A Vipassanā Reading List

When the philosophy behind Vipassanā meditation started to resonate for me, I went through a phase of hoovering up as much as of the dhamma as I could get my paws on. Not content with my meditation center’s weekly dhamma talk, I subscribed to podcasts from teachers like Gil Fronsdal and Ajahn Brahm and drank deeply from the resulting firehose of teachings. Once new meditators find the dhamma, it’s not uncommon for them to go through an intense period of curiosity and enthusiasm like that.

I recently gave a talk about the importance of learning about the dhamma. Although I provided a verbal list of resources to help meditators self-educate, I have assembled this blogpost for easier and more permanent reference.

Although there are many flavors of Buddhism, this list focuses on Vipassanā or Insight Meditation, which has become popular in the US, as evinced by the success of the meditation centers and teachers listed below. So my most fundamental pointer is to seek out anything that claims to belong to the Vipassanā / Insight Meditation heritage, as there are a ton of resources beyond the few items I can list here.

Audio & Video Resources

Why list audio resources first? Because the dhamma has traditionally been shared via “dhamma talks”, but also because it’s a much more personal experience, allowing the listener to really connect with and get a feel for the teacher and the teachings. I truly believe that the experience of listening to the dhamma is the best way to learn about it (and preferably in-person, when possible).

DharmaSeed
This website contains an ever-growing collection of tens of thousands of high-quality audio recordings of dhamma talks by hundreds of amazing teachers, collected over a period of more than 30 years. It is an absolutely incomparable resource that I cannot recommend highly enough.

Audio Dharma
Gil Fronsdal is perhaps my favorite teacher, and this site offers recordings of dhamma talks given by Gil and other teachers at his Insight Meditation Center in California. While most dhamma talks are about 45 minutes long, this site also has shorter talks they call “darmettes”.

Buddhist Society of Western Australia
Ajahn Brahm, the Spiritual Director of BSWA, is a monk in the Thai Forest tradition of Ajahn Chah. A Londoner by birth, his sense of humor has made him a widely-sought-out speaker. The BWSA Teachings web page links to a rich collection of both audio and video dhamma talks. Ajahn Brahm is also the author of several very readable dhamma books.

Amaravati Monastery
Located in south-eastern England, Amaravati is another monastery in the Thai Forest tradition. The Teachings section of their web site contains lots of dhamma talks by respected teachers as well as a handful of videos.

Recommended Reading Lists

Before I dive into my own suggestions, here are some excellent reading lists compiled by major Insight Meditation centers.

Insight Meditation Society, Barre MA
The very successful first American Insight Meditation center has a definitive list of the best books around, sorted both by author and topic.

Cambridge Insight Meditation Society, Cambridge MA
Boston’s CIMC provides a slightly more succinct list, with lots of overlap with the IMS list.

Insight Meditation Center, Redwood City CA
IMC’s list naturally focuses on Gil Fronsdal’s books, but also includes many others, organized by topic.

Bhavana Society, High View WV
The list at Sri Lankan monk Bhante G.’s center naturally focuses on his works, which span the entire spectrum from beginner to expert.

My Book Recommendations

Although there are lots of commercially available books on Insight Meditation, you don’t have to spend a ton of money on them. Borrow books from your library or your fellow practitioners. And you can also usually find free books at your local meditation centers, because the dhamma has traditionally always been offered free-of-charge.

Also, before you spend money on a book, check to be sure its tone and texture is right for you. Meditation books tend to fall into two camps: really dense, esoteric, academic books for the advanced practitioner; and down-to-earth books that are more approachable and suitable for the rest of us. Although there are exceptions to every generalization, often the former are written by monastics or Asians for whom Buddhist philosophy and the Pali language were part of their upbringing. In contrast, most of us will be more comfortable with the westernized material written by Americans who studied in Asia.

Having said that, here are some of my specific recommendations:

• Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana
• What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula
• Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life’s Difficulties and Don’t Worry, Be Grumpy: Inspiring Stories for Making the Most of Each Moment by Ajahn Brahm
• The Issue at Hand: Essays On Buddhist Mindfulness Practice by Gil Fronsdal
• Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation by Larry Rosenberg
• The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation as Taught by S. N. Goenka by William Hart

Although I don’t have specific books in mind, I also highly recommend books and talks by any of the following teachers:

• Jack Kornfield
• Sharon Salzberg
• Joseph Goldstein
• Tara Brach
• Sylvia Boorstein
• Cristina Feldman

Pali Canon Suttas

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Access to Insight web site. Although it’s not something a beginner would curl up with in front of the fire on a cold winter night, it is nonetheless an excellent repository of the original suttas that comprise the Theravadan Buddhist canon. If someone mentions a sutta that sounds interesting, or if you just want to explore the source material, this is your best online resource. The most fundamental discourses for Vipassanā practitioners are:

• Anapanasati Sutta: Mindfulness of Breathing (with commentary by Ariyadhamma)
• Satipatthana Sutta: The Foundations of Mindfulness (with forewords and introduction)

And another very similar site is SuttaCentral.

May your exploration of the dhamma be fruitful and rewarding!