The Three Minute Meditator by David Harp
Forward by Ben and Jerry (I kid you not!) and in my book anyone who can make delicious ice cream, and cartons that are used to make teddy bear joints – should at least be given a chance to speak.
Being in this field I read and hear a lot about meditation, I myself never thought I was much of a meditator for many reasons, the foremost being because I don’t have a spiritual leader or guru, and I still have distractions from time to time.
What I liked best about this book was its simplicity, and the author’s own feelings and explanations. Harp is obviously to some extent a realist, he dispels the need for a guru citing many of my own reasons for not following others whether they be yogis or gurus – they are fallible and often times do not live what they preach. He explains the idea of teaching and practicing gurus, after guru-bashing a little, though no-one in particular is named, I have heard enough stories to figure out a few of the people.
The meditation practices are easy to read, easy to follow and easy to initiate. There is no dogma or religious undertones, merely the thought that you can end relentless self-hatred, repetitive thinking, etc. that may be holding you back from experiencing satisfaction in life – even attaining enlightenment is not a key to this method, Harp is more focused on the journey, or means, rather than the ends. His belief is that you will experience the benefits of meditation even if you don’t think you have "achieved" your goal.
The book does become verbose, and fraught with anecdotes, also some larger medical terms and theories on the mind and psychotherapy – something he decries at beginning as the problem with metaphysical and new age books – esoteric knowledge. There is nothing cultish here, but esoteric knowledge encompasses anything that one group knows and another does not – so some may be put off by the first few chapters – I personally found them interesting as they pertained to neuroscience, brain physiology, thinking and evolution – skip past these as the author himself even advises if you want to get right to the meditating.
I have not yet fully practiced all of the exercises, but the ones that I have done are rewarding.
I give this book 6 out of 7.
