---
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title: "The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness"
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# The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness

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## Description

A revolutionary, science-based approach to meditation from a neuroscientist turned meditation master, The Mind Illuminated is an accessible, step-by-step toolkit for anyone looking to start—or improve—their daily meditation practice. The book that bestselling meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg raves “brings the path of meditation to life,” The Mind Illuminated is the first how-to meditation guide from a neuroscientist who is also an acclaimed meditation master. This innovative book offers a 10-stage program that is both deeply grounded in ancient spiritual teachings about mindfulness and holistic health, and also draws from the latest brain science to provide a roadmap for anyone interested in achieving the benefits of mindfulness. Dr. John Yates offers a new and fascinating model of how the mind works, including steps to overcome mind wandering and dullness, extending your attention span while meditating, and subduing subtle distractions. This groundbreaking manual provides illustrations and charts to help you work through each stage of the process, offering tools that work across all types of meditation practices. The Mind Illuminated is an essential read, whether you are a beginner wanting to establish your practice or a seasoned veteran ready to master the deepest state of peace and mindfulness.

Review: The very best book on meditation I've read - The very best book on meditation I've read, and I have read many. My primary interests have been in Zen, Theravada / Thai Forest Buddhist teachings, and S.N. Goenka's meditation teachings. Most secular Buddhist types will probably have a similar background so this review is for you. I don't know Culadasa (John Yates) or any of his students or much of anything about his school. This book was my first exposure to his teaching. I came away from reading it with what feels like a crystal clear understanding in broad terms of the path of meditative practice. The ideas laid out in this book unified and stitched together various teachings I've bumped into across different traditions, and made sense of all of them by introducing clear standardized terminology and doing away with all abstraction and poetic pretense. It was immediately obvious to me reading The Mind Illuminated exactly where in Culadasa's 10 step demarcation of the path I am currently. It was also immediately obvious how my years of spiritual practice so far lined up against the 10 stage model; it is not a simple forward progression. Demoralizing backslides and sudden bursts of insight are given perfectly sound rational explanation in this book, and in that way many of my greatest hangups about meditative practice have been put to rest. The second major point here is that even the stages I haven't reached were absolutely clear on first reading. Without any grasping attempts at fully describing heightened meditative experiences, just enough reference is given so that even someone at an earlier stage will understand what later stages might be like, and exactly what changes/effort are required to reach them. The entire spectrum from bored / tentative beginner to full Awakening are represented such that any layman will understand what is meant, and in that way this book is extremely motivating. A third striking feature of this book is that it hardly comes across as a book about Buddhism. If you read only the main body of text and ignore all the endnotes, you will see only two or three significant mentions of Buddhism or Buddhist-specific terminology (except for the quite vanilla Anapanasati Sutta, which is briefly referenced at the end of most chapters). It is presented as a basically secular layman's meditation manual. However if you are familiar with Buddhism and the various traditions of meditative practice, those concepts will jump right out at you and if you flip to the endnotes you'll be treated to lovely, lengthy selections and citations straight from the Pali Canon and other widely studied Buddhist sources. The appendices are very helpful and flesh out all the most important peripheral practices that are NOT simple concentration on the breath: walking meditation, metta, jhanas, progress of insight, etc. I have to add my main criticism here as well, to be fair. I feel Culadasa shied away from discussing ethical conduct at any great length, perhaps for good pedagogical reasons and not wanting to put anyone off. But at least in my experience, meditation never bore any fruit whatsoever until it connected with my daily life in the form of practicing sila. I would have loved to see an appendix discussing the traditional five precepts, or any other permutation of tangible moral guidelines. Instead the extend of ethical discussion is something like, "don't hurt people because it will destroy your peace of mind," which is fine, but too general to be useful. In terms of the eightfold path