Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening

From education and medicine to business and politics, we are in the midst of a great flowering of mindfulness. And with each new application we find for it, priceless benefits emerge. Yet the original purpose of mindfulness has remained throughout the centuries: spiritual awakening. With Mindfulness, Joseph Goldstein shares the wisdom of his four decades of teaching and practice in a book that will serve as a lifelong companion for anyone committed to mindful living and the realization of inner freedom. Goldstein's source teaching is the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha's legendary discourse on the four foundations of mindfulness that became the basis for the many types of Vipassana (or insight meditation) found today. Exquisite in detail yet wholly accessible and relevant for the modern student, Mindfulness takes us through a profound study of: . The four qualities of mind-ardency, clear knowing, mindfulness, and concentration . Mindfulness of the body, including the breath, postures, activities, and physical characteristics . Mindfulness of dhammas (or categories of experience), including the Five Hindrances, the Six Sense Spheres, the Seven Factors of Awakening, and much more "There is a wealth of meaning and nuance in the experience of mindfulness that can enrich our lives in unimagined ways," writes Goldstein. Now readers everywhere are invited to mine these riches together, with Mindfulness.