Unlearning Meditation What to Do When the Instructions Get In the Way

When we meditate, our minds often want to do something other than the meditation instructions we've been taught. When that happens repeatedly, we may feel frustrated to the point of abandoning meditation altogether. Jason Siff invites us to approach meditation in a new way, one that honors the part of us that doesn't want to do the instructions. He teaches us how to become more tolerant of intense emotions, sleepiness, compelling thoughts, fantasies-the whole array of inner experiences that are usually considered hindrances to meditation. The meditation practice he presents inUnlearning Meditationis gentle, flexible, permissive, and honest, and it's been wonderfully effective for opening up meditation for people who thought they could never meditate, as well as for injecting a renewed energy for practice into the lives of seasoned practitioners.

Jason Siff is cofounder of the Skillful Meditation Project, based in the Los Angeles area. He was a Theravadin monk in Sri Lanka in the 1980s but returned to the U.S. in 1990 to study counseling psychology. He teaches regularly at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Cloud Mountain, and the Esalen Institute. He leads retreats widely, including in the Los Angeles area, Vermont, Washington, New Mexico, and Australia.