Beginning Meditation – Theory and Practice

A comprehensive lecture on meditation which provides:

• An overview of the Three Trainings as a meditative path to wisdom (gnosis).
• The practical steps to begin a meditation practice (posture, relaxation, concentration) and tips to overcome common obstacles in achieving them.
• The difference between concentration (samatha) and insight (vipassana) practices, and how to intelligently combine them.
• What it means to have mindfulness (smrti) and apply introspection (samprajanya) within meditation, with quotes from Santideva’s Bodhicaryavatara.
• An overview of several practices to develop concentration and insight.
• Recommended goals for a beginner of meditation.

It is highly recommended the accompanying PDF is studied along with listening to the lecture.