This 74 page booklet gives a clear and concise overview of how to do basic sitting meditation.

The author Thrangu Rinpoche has spent the last 40 years teaching meditation and other Buddhist topics to both Western and asian students. The process of developing good meditation is to begin with Shamatha meditation which is to settle the mind and to gradually train it it so that we can rest without becoming overly distracted by thoughts and emotions.

The second step to developing good meditation is developing Vipashyana in which we learn how to look directly at our mind and see its true nature. When we are able to do this, we can begin to diminish our disturbing emotions and thoughts and our anxieties.

Both of these meditations can be done anywhere and without a special setting, implements, or empowerments. Rinpoche explains meditation in a simple, non-technical language based on a meditation tradition that is over 1,000-year-old and has produced many enlightened individuals.

Tranquility and Insight is a 170 page book by Thrangu Rinpoche available on this website that gives extensive descriptions of Shamatha and Vipashyana. This book includes a discussion of the purpose of these meditations, their different levels of practice, the obstacles and antidotes to these obstacles that can arise, and the accomplishments that can come out of of each practice. As a result this book is a careful study of the mind from the point of view of actual meditation practice.

 Also available as a book for $3.00 (postage free in US)