and three trainings model (sila, samadhi, panna), this book only really addresses samadhi. It is clear why sila is important to support samadhi, and why samadhi is important to cultivate panna, but actual teachings on sila or panna are extremely thin. To summarize my glowing review, reading this book clarified and energized my practice unlike any other book I've read, and each chapter felt like another years-old mystery was laid to rest. I truly believe this is the best "owner's manual" for the meditator's mind that has ever been put together. Practicing meditation without having read this is like teaching yourself microbiology with just a microscope and no textbook or teacher... It'll take years to even figure out the basics for yourself, which could have been mastered in a few weeks with proper explanation.
Review: A Scientific Milestone and Masterpiece - It may sound strange, but this is a meditation book that I would recommend even to people who have no intention of ever meditating: I'm on my second cover-to-cover reading of this 500-page tome, and I'm convinced it will be regarded by future historians as a scientific milestone and a masterpiece. The reason I would recommend it to everyone (meditator or not) is that it describes, better than any previous effort I've seen, how the human mind actually works. And it does so clearly, in astonishing detail, and with scientific rigor. The author is a neuroscientist, and has a fully scientific worldview, but he's also a 40-year-veteran meditator and scholar of the Buddhist literature on the mind. He's done something unprecedented here: He's taken the wordy, redundant, and nearly indecipherable gobbledygook of the ancient Buddhist teachings, lifted out the real scientific truths concealed in the old mystical language, and combined it with modern neuroscience to come up with a super-clear, step-by-step description of how a mind works and how meditation works to train a mind. An analogy: What he's done here is like a modern scientist taking the old witch-doctor recommendation to chew the bark of a willow when you have a toothache. The modern scientist analyzes willow bark to find that it contains salicylic acid (which it does) and then points out: This recommendation is valid because willow bark contains aspirin. That's why this folk remedy works. And also, here is exactly how much bark you should chew to get the effective dose. Or if you prefer, I have some bottled aspirin here you could take instead. Yates has done an immense service to humankind by separating the wheat from the chaff of this 2600-year-old practice. And I'm even more impressed, on the second reading, with the astonishing level of detail and clarity with which he presents this. It's incredibly detailed in its presentation of a step-by-step guide through ever-advancing stages of mental training via meditation. Basically 500 pages of step-by-step instruction through ten "Stages" of progress as a meditator (I discovered that I'm on Stage 3). I had felt stalled for years as a meditator, but since reading this I'm rapidly making progress again. And more importantly, I see a clear path ahead to clearly defined goals for the first time. And I have easy-to-understand criteria to measure progress and know where I'm going and why. This is revolutionary. It's so different from the vaguely defined practices and goals taught by traditional teachers. It's also great to see what the full path looks like, through all 10 stages, and to realize that there are important benefits to be found at each stage, even if you don't want to reach the top of the mountain. I still don't know if I want to reach "Awakening" (in theory the ultimate goal of meditation), because I'm not sure I want to be one with the universe, or at least at this point in my life. I'm having too much fun with my compulsions and bad habits to want full enlightenment right now. But maybe one day. (Regarding Awakening, I often feel like St. Augustine, who famously prayed: "Lord give me chastity, but not yet.") I think anyone who is highly introspective, and who wants to understand his or her own mind better, can benefit from reading this book. Of course, I can't imagine reading it and NOT wanting to meditate intensively, but I think it would be valuable to anyone. And for me, it has been super-helpful to understand that I'm at Stage 3 of the 10 stages, and his practical tips have me "unstuck" and moving toward Stage 4 rapidly (well I hope it's rapidly). I recommend the physical book, not Kindle, because the illustrations are extremely clarifying and they may not come through as well in Kindle format. I can't say enough good things about this book. A real achievement.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #19,364 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #17 in Buddhist Rituals & Practice (Books) #33 in Cognitive Psychology (Books) #77 in Meditation (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.7 out of 5 stars 2,208 Reviews |

## Images

![The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71YA7m6c2YL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The very best book on meditation I've read
*by E***T on March 25, 2016*

