Spiritual & Esoteric Book Reviews

Boundless Healing: Mediation Exercises to Enlighten the Mind and Heal the Body (Buddhayana Foundation Series)

Esteemed author and teacher Tulka Thondup offers this convincing guidebook on healing the mind, body, and spirit through meditation. Although Thondup relies on the principles of Buddhism to explain the intimate connection between the mind and body, readers won't feel pressured to become budding Buddhists in order to learn these meditation techniques. In fact, what makes Boundless Healing so effective is Thondup's very detailed and nondogmatic style of teaching meditations. For example, when speaking to a meditation for healing sick cells, he stays focused on the physical and mental sensations, rather than flittering into ungrounded spiritual metaphors: "As your breath is moving through your body, think and feel that all the cells of your body are also breathing. All the trillions of cells of light and blissful heat are breathing from the top of your head to the soles of your feet."

Devout Buddhists will find nourishing soul food in his one section devoted to specific Buddhist healing meditations. As for everyone else, Thondup has written an accessible, information-packed book that covers it all - from "Avoiding Expectations" to "Creating a Healing Aura While Sleeping" to "Meditations for the Dead or Dying" to "How Helpers and Survivors Should Behave." Regardless of the disease, discomfort, or desire, Thondup has a meditation up his sleeve, making this one of the most practical handbooks on healing meditations available. - Gail Hudson