Recommended Books

Many students find reading about mindfulness helps ground their meditation practice and deepen their understanding. This is a list of books we have found useful. Books with a '*' are highly recommended.

Mindfulness

• Calming your Anxious Mind, Jeffrey Brantley
• Full Catastrophe Living, Jon Kabat-Zinn *
• Heal Thy Self: Lessons on Mindfulness in Medicine, Saki Santorelli
• Living the Mindful Life, Charles T. Tart
• Living Well with Pain and Illness, Vidyamala Burch *
• The Mindful Way through Depression, Jon Kabat-Zinn et al.
• Mindfulness in Plain English, Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
• The Miracle of Mindfulness, Thich Nhat Hanh *
• Peace is Every Step, Thich Nhat Hanh
• Present Moment, Wonderful Moment, Thich Nhat Hanh

Meditation

• The Art of Meditation, Matthieu Ricard
• Simple Steps: Essential Meditation, Duncan Baird Publishers
• Meditation, David Fontana *
• Meditation for Beginners, Jack Kornfield
• Meditation for Life, Martine Bachelor
• True Meditation, Adyashanti

Neurobiology

• Destructive Emotions, Daniel Goleman
• The Mindful Brain, Daniel Siegel
• Mindsight: Change your Brain and your Life, Daniel Siegel
• My Stroke of Insight, Jill Bolte Taylor
• Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain, Sue Gerhardt

Psychotherapy and Psychology

• Buddhist Psychology, Caroline Brazier
• The Compassionate Mind, Paul Gilbert
• Focusing, Eugene Gendlin
• Ordinary Mind: Exploring the Common Ground of Zen and Psychoanalysis, Barry Magid
• Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway, Susan Jeffers
• Creative Visualisation, Shakti Gawain
• Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill, Matthieu Ricard
• The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life, Daniel Stern
• Towards a Psychology of Awakening, John Welwood
• The Wisdom of Imperfection, Rob Preece *
• The Wisdom of Listening, Mark Brady

Yoga and Breathwork

• Breath: The Essence of Yoga, Sandra Sabatini
• The Breathing Book, Donna Farhi *
• The Little Book of Yoga Breathing, Scott Shaw
• Ways to Better Breathing, Carola Speads
• Yoga: The Iyengar Way, Silva, Mira and Shyam Mehta
• The Yoga Book, Maxine Tobias and Mary Stewart

Buddhism

• Ancient Wisdom, Modern World: Ethics for a New Millennium, Dalai Lama
• Being Peace, Thich Nhat Hanh
• Buddha for Beginners, Jane Hope and Borin Van Loon
• The Blooming of a Lotus: Guided Meditation for Achieving the Miracle of Mindfulness, Thich Nhat Hanh
• Comfortable with Uncertainty, Pema Chodron
• Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Chogyam Trungpa
• A Guide to the Buddhist Path, Sangharakshita
• An Introduction to Buddhism, Peter Harvey
• A Path with Heart, Jack Kornfield *
• Peace is Every Step, Thich Nhat Hanh
• The Places that Scare You: a Guide to Fearlessness, Pema Chodron
• The Wisdom of No Escape, Pema Chodron *
• Working with Anger, Thubten Chodron

Tibetan Teachings

• The Alchemical Buddha: The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra, Rob Preece
• Dakini’s Warm Breath, Judith Simmer-Brown
• Luminous Emptiness, Francesca Fremantle
• No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva, Pema Chodron
• Shambala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, Chogyam Trungpa
• Taming the Tiger, Akong Tulku Rinpoche
• The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche
• The Way of the Bodhisattva, Shantideva

Zen Teachings

• Complete Enlightenment, Ch’an Master Sheng-yen
• Everyday Zen, Charlotte Joko Beck
• An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, DT Suzuki
• Nothing Special: Living Zen, Charlotte Joko Beck
• Zen Haiku, Jonathan Clements
• Zen: a Way of Life, Christmas Humphreys
• Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki
• Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki

Theravadan Teachings

• Being Nobody, Going Nowhere, Ayya Khema
• The Dhammapada
• Everything Arises, Everything Falls Away, Ajahn Chah
• The Heart of Buddhist Meditation, Nyanaponika Thera
• What the Buddha Taught, Walpola Sri Rahula

Other

• The End of Your World, Adyashanti
• The Good Retreat Guide, Stafford Whiteaker
• A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle
• Non-violent Communication, Marshall Rosenberg
• The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle *
• Practising the Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle
• Stillness Speaks, Eckhart Tolle
• Wild Geese, Mary Oliver

CDs

• Body Scan, Vidyamala Burch
• Breathing, Andrew Weil
• How to Meditate, Pema Chodron
• True Happiness, Pema Chodron
• Kindly Awareness, Vidyamala Burch
• Jon Kabat-Zinn Mindfulness CDs *
• Meditation for Optimum Health, Andrew Weil and Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Mindfulness of Breathing, Vidyamala Burch *
• True Meditation, Adyashanti