Inner Calm: A User's Guide to Tranquility Meditation

Inner Calm: A User's Guide to Tranquility Meditation by Venerable Punnaji is praised as a revolutionary reConstruction of Buddhism, based on the earliest statements and commentaries of Gotama Buddha. The book challenges traditional understandings of Buddhism, highlighting mistranslations and misinterpretations of key concepts. Venerable Punnaji establishes the original meaning of Satipatthana as attention to internal bodily tensions, rather than mindfulness of external phenomena. The author also argues that Buddhism is the first psychotherapy and cognitive psychology, focusing on introversion of attention to internal states. Punnaji believes that relaxation of the body is crucial for relaxation of the mind. The book is described as changing our understanding of Buddhism like none other. Overall, readers praise Inner Calm as an essential read for any student of Buddhism. It offers a different approach to meditation, focusing on the entire Eightfold Path as the actual path of meditation taught by Buddha. The book emphasizes the importance of preventing and removing emotional thoughts before practicing Satipatthana or Anapanasati. It clarifies translation errors in key suttas, providing clear instructions and a deeper understanding of meditation. Readers find the book full of wisdom, usefulness, and results-oriented. It serves as an excellent resource for establishing a regular meditation practice and addresses common physical and mental issues encountered during meditation. Furthermore, Inner Calm is appreciated for its uniqueness and adherence to the Buddha's original teachings. The book emphasizes the significance of the sixth step of the Eightfold Path before transitioning to Satipatthana, unlike most teachers who skip the sixth step. It explains the four phases of Satipatthana as observation of the body, feelings, emotions, and thoughts, using the model of an organism's reaction to the environment. The book also contains an indexed and categorized set of questions and answers that can address various queries. Overall, Inner Calm: A User's Guide to Tranquility Meditation is highly recommended for its groundbreaking insights into Buddhism and its practical guidance for meditation practice.