Lama Christie McNally is the cofounder of the Yoga Studies Institute and Diamond Mountain University in Arizona. She spent three years, three months, and three days in a Great Retreat where she meditated with no talking, no seeing anyone else, and no outside communication of any kind. McNally offers this book as "a synthesis of all the great Tibetan commentaries on meditation." These masters taught her to do meditation practice "as if our hair was on fire." The author introduces us to a variety of meditation styles including:
• Karmic meditation which involves planting seeds of change in the mind.
• Limitless Thought Meditation where the emphasis is upon being present and realizing the importance of "living for others."
• Child Meditation where the goal is to send help and compassion to someone who has hurt or slighted you.
McNally also presents meditation tips, covering such topics as your seat, where to do it, when to do it, limiting sense input, zooming in and zooming out, dealing with dullness, letting go, and agitation. She also has some cogent things to say about the millions of imprints stored in our minds, the ideal of equanimity or giving equal status to everyone, opening our hearts to others, how just a moment of anger destroys thousands of positive imprints, the four kinds of sustenance that one needs to live, the three types of meditation, the nine stages of meditation, nonduality, emptiness, and the power of words.
