Buddhist Meditation in the Southern School

“Most treatise on Meditation and Yoga so far published in the Occident are chiefly expository, in a philosophical or historical way, rather than practical. But here, within these covers, we have at last, a treatise which presents the essential technique and methods of meditation in its Buddhistic form so dearly and simply that any person of average intelligence desirous of practising such neditation can do so without difficulty, without danger, and without recourse of guru. In Hindu and other systems of meditation and Yoga, on the contrary, particularly where certain breathing-exercises are prescribed, a guru is not only necessary to teach and to direct, but also to safegaurd the yogin. In commending this unique contribution to the advancement of learning made by Miss G. Constant Lounsbery, President of Les Amis du Bouddhisme, Paris, I can do no better than to employ as my text the words of the Enlightened One, the Master of Meditation, the Buddha Gotama: “Without Knowledge there is no Meditation; without Meditation there is no Knowledge; and he who hath both Knowledge and Meditation is near to Reality.” – An Extract from the the Foreword to the book by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, M.A.; D.Litt., D.Sc. (Oxon), Member of Jesus College, University of Oxford.