SMALL BITES: Book Review

I got a lot of pleasure and a good number of useful insights from Small Bites: Mindfulness for Everyday Use, Annabelle Zinser's handy guide to the meditation process.  The author is a Thich Nhat Hanh disciple--she received from him the Lamp Transmission in 2004--who lives in Berlin and teaches there at the Quelle des Mitgfuehls (the Source of Compassion) center.  She's also the 2007 recipient of the UN's Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award.

Small Bites is a pleasant-to-read and eminently practical guide to meditation.  While there are many such books available, Zinser's distinguishes itself for its brevity, its clarity, and its surprisingly (for its length) comprehensive overview of the Dharma's principles and teachings.  Her short chapters--on topics ranging from the "Four Immeasurables" to "Letting Go," "Loving Kindness" and "Difficult Feelings"--each end with a clearly described meditation, with words intended to guide the practice particular to that topic with precision and, always, compassion for self and others.

Small Bites is a terrific book for beginners.  But, as always with Buddhism, beginners are not only those just starting a practice, but all those of us who recognize that "beginner's mind" is the best place to be; because that's the ground on which we know that we still have much to learn.