Our two favorite guides in meditation are Sharon Salzberg and John Yates (Upasaka Culdasa). Much of our advice will be derived from their works. We encourage you to check them out, support them, and if you feel inclined to obtain their materials. They are much better teachers that we will ever been, so we encourage you to dive into their works, and we will to our best to synthesize and highlight the best information we have.

Sharon Salzberg and her book, Real Happiness, are great guides to learning how to meditate. Real Happiness is a 28-day guide to learn how to meditate. She is more of a spiritual guide and focused on happiness, calmness of mind, and realistically having a meditation and mindfulness practice in the real world. I have excerpted some of my favorite guided meditations from her throughout the protocol and also quote many of her aphorisms.

John Yates is a neuroscientist who wrote a book The Mind Illuminated with two of his students. His book is a favorite among those who want to integrate the concepts of neuroscience and Buddhist wisdom. He studied under some excellent masters, but has brought the more traditional meditation practice into modern era. His work goes deeper into the more classical routes, but with insights from the mind of a neuroscientist.

I think together, the combination of Sharon’s very accessible version of meditation, combined with Culdassa’s updated Buddhist wisdom, offers a path of meditation for the entire range of Protocol participants.