The very best book on meditation I've read, and I have read many. My primary interests have been in Zen, Theravada / Thai Forest Buddhist teachings, and S.N. Goenka's meditation teachings. Most secular Buddhist types will probably have a similar background so this review is for you. I don't know Culadasa (John Yates) or any of his students or much of anything about his school. This book was my first exposure to his teaching. I came away from reading it with what feels like a crystal clear understanding in broad terms of the path of meditative practice. The ideas laid out in this book unified and stitched together various teachings I've bumped into across different traditions, and made sense of all of them by introducing clear standardized terminology and doing away with all abstraction and poetic pretense. It was immediately obvious to me reading The Mind Illuminated exactly where in Culadasa's 10 step demarcation of the path I am currently. It was also immediately obvious how my years of spiritual practice so far lined up against the 10 stage model; it is not a simple forward progression. Demoralizing backslides and sudden bursts of insight are given perfectly sound rational explanation in this book, and in that way many of my greatest hangups about meditative practice have been put to rest. The second major point here is that even the stages I haven't reached were absolutely clear on first reading. Without any grasping attempts at fully describing heightened meditative experiences, just enough reference is given so that even someone at an earlier stage will understand what later stages might be like, and exactly what changes/effort are required to reach them. The entire spectrum from bored / tentative beginner to full Awakening are represented such that any layman will understand what is meant, and in that way this book is extremely motivating. A third striking feature of this book is that it hardly comes across as a book about Buddhism. If you read only the main body of text and ignore all the endnotes, you will see only two or three significant mentions of Buddhism or Buddhist-specific terminology (except for the quite vanilla Anapanasati Sutta, which is briefly referenced at the end of most chapters). It is presented as a basically secular layman's meditation manual. However if you are familiar with Buddhism and the various traditions of meditative practice, those concepts will jump right out at you and if you flip to the endnotes you'll be treated to lovely, lengthy selections and citations straight from the Pali Canon and other widely studied Buddhist sources. The appendices are very helpful and flesh out all the most important peripheral practices that are NOT simple concentration on the breath: walking meditation, metta, jhanas, progress of insight, etc. I have to add my main criticism here as well, to be fair. I feel Culadasa shied away from discussing ethical conduct at any great length, perhaps for good pedagogical reasons and not wanting to put anyone off. But at least in my experience, meditation never bore any fruit whatsoever until it connected with my daily life in the form of practicing sila. I would have loved to see an appendix discussing the traditional five precepts, or any other permutation of tangible moral guidelines. Instead the extend of ethical discussion is something like, "don't hurt people because it will destroy your peace of mind," which is fine, but too general to be useful. In terms of the eightfold path and three trainings model (sila, samadhi, panna), this book only really addresses samadhi. It is clear why sila is important to support samadhi, and why samadhi is important to cultivate panna, but actual teachings on sila or panna are extremely thin. To summarize my glowing review, reading this book clarified and energized my practice unlike any other book I've read, and each chapter felt like another years-old mystery was laid to rest. I truly believe this is the best "owner's manual" for the meditator's mind that has ever been put together. Practicing meditation without having read this is like teaching yourself microbiology with just a microscope and no textbook or teacher... It'll take years to even figure out the basics for yourself, which could have been mastered in a few weeks with proper explanation.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Scientific Milestone and Masterpiece
*by P***E on April 12, 2018*

