Your Meditation Journey

Charla will be well known to most readers for her many years of dedicated work for the Network, but perhaps less so as the author of books on aromatherapy and dreaming, as well as an earlier one on meditation. This beautifully produced book is an excellent and thorough introduction to meditation. It explains the background in a variety of ancient traditions including not only India, but also mystical Christianity and Sufism. It then moves on to the cultural influence of East on West since the founding of the Theosophical Society and the development of mindfulness over the last 40 years. Charla highlights the stresses of our modern lifestyle as an important factor in the rise of these movements, while emphasising the deeper aspects of the spiritual search, not simply stress relief.

The chapter on meditation, medicine and science is very well informed with over 30 research references, explaining brain studies as well as physiological and emotional effects. The remaining chapters are practical, beginning with the basics of location, posture and breathing and moving on to guided visualisation, single-point meditation, meditations connected with sound, light and nature, and finally the power of silence. I liked the quote from Francis of Assisi: 'what you are looking for is where you're looking from' - I had not come across this before. The explanations of the various exercises are clear, simple and easy to follow; even the seasoned meditator will find suggestions for new practices, for instance by a waterfall or on an empty beach. As it happened, we were watching sunset at the lake just at the point when I was reading exercise 25 on sunset meditation! I liked the fact that a chapter on silence closes the book with its invitation to incorporate the practice at whatever stage we find ourselves on our spiritual journey. As such, the book can be warmly recommended to both beginners and experienced meditators.