The Mindful Geek: Secular Meditation for Smart Skeptics, by Michael W Taft
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The Mindful Geek: Secular Meditation for Smart Skeptics, by Michael W Taft
Free Ebook PDF The Mindful Geek: Secular Meditation for Smart Skeptics, by Michael W Taft
The Mindful Geek details how to derive the benefits of mindfulness meditation without having to join a religion or drink metaphysical Kool-Aid. In the book, Michael Taft gives you step-by-step instructions in the powerful and reliable techniques of mindfulness meditation, and outlines the psychological and neuroscientific research underpinning these practices. An excellent book for beginners who are atheists, agnostics, and skeptics of all stripes who want help with anxiety, depression, and to enjoy life more.
The Mindful Geek: Secular Meditation for Smart Skeptics, by Michael W Taft- Amazon Sales Rank: #112781 in Books
- Published on: 2015-09-14
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .55" w x 6.00" l, .72 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 240 pages
Review "Michael Taft is steeped in practice and deeplytrained in multiple traditions. He is extremely articulate about subtlestates of mind and important distinctions in meditation, for bothbeginners and long-time practitioners. He's also very open, warm, andsupportive - plus deeply wise."~ Rick Hanson, PhD, author of Buddha's Brain, Hardwiring Happiness, and Just One Thing "Michael Taft is a gifted teacher of mindfulness with an impressive track record of helping people get results. As one of my senior facilitators withover 30 years of practice experience, he has a comprehensiveunderstanding of meditative traditions and practices, and is able totranslate that into science-friendly, secular language. I recommend himwholeheartedly."~ Shinzen Young, meditation teacher and author of The Science of Enlightenment "Michael has a deep understanding of meditation practice and its underpinnings,and manifests the wisdom and compassion that comes from this. He is also a skilled listener which is an important complement to these othercritical components."~ Judson Brewer, MD, PhD, Director of Research at the Center for Mindfulness & associateprofessor in Medicine & Psychiatry at UMass Medical School"Michael Taft's deep expertise shines through in this engaging and compassionate guide to meditation. The Mindful Geek is aninvaluable resource forbeginners or anyone wanting to take theirpractice to the next level."~ Sandra Aamodt, PhD, author of Welcome to Your Brain and Welcome to Your Child's Brain "Michael possesses a rare combination of talents. First, he has decades ofexperience, which allows him to teach from a place of great depth and to directly speak to the many different ways a student can come topractice. Second, he is at the forefront of brain and emotion scienceand is able to speak about contemplative practices to smart, skepticalstudents. Finally, he has deep practice experiences in multiple wisdomtraditions, which allows his secular viewpoint to be not becomeuntethered from the foundation and heart of how mindfulness has beenpracticed throughout history. "~ Bill Duane, Superintendent of Well Being at Google "I have known Michael Taft for fifteen years and have seen him teachvarious meditation classes as well as academic classes in the Department of Religion and Asian Studies at Vassar College. Michael is a trulyaccomplished teacher with a skill set that spans and integrates AsianBuddhist and Hindu tradition with Western Neuroscience and contemporarypractices of Mindfulness in corporate as well as personal contexts."~ Rick Jarow, PhD, Professor of Religion at Vassar College and author of The Ultimate Anti-Career Guide.
From the Author My intention in writing this book was simple: You shouldn't have to join a religion to get the benefits of meditation. By treating mindfulness as a scientifically-based, psychologicaltechnique, you can learn mindfulness meditation without having tobelieve in reincarnation, karma, or other mystical ideas. You canmaintain a powerful, regular, and deeply effective meditation practiceand stay well within the boundaries of science and common sense.That is because meditation doesn't require you to believe in it to work.Like any good technology, if you use it correctly, it will do the jobreliably whether you believe in it or not. And--make nomistake--meditation is a kind of technology; a technology for hackingthe human wetware to improve your life. This book is a practical,hands-on, step-by-step manual about how to make the most of thattechnology for yourself.
About the Author Michael W. Taft is an author, editor, meditation teacher, andneuroscience junkie. He is currently a meditation coach specializing insecular, science-based meditation training in corporate settings andone-on-one sessions. Michael is the author of several books, includingthe upcoming The Mindful Geek, and Nondualism: A Brief History of a Timeless Concept, Ego (which he co-authored), as well as the editor of such books as Hardwiring Happiness by Rick Hanson and the upcoming The Science of Enlightenment by Shinzen Young.Michael has taught at Google and has worked on curriculum developmentfor SIYLI. He is also an official advisor to the TherapeuticNeuroscience Lab. He was previously editor-in-chief of Being Human, asite for exploring what evolution, neuroscience, biology, psychology,archeology, and technology can tell us about the human condition, andwas editorial director of Sounds True.From Zen temples in Japanto yogi caves in India, Michael W. Taft has been meditating for overthirty years and has extensive experience in both Buddhist and Hindupractice. Michael is a senior facilitator in Shinzen Young's BasicMindfulness system, and is a teacher at Against the Stream BuddhistMeditation Society. He currently lives in Berkeley, California, and isfounding editor of the popular mindfulness meditation blog Deconstructing Yourself.
