The Center has a lending library that includes hundreds of books and some CDs that have been donated by our members and found useful by the community. Below is a brief reading list of respected authors and well known texts.

By JoN Kabat-ZinN

Full Catastrophe Living: Jon keeps the book practical, talking about how to live in the moment, pay attention and focus on "being" as opposed to "doing." Also offers several meditation techniques.

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life: This book goes more deeply into the practice of meditation and applying these practices to daily life.

By Pema Chodron

How to Meditate is a comprehensive and very readable book on the basics of mindfulness meditation. Other popular books by Pema include When Things Fall Apart, The Places That Scare You, and Start Where You Are.

By Thich Nhat Hanh

Creating True Peace: Ending Violence in Yourself, Your Family, Your Community, and the World. This book collects some of his most well-known and helpful stories and practices. Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flame is a practical and effective book toward dealing with this emotion.

By Sharon Salzberg

The Force of Kindness: Change Your Life with Love and Compassion and Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Program. Sharon lays out the loving-kindness practice so beautifully.

By Jack Kornfield

Meditation for Beginners. This is a great book for beginners. Soul Food: Stories to Nourish the Spirit and the Heart by Jack Kornfield & Christina Feldman is a collection of wonderful stories, from one paragraph to many pages, from many traditions.

Books by Other Contemporary Writers

These three books focus on short mindfulness practices that one can do during the day:

• How to Train a Wild Elephant and Other Adventures in Mindfulness by Jan Chozen Bays

• Just ONE Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time by Rick Hanson

• One Minute Mindfulness by Donald Altman.

Calming Your Anxious Mind. Jeffrey Brantley gives wonderful and practical advice on using mindfulness meditation to deal with anxiety.

Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom by Rick Hanson. A fascinating book talking about connections between Buddhist psychology and neuroscience.

True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart by Tara Brach. Tara is a meditation teacher and psychotherapist. Using stories from her life and the lives of her clients, Tara blends theory and practice artfully, sharing helpful ideas and describing common obstacles and how to overcome them.

The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness by J. Mark G. Williams, John D. Teasdale, Zindel V. Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn. This book is really an excellent resource for anyone wanting to go more deeply into mindfulness meditation. Comes with a CD with guided meditations.

Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana. This book is meant for beginners in meditation and goes over almost all the questions and issues that beginning meditators have.

At Hell’s Gate: A Soldier’s Journey from War to Peace. Claude Thomas is a Vietnam veteran for whom meditation was a life-changing experience This very moving autobiography describes his journey from hell to peace, now as a Buddhist monk.

The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook by Kristin Neff and Christian Germer. Tom used this excellent and very helpful book as the primary sources for a Self-Compassion course he taught several years ago.