This webpage is a collection of notes from my Buddhist meditation leisure skills class at Clemson University. The class is designed to give students with no prior experience a very basic introduction to sitting meditation using Buddhist techniques. My goals are thus modest: students who complete the course will not be expert either in Buddhist theory or meditation, but they will have developed an appreciation for what meditation is about, how it can positively impact their lives, and some of the Buddhist concepts underlying the practice.
If you want to follow along on your own, you can work through the lessons one by one. For each lesson, I give a brief presentation on background concepts, then provide basic instructions for the specific technique we will be using that day. I designed this to be accessible to 20-somethings with busy schedules, so the sessions begin with 10 minute sessions and build to 20 minute sessions within a few weeks. Our class meets twice a week and then I ask each student to meditate at least once on their own outside of class. If you can manage a similar schedule, you should make significant progress in a few months (our semester lasts 14 weeks).
I began these notes in the Spring of 2011 and intend to add to and refine them as I continue to teach the course. I welcome any suggestions you might have about how to improve them. Feel free to give the link to others who might be interested, but I ask that you please not quote me or use these in your own materials without my permission.
Kelly Smith
Departments of Philosophy & Biological Sciences
Clemson University
kcs at clemson dot edu