Bibliography	489
Glossary of Pali Terms and Buddhist Concepts	493
Index	511
About the Author	551