Real Happiness, 10th Anniversary Edition: A 28-Day Program to Realize the Power of Meditation

This is a great resource for starting a meditation practice, however before I could finish reading it, the QR codes stopped taking me to the mediations. Now they take me to the Hachette website and I can no longer find the mediations! So that became a useless update to the book. Very annoying! May they be well...

I've studied many forms of meditation over the years, but fell out of practice and was looking for something to get me back into it. This book is great, a real comprehensive introduction for complete beginners, and those with some background knowledge as well. Love it!

This book is a great intro to meditation or an upgrade for someone who wants to add to their practice. It has many actionable pieces as well as meditations to use.

Sharon Salzburg is a good writer is very good with loving kindness meditation and mindful meditation. If all you're doing in your meditation is clearing your mind and breathing you can learn a lot more from this book.

This is marketed and titled as a 28-day program, but the content is not structured clearly to deliver on that. There are 10 guided meditations, and a few other variations included, but I was expecting a more structured / easy-to-follow approach. It's much more of a DIY, at your own cadence, and unclear what you are supposed to do day 1, day 2, day 3, etc. (days aren't even mentioned in the book.) Lots of good meditation content, but not an "easy" follow for a beginner looking for structure.

Everyone ever should read this book.

Highly motivating. Fantastic way to start meditating.

Gave you a lot to think about. The meditations are awesome. Very easy to follow. Will become part of life.

I really enjoyed Sharon Salzberg's "Lovingkindness" which is the best introduction I know to Metta Mediation. I have read several introductions to mediation by now but non explained mindfulness and mediation as overall succinct and focused than Salzberg's "Real Happiness". I read it in one week, rather than making it a 28-day programme.While I do think it is the most precise introduction to meditation which I have so far encountered, there are shorter introductions but this introduction explains all the core concepts and practices most precisely and in enough detail with fairly little surplus detail. It also steers clear of all super-natural, esoteric or religious aspects of meditation practice by and large. I think, however, overall, I enjoyed this book mostly because it clarified concepts and practices for me rather than introducing me to new ideas. Two of my main takeaways were if you want to build a good meditation habit, just sit down (even if you don't meditate or if it doesn't go well) and the other being we don't practise meditation to get good at meditation but to get good at life.What I found hard to determine is whether I would recommend this book to a novice. If one is looking for clear instructions of why and how to build a meditation practice and/or habit, this is probably the book to go for out of the ones I've read. This is a question which I'd ask myself particularly against the background of whether it would have convinced me to start meditation - probably not "Ten Percent Happier" by Dan Harris or "Waking Up" by Sam Harris do that job better. However, Salzberg's book does a better job then at explaining how and why once you are convinced and perhaps already committed. I think if I look back to about half a year ago when I started daily mindfulness meditation and was using guided meditations delivered via an app, I would have found this book tremendously useful to clarify whether I am "doing this right" or where to go next, etc. In those circumstances, I'd say Salzberg's "Real Happiness" is the best book to read.What I also found good was that I read a couple of books recently which tell you all about "lots of research" and then does not tell you the exact source. While Salzberg uses no footnotes or similar markings in the text, the book contains endnotes which reveal the exact sources.I feel like I should have given five stars to this book. However, purely subjectively with me having read other books on the topic and having read other books by the author, I did not feel that it was my favourite book on mediation for me personally. For me personally, it was more of a revision than a means of taking my practice or understanding to the next level. However, as a revision there's probably no better book, I would say.

it's for complete beginners only - i bought it to get some ideas on how to teach. you can tell it was written by an extraordinary teacher.