The Art of Mindful Reflection
Unlike orthodox Buddhist manuals, which recite long lists of technical topics and use English in unfamilar ways, this guide to Mindful Reflection™ speaks to you personally and in everyday language.
But there’s more to it than just words. The text and images help lead you into a meditative state by slowing your senses, enabling you to savor a few words at a time and establishing the space you need for maximum mental clarity.
Despite its simple structure, It Begins with Silence is systematically built from classical Buddhist themes. The appendix maps the elements of the Buddha’s teachings against the contents, showing how the ten chapters encompass everything he taught.
The Introduction
The introduction describes my personal understanding of a) the Buddha and, b) the institution called Buddhism. My purpose is to give you some perspective on exactly what you’re trying to do with Mindful Reflection, and what you can hope to achieve. It includes a straightforward introduction to the basic practice of mindfulness and also introduces you to the essentials of reflection. The Buddha didn’t mean you to just sit quietly and concentrate, but also how to think about and engage with life:
“…misguided people learn the Dhamma but … do not examine the meaning of those teachings with intelligence, they do not gain a reflective acceptance of them.” [The Buddha: Alagaddûpama Sutta]
The Chapters
The book consists of ten chapters. Each one is prefaced by a story. The contents are encapsulated in five brief verses and elaborated at length in the main text. You might read a chapter in one sitting, or just a few phrases. It’s up to you. The point is to dwell on the meaning of these thoughts. They’re not mine, but handed down and transposed over the centuries via my teachers, who each traced their lineage back to the Buddha himself.
The Pictures
The book is illustrated with beautiful color and monochrome pictures to set the tone and prepare your mind for the task at hand. It Begins with Silence is not just an informative book about an ancient religion; it’s a hands-on guide to changing your mind and life.
Words of Praise
“This is a truly remarkable, rare find. Schettini has struggled like an alchemist in his lonely lab to distil the teachings of the historical Buddha into these ten deceptively simple stories, verses and explanations in an uncommonly beautiful presentation of Buddhist meditation.
In warm, heartfelt and personal language Schettini leads you on the path to genuine practice. It begins with silence; it ends in stopping. Along the way, you’ll traverse landscapes of inner chatter, gaze upon sky-like vistas and penetrate the intimate but elusive realities of the inner life.”
—Glenn Wallis, Pd.D.
Author of The Basic Teachings of the Buddha
“Like sunlight penetrating water, this nourishing and beautiful book presents the Buddha’s teachings with great lucidity. It evokes the healing promise of mindful reflection with unwavering integrity, and leaves me with more hope for us all than Freud and his successors ever suggested.
Schettini’s insights into the human mind and heart have helped me enormously in navigating the difficult terrains of the client-patient relationship and the psychotherapeutic journey. It Begins With Silence deserves the close attention of all those interested in the nature of the mind.”
Jonathan D. Keeley, Ph.D. (C.Psych.)
Clinical, Consulting and supervising psychologist
The Montreal General Hospital, McGill University Health Centre
Staff psychologist, Mcgill University Mental Health Services
“This method of presenting a verse and then commenting on it is a classic way of elucidating philosophical argument. Schettini has learned his lessons well from the masters and is here developing his own technique of sharing knowledge. His text is fluid and beautifully ordered. This book is a valuable introduction to the art of meditation/mindful reflection. Schettini emphasizes that the purpose of the practice is ‘to identify the cause of stress and uproot it through the practice of mindful reflection.’
Schettini’s text is designed to promote curiosity and deep reflection. A serious reader will get much out of it to aid on the path to understanding Buddhism’s teachings without getting bogged down in institutionalism. Schettini is striving for individual comprehension and to provoke thought. He insists on the term ‘Mindful Reflection’ as the key to de-stressing as a way of life. This is a highly interesting self-help book that starts any adept on the path to meditation. Schettini is to be congratulated on his conception of this gorgeous text.”
Mary Hannah
The Sunday Observer
May 29, 2011
From the Introduction
The historical Buddha was not, in any sense of the English word, a religious man. In fact, he was quite the iconoclast. Along with his public and family responsibilities, the young Siddhattha abandoned his Sakya clan and a considerable inheritance to wander off barefoot and study with some of the most renowned meditation teachers of his day. Just six years later he declared them without exception to be deficient, and himself to have achieved a breakthrough surpassing them all. He described this, among other things, as full, irreversible awakening, ‘sublime and perfect.’ I’ve often wondered, if he were alive today, what the media would make of him. ‘Arrogant’ is one of the gentler words that comes to mind.
