bodhi tree swaying

Last year I announced that the second edition of Wildmind: A Step-by-Step Guide to Meditation would have a new cover. And I was very excited about it.

Since then, however, the publication date got moved back because they publisher was moving and had some staffing problems. And the staffing problem included the designer departing and not leaving a copy of the cover art. Sigh. So the cover above is the new proposed design.

In retrospect, although I was excited about the old design, I think this one has lasting appeal. It’s a bit conventional, but it more than does the job.

Justin Whitaker (disclosure — he’s a former meditation student of mine from a long time ago) wrote a nice review of the audiobook that I published through Sounds True, Still The Mind. Here’s his summation:

Typically in closing a review I try to find some sort of criticism or idea for improvement, but today – perhaps feeling overly zen-like after nearly three hours of Bodhipaksa’s calming voice and Scottish accent – I am having a very hard time thinking of anything. These are CDs I will recommend to anyone interested in a clear and direct introduction to meditation practice. It has served me as a valuable reminder of the key steps of the practice and I know I will listen again and again, both for my own practice and as a primer for teaching meditation to others.

You can buy Still the Mind from Wildmind, Sounds True, Amazon.com, …

A few months ago, Sounds True published my guide to the Mindfulness of Breathing meditation practice in the form of a two-CD audiobook, which contains guided meditations as well as more lecture-style material explaining the background and nuances of the practice.

Gloria Chadwick, over at Zen Coffee, just posted a very positive review. Here’s an extract:

I had the pleasure of reviewing Bodhipaksa’s new 2-CD set, Still the Mind: Simple Breathing Practices for Inner Peace, published by Sounds True. Bodhipaksa is a Buddhist teacher and runs the online meditation center, Wildmind, a wonderful website.

I totally loved Still the Mind. I felt as if I was listening to a very kind, gentle teacher who was speaking with me, a teacher who truly wanted to share the peace and joy that meditation brings. Bodhipaksa makes meditation available and easily accessible to everyone who wants to meditate.

…

The wonderful people at Sounds True are bringing out a double-CD set of my teachings on the Mindfulness of Breathing practice tomorrow (Jan 1, 2009). It’s called “Still the Mind” and it’s a step-by-step guide to the four stages of the practice, illuminating the principles underlying each stage and explaining the various ways that our awareness of the breath can be used to cultivate calmness, energy, mental integration, and one-pointed concentration.

Here’s a bit of the blurb.

The average person has 12,000 thoughts per day—most of them a recurring handful of unwelcome distractions. On Still the Mind, master meditation teacher Bodhipaksa offers an essential program for anyone looking to move beyond the chatter of a too-busy mind, while laying the foundation for a daily meditation practice. Two CDs of instruction and guided sitting sessions will help you discover the breath as an untapped

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Time for some shameless self-publicity!

This summer I was over in Boulder, Colorado, doing some recording for Sounds True, who are a fantastic outfit staffed by a very friendly and astonishingly competent bunch of people. The first fruits of that work are approaching ripeness in the form of a two-CD set called “Still the Mind,” which is a step-by-step guide to a samatha (calm abiding) approach to the mindfulness of breathing that helps to develop calmness and one-pointed concentration.

Sounds True have done their usual excellent job with the packaging:

and the blurb:

I’m not sure of the exact launch date yet.

There’s a second CD set coming out later in 2009. It’s called “The Wisdom of the Breath.” More about that in due course.

And as if that wasn’t enough, One Spirit took an interest in both …