It may sound strange, but this is a meditation book that I would recommend even to people who have no intention of ever meditating: I'm on my second cover-to-cover reading of this 500-page tome, and I'm convinced it will be regarded by future historians as a scientific milestone and a masterpiece. The reason I would recommend it to everyone (meditator or not) is that it describes, better than any previous effort I've seen, how the human mind actually works. And it does so clearly, in astonishing detail, and with scientific rigor. The author is a neuroscientist, and has a fully scientific worldview, but he's also a 40-year-veteran meditator and scholar of the Buddhist literature on the mind. He's done something unprecedented here: He's taken the wordy, redundant, and nearly indecipherable gobbledygook of the ancient Buddhist teachings, lifted out the real scientific truths concealed in the old mystical language, and combined it with modern neuroscience to come up with a super-clear, step-by-step description of how a mind works and how meditation works to train a mind. An analogy: What he's done here is like a modern scientist taking the old witch-doctor recommendation to chew the bark of a willow when you have a toothache. The modern scientist analyzes willow bark to find that it contains salicylic acid (which it does) and then points out: This recommendation is valid because willow bark contains aspirin. That's why this folk remedy works. And also, here is exactly how much bark you should chew to get the effective dose. Or if you prefer, I have some bottled aspirin here you could take instead. Yates has done an immense service to humankind by separating the wheat from the chaff of this 2600-year-old practice. And I'm even more impressed, on the second reading, with the astonishing level of detail and clarity with which he presents this. It's incredibly detailed in its presentation of a step-by-step guide through ever-advancing stages of mental training via meditation. Basically 500 pages of step-by-step instruction through ten "Stages" of progress as a meditator (I discovered that I'm on Stage 3). I had felt stalled for years as a meditator, but since reading this I'm rapidly making progress again. And more importantly, I see a clear path ahead to clearly defined goals for the first time. And I have easy-to-understand criteria to measure progress and know where I'm going and why. This is revolutionary. It's so different from the vaguely defined practices and goals taught by traditional teachers. It's also great to see what the full path looks like, through all 10 stages, and to realize that there are important benefits to be found at each stage, even if you don't want to reach the top of the mountain. I still don't know if I want to reach "Awakening" (in theory the ultimate goal of meditation), because I'm not sure I want to be one with the universe, or at least at this point in my life. I'm having too much fun with my compulsions and bad habits to want full enlightenment right now. But maybe one day. (Regarding Awakening, I often feel like St. Augustine, who famously prayed: "Lord give me chastity, but not yet.") I think anyone who is highly introspective, and who wants to understand his or her own mind better, can benefit from reading this book. Of course, I can't imagine reading it and NOT wanting to meditate intensively, but I think it would be valuable to anyone. And for me, it has been super-helpful to understand that I'm at Stage 3 of the 10 stages, and his practical tips have me "unstuck" and moving toward Stage 4 rapidly (well I hope it's rapidly). I recommend the physical book, not Kindle, because the illustrations are extremely clarifying and they may not come through as well in Kindle format. I can't say enough good things about this book. A real achievement.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A groundbreaking and highly accessible textbook for western meditators
*by N***R on August 24, 2015*

Disclaimer: I am a student of Culadasa's and have attended two retreats with him. I spent ten days at a meditation retreat with Master Culadasa (John Yates), his wife, and about a dozen fellow students in July '15. Culadasa had a few pre-print copies of this book in various stages of editing that he made available to us to refer to during our retreat. I first heard of Master Culadasa in November '13, when I attended a friend's refuge vow ceremony and received teachings from two of his students. I have given away over *40 copies* of this book to friends, family, and colleagues. It is a game changer. I hope that this review will sufficiently explain why I (and other Culadasa students) are so excited about its publication. From my experience with Master Culadasa, it seems very clear to me (from my limited perspective as a student) that he has attained and understood the meditative accomplishments that he describes with great clarity in this book. He lovingly shared his wide variety of experiences with his students during his retreat at many stages of the path. He was patient and precise, taking enough time to ensure that each of his students understood his explanation before moving on. His care in meeting his students where they were at and providing insight and useful advice in person is borne out in this book, where he lucidly explains each of ten stages of shamatha meditation practice in elegant, crisp, and approachable detail. I think the biggest challenge with every other meditation instruction I have received to date is to "follow the breath exclusively, and when you lose the breath, come back to it." What I've learned from Master Culadasa and his students is that this is inadequate instruction that could lead one to meditate for years or even decades without realizing the full benefits. Meditation is relatively simple and easy, but there are obstacles that can be overcome with judicious use of "antidotes," and different stages of practice require slightly different approaches. These stages are not experienced linearly, but nevertheless it is useful to know where you are at a given moment and gently adjust the technique. In addition to describing ten stages of shamatha practice, Master Culadasa also presents an extraordinary model for how the mind functions. Although I am still a novice meditator, I can see how this model describes the activity within my mind and have found it both interesting and useful. The thing that I find so extraordinary about this book is that it is written and reads like a well-written college-level textbook. This means that the book describes very complex and difficult subjects in a way that is highly accessible to the millions of us who have been blessed with a college education. Most of the meditation and buddhism books I have read are filled with impenetrable jargon in which the meaning of each word is opaque but central to the teaching. Culadasa, Matthew, and Jeremy have done an extraordinary job writing a book on meditation that is accessible to those that have little or no exposure to Buddhism in general. The book's illustrations further serve to make challenging concepts straightforward. I feel deeply humbled, blessed, and grateful to have access to these extraordinary teachings. May these teachings spread far and wide so that all beings may be free from suffering and ill will, so that all beings may be filled with loving kindness and happiness.

## Frequently Bought Together

- The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness
- Mindfulness in Plain English
- The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation

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