If you’re surprised by this description of the World Honoured One, it’s because he was followed by a long line of reverent publicists. Twenty-six centuries-worth of men and women (mostly men) created the legend and folklore, monasteries and rituals, tenets and philosophies, religions and sects, rules of conduct and, yes, iconic imagery that we today call Buddhism. They both preserved his words and embellished them in ways that are sophisticated and at times confusing. The Buddha taught an introspective way to unconditioned happiness. He used the dialectic techniques of philosophy and the terminology of his samana teachers, but to call him a philosopher or religious leader is to miss the point, for what he proclaimed was an ‘end to views.’
Buddhism was imported into more than a dozen Asian cultures, each of which drew on its own preferred scriptures, rituals and styles of meditation. I was trained as a monk in Tibetan Buddhism, Gelukpa school, according to the textbooks of Sera Monastery, Jey College. There I was reminded of my great good fortune, for my fellow monks declared their take on Buddhism, half-jokingly, to be ‘the best.’ I think I quite disappointed them with my lack of competitive spirit.
After eight years of study, I felt increasingly that I was living in an ivory tower. With no little trepidation, I left behind my robes, teachers and friends and set out to learn what I could and couldn’t do with the teachings in ‘normal’ life.
For twenty years I struggled alone to make sense of what I’d learned. Along the way I acquired rudimentary skills in writing and typographic design. When I was eventually asked to teach, I realised I’d been preparing to do so since the day I walked out on the imaginary certainties of membership in an august tradition, and that I finally had the tools I needed.
The subject was clear enough – what the Buddha had taught. How to convey it was more challenging. My Gelukpa teachers had been scholars and debaters of the highest calibre, trained in logic and epistemology and expressing themselves in a dialectic designed to withstand the most rigorous onslaught. Most renditions of these teachings into Western languages are densely academic, while popular explanations often go to the other extreme, diluted with new-age hyperbole and obscuring the profoundly practical message. These teachings are not just meditative techniques to calm you down. They’re a lifelong commitment to uprooting stress and strengthening emotional intelligence.
I wanted to teach in plain English, using stories not as parables but as examples of what these ancient teachings have to do with real life. I also wanted to be true to what I’d learned and frank about my own experiences. I was willing to take the sort of risks that were frowned upon in my former life as a scholar-monk. This is the result – a highly subjective and quite personal transmission. 
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Order It Begins with Silence now by clicking on Add to Cart (right). A shipping fee of $8.00 is added to all North American mainland orders. Overseas orders unfortunately cost more to ship: please enquire here, stating your shipping address, and we’ll let you know how much.
Special
Alternatively, take advantage of the special offer below and save on shipping. Order both It Begins with Silence and The Novice along with a copy of the CD The Art of Mindful Reflection — all for $55. There are no additional charges in mainland North America. Overseas orders will cost a little more, but we’ll keep it to a minimum: please enquire here, stating your shipping address, and we’ll let you know how much.
$24.95
Why I Became a Buddhist Monk,
Why I Quit and What I Learned
A Catholic childhood of rigid rules and dogmatic belief left me spiritually empty and pretty mad. It was then I learned that life without spiritual pursuit was too meagre to bear.
In the opening chapter of The Novice you learn the high price I paid for this insight. Still, I survived. Then, I went looking for something – though what it was I couldn’t say. All I knew was that it had to speak to me head-on, without arcane codes and double-talk. After hell and high water I finally found inspiration in the teachings of the Buddha.
It’s counter-intuitive to gaze into the emptiness of life, to abandon hope of escape, mystical breakthrough or magical solutions; but here, it seemed, was an honest path into the depths of reality itself. It makes sense: without facing your deepest fears, you remain trapped inside them.
This was my way, and my breakthrough wasn’t nearly as clear as it sounds now; it was also utterly unexpected – not at all the way I thought it would be. The understanding I developed from those ancient institutions and highly-trained teachers in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka led me to a painful dilemma: when the time came to be true to what I’d learned, I had to abandon them all. This is the story of how that all unfolded.
The Novice is who I was then. It’s also in many ways who I still am – and wish to remain. My journey taught me that knowledge is just the beginning, that acknowledging the vastness of what we don’t know is the true key to modesty and honesty, compassion and insight.
