Why We Meditate

A practical guide to meditation based on scientific research and ancient Buddhist practices

In this modern digital age, many of us feel overwhelmed, panicked and exhausted. The practice of meditation is an antidote to that frenzied feeling.

Using scientific research to explain the benefits of ancient practices, this book gives readers an empirically sound and time-proven set of mental exercises that will allow the reader to overcome destructive emotions and patterns of behaviour, and bring inner peace and focus to their lives.

Practical and accessible, faithful to enduring traditions yet innovatively modern, these easy-to-follow techniques will benefit both experienced mediators and novices alike, and explain the wonders of meditation in a way never seen before.

About the Author

Daniel Goleman is the author of the bestsellers Emotional Intelligence and Working with Emotional Intelligence. He received his PhD from Harvard and reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for the New York Times for twelve years. He was awarded the American Psychological Association's Lifetime Achievement Award and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Daniel Goleman is an internationally known psychologist and journalist. He is a co-founder of the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning at the Yale University Child Studies Centre (now at the University of Illinois at Chicago), co-chairman of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations, based in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University, and a member of the board of directors of the Mind & Life Institute. His book Emotional Intelligence was on the New York Times bestseller list for a year and a half, with nearly 6,000,000 copies in print worldwide in thirty languages.

When not teaching and travelling, Tsoknyi Rinpoche lives in Nepal and runs a variety of projects such as preserving and disseminating rare Tibetan Buddhist texts. He also supports the living expenses of 100 nuns in hermitages in Nepal - as well as funding the construction of wells in India.