The Meditation Experience by Madonna Gauding

By Anne Marie Welch View Profile
This book, written by Madonna Gauding, is much better than I expected. It is clear, has nice illustrations and gives varied meditation experiences. It starts with teaching posture, basic breathing meditation and other techniques - mindfulness, visualisation, meditating with nature sounds etc. This is all supported by a CD They are some “empty” pages where you can note your experiences every so often. It is very detailed and offer well set meditations for different circumstances. It is a complete workshop and should help anyone who is a beginner or intermediate. I found it interesting and very helpful, Madonna makes Meditation far less difficult than people think and I would thoroughly recommend it.

By Vernon Marshall View Profile
This is a very useful little book. It sets out to achieve several goals and manages to do it quite well. It claims to be “a complete meditation workshop.” For those for whom meditation is something fairly new, in particular, this book does exactly what it says it does. There is plenty of information on the theory behind meditation, although it is presented in an easy step-by-step format. There are exercises to do, space for the reader to keep an account of their experiences, revision work, and, a real bonus, a lovely CD. The book is written from a Buddhist perspective. There are references, however, to other traditions too, both religious and secular.
The practical approaches in this book are commendable. The exercises, for example, refer to the CD tracks so there can be a match-up between the two. The illustrations are superb, especially the brightly coloured yantras. There is advice on how to copy them and then to use them in meditation.
The book looks like a coffee table book. It is far from this, however. It is more like a course book. It is a small book, which makes it easy to handle, although it needs to be held in two hands to be read. It cannot be put down and opened at a page without it shutting itself. As for the CD, it is excellent and one of the best I have used. I initially said that this book was particularly useful for beginners. It need not be limited to them, however. As a long-time meditator I find this very useful indeed. I will not be putting this one on the top shelf, out of daily reach. I shall be referring to it often whilst also keeping it handy to lend out to clients. I......more