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Most helpful customer reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful. I've been meditating regularly for about three years now, ... By Troy Coll I've been meditating regularly for about three years now, and reading everything on mindfulness that I can get my hands on. Taft's book fills a crucial niche as a practical, versatile guidebook for developing a consistent and effective meditation practice. Whether your goal is an increase in focus and productivity or reducing anxiety, The Mindful Geek can show you the path. Interspersed between nuts-and-bolts meditation instructions are some background on what meditation can do for your brain, and helpful tips for making your practice more consistent and effective. Keeping the focus on the process of meditation, with no reliance on having any particular metaphysical beliefs, makes this book maximally inclusive.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Was happy with my purchase By Braxton The Mindful Geek probably the best book on secular mindfulness I have come come across. It's basically a mindfulness manual that includes meditation instructions, tips, stories, and the scientific data supporting the claims of mindfulness. The author presents all of this information in a clear and concise format that wasn't monotonous like some of the other books with more of a science feel to it. I would highly recommend this book, especially to those interested in meditation without any metaphysical claims about supernatural powers or the nature of reality.
18 of 22 people found the following review helpful. Good for beginners, but with some shortcomings. By G. Delany Dean 1. My first comment about this book is a complaint about the very first chapter, in that the author begins the book in same way that so many other books and articles about meditation do, by over-promising the potential benefits. For example: “[Mindfulness practice has been] shown to ‘slow, stall, or even reverse age-related neurodegeneration.’” By the time you finish reading the first chapter, you’re ready to hear the author say that “meditation can prevent any and all diseases, and will also keep you from having bad breath. And it can keep you from dying, too.” There are far too many references to single studies that show one possible effect of meditation practice, studies which may or may not have been well-designed and analyzed, and which probably have never been replicated.One problem with this over-promising is that it contributes to discouragement among those who do not immediately, or even very soon, feel that they are benefiting in any way from the practice; and this includes many who begin a meditation practice. Meditation is like physical exercise; it is hard, it takes discipline and perseverance, and it does not necessarily bring rapid and readily observable benefits.2. The book does provide a very good introduction to what meditation is, and a good explanation of basic meditation methods. It's potentially very helpful for beginners. Good consideration is given to helping people be cautious about the expectations and baggage that they bring to the practice (this despite the over-playing of potential benefits in chapter one). I am not really delighted, however, on the formula the author settles on for a definition or “essence” of meditation, which he expresses as: “a psychological practice which makes the unconscious conscious and which improves life.” First, why call it a “‘psychological’ practice”? It’s an odd phrase; what does the term “psychological” even mean, when used as an adjective with the word “practice”? Second, using Freud’s terminology about “making the unconscious conscious” is not felicitous; meditation is not a method which delves into what most people think of as their “unconscious” minds. It does indeed help people become aware of thoughts and feelings they otherwise would very likely not notice, but these thoughts and feelings are readily accessible and not deeply hidden in what the psychoanalytic crowd thinks of as the human “unconscious” or in the class of cognitive phenomena that scientists term as "implicit." Third, adding “and which improves life” seems odd; meditation is meditation, whether it improves a person’s life or not. Many people start a meditation practice, stick with it for a short while, find it difficult and never see any benefit to their lives. But that does not mean they were not engaging in the practice of meditation. Maybe he would like to revise this phrase to say that the practice "is aimed at improving one's life."3. I am glad that he includes a description of the method of practice usually called “metta,” or “compassion practice.” But I’m not on board at all with the new term he chooses to use for this practice (“Focus on Positive”) because that’s not really what metta practice is all about (it’s about developing our capacity for compassion), and his explanation of the method is very limited and a bit silly, and it involves picturing someone who is already very happy, and visualizing them in the fullness and in the midst of being joyful, and wishing happiness for them. What’s the point? Traditional metta practice is easy to teach; why not stick to this method? I do understand his desire to use this modified practice to help people begin to notice and appreciate their own positive/pleasant feelings/emotions, but that might work better if he develops a different method for this instead of creating this confusing blend of compassion practice with a sort of feel-good-and-be aware-of-that practice.4. There’s a whole chapter (fortunately it’s a short one) about oxytocin, which is pointless, in my opinion. The chapter does include the sentence: “As of this writing, there is no direct evidence that meditation practice increases oxytocin.” And that’s still true; in addition, all of his speculations about oxytocin, human relationships, and meditation are highly speculative; the scientific understanding of the function of oxytocin is still in very early stages.5. His final chapter about the “default mode network” of human thinking (aka “mind wandering”) is very good and (unlike the chapter about oxytocin) it’s directly on point as to what appears to be one of the primary benefits of and the purpose of meditation practice, i.e., it helps us strengthen our capacity to “get out of our heads and into our lives,” i.e., to more frequently and regularly notice the moments of our days instead of staying lost in thought about the past or future.
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