The proliferation of works on Buddhism in recent years, for reasons beyond the scope of this post, has meant that works of quality - especially serious works on Buddhist meditative practice - have been submerged by the morass of books on "pop Buddhism" of the worst type. Here are 2 useful and reasonably thorough books on Buddhist meditation, which will provide a useful guide to those who already have a basic grounding in the Buddhist doctrine. The first work, "Secrets of the Lotus" gives an overview of 2 forms of meditation, the first being mindfulness in the Theravada tradition, the second being on Zen meditation. The second, an anthology by the renowned scholar-translator Edward Conze, is much more extensive, yet suffers from a couple of problems as regards terminology - for instance "trance" is a most unfortunate rendering of "Samadhi". However, it remains one of the best recent works on the subject. These 2 works provide a grounded starting point for those who would begin the practice of Buddhist meditation. Later on, I will post some further material related to specific practices.
