Focused and Fearless is a rich step-by-step guide to the jhanas-a powerful meditative technology that leads us to fearless and deep joy, radiant clam and a truly abiding happiness. Filled with practical guidance and many everyday life exercises, this is a book that will become an invaluable companion to meditators of every stripe. Focused and Fearless offers the richness of an ancient meditative tradition as interpreted through the practice of a contemporary American lay woman. This orientation represents a landmark shift in Theravadan Buddhism by bringing jhana into the reach of ordinary, busy practitioners. Focused and Fearless speaks to ordinary meditators (and non-meditators) who want to understand how to attain non-ordinary states with ease. It offers a creative and contemporary slant to this ancient path of happiness and wisdom. Blended with contemporary examples, pragmatic exercises, and "how to" instructions that anyone can try, this book provides a wealth of tools to cultivate non-distracted attention in daily life and retreat. Focused and Fearless presents an accessible, friendly, and wise approach to establishing ecstatic meditative states that lead to liberating insight. This is more than a book about concentration. It offers a complete path for awakening that is firmly based on the power of a unified mind.

Shaila Catherine has been practicing meditation since 1980, with more than eight years of accumulated silent retreat experience. She has taught insight meditation since 1996 in the U.S. and internationally. Shaila has dedicated several years to studying with masters in India, Nepal and Thailand, completed a one-year intensive meditation retreat with the focus on concentration and jhana, and authored Focused and Fearless: A Meditator's Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity. Shaila Catherine has practiced under the guidance of Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw since 2006; she authored Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana to help make this traditional approach to meditative training accessible to Western practitioners. She is the founder of Insight Meditation South Bay, a Buddhist meditation center in Silicon Valley. Lectures, articles, and additional resources can be found atwww.imsb.org.
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