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” [Shunryu Suzuki: Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind]
This is no ordinary spiritual quest … but then, Buddhism is no ordinary religion. Over the millennia the Buddhist faithful have refashioned their historical founder into a mystic and miracle worker, no longer human. After years studying and practicing his teachings I’ve come to see him very differently indeed, and I’m not alone. As twenty-first scholarship shines its light on the ancient texts, it’s become evident that the man who trod the plains of Northern India twenty-six centuries ago was an iconoclast and an empiricist of the first order. This is the story of how, fourty years ago, I fed on his insights before weighing anchor once more to somehow make them my own.
From the Dust Jacket
Convinced he doesn’t belong anywhere, a young man hitchhikes from Europe, through the Middle East, to Asia, searching desperately for peace of mind.
Disenchanted by Western culture and dispirited by middle-class values, author Stephen Schettini sets out to find truth and discovers the world of Tibetan Buddhism. In this lyrical and affecting memoir, Schettini explores the roots of his quest and, after eight years as a monk, unearths the soul of the Buddhist faith and ultimately the personal truth buried beneath formal religious structures.
A life of comfort and security awaits Stephen Schettini but, feeling trapped by the conventional expectations of his parents, teachers and culture, he scorns his unhappy childhood and determines to pursue his deepest hopes and dreams. This intimate, colorful memoir tells the story of a disillusioned young man who sabotages his university finals and abandons home, family, and possessions to journey through Europe, the Middle East and Asia in search of a meaningful life. Narrowly escaping death by sickness and drugs, he encounters Tibetan refugees in exile. Entranced, he finally stops running.
In introspective detail and lyrical prose, the author recounts his monkhood in the Buddhist tradition—staring down the gaping hole at the center of his life to come back strengthened and confident.
With eye-opening accounts of the most famous Tibetan lamas to escape Chinese occupation, poetic descriptions of faraway places and faces, and dozens of evocative photographs, The Novice is destined to become a classic memoir of faith in oneself and the search for ultimate truth.
Illustrations
The Novice contains more than fifty pictures, many by the author and all authentic records of those times when Westerners flocked to Asia in search of enlightenment.
Words of Praise
“A wonderful achievement, gripping and calmly insightful by turn, honest to the point of being a sustained howl of pain at times, with some brilliantly succinct portraits of the author’s teachers and friends.”
—Stephen Batchelor
Author of Buddhism without Beliefs
& Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist
“Stephen Schettini’s The Novice is a lively read with a deep meaning, entertaining us with a fascinating slice of life while encouraging us to use our short lives in a fruitful way—not settling for some half-alive, blind following of routine. I enjoyed its keen portrayal of outer landscape and inner terrain of emotion and intellect, its humor, and the nobility of the author’s struggles, told with ruthless honesty and understated humor in an engaging combination. I recommend it enthusiastically.”
—Robert Thurman
Professor of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University
Author of Inner Revolution & Why the Dalai Lama Matters
“What a story! By turns epic and heroic, tender and touching, The Novice imparts a hugely important lesson to our times. It is a gift to every Western seeker of the ‘spiritual’ East. With the seductive verve of a novelist, Schettini tells a subversive and liberating tale.”
—Glenn Wallis, Pd.D.
Author of The Basic Teachings of the Buddha,
The Dhammapada, & Mediating the Power of Buddhas
From Chapter 24 – Of Things Unspoken
[A Chat with the Young Monk Stephen Batchelor about the Efficacy of Tantric Ritual]
What makes it different from rote?” I asked Steve.
“Well . . . if you’re not actually absorbed in incredible concentration, nothing at all I should think.”
“What about the karmic imprints?”
He laughed dryly.
“Don’t you believe in them?”
“Well of course, when you do something it leaves an imprint—that’s how we develop habits. But I wonder what sort of imprint I’m leaving when I recite something I barely understand. I’ve been to those ceremonies and to be perfectly honest, I don’t see that I received those initiations. I’m quite sure my mind wasn’t a suitable receptacle.”
“But you do believe they’re the Buddha’s teachings?”
“You mean all that stuff about Buddha teaching them in the heavenly realms? And about being kept secret by the Nagas for five hundred years? And about Nagarjuna fetching them back from the underworld?”
“Well, when you put it like that—”
“I mean . . . really!”
“Well, don’t you have an opinion?”
“Ye-es,” he prevaricated.
“And you don’t believe it.”
“I don’t see any compelling reason to. I mean, it’s pretty convenient, isn’t it? After all, what was Gotama all about? Awareness, mindfulness, looking objectively into your own mind. Even if he did teach the tantras, which I doubt, they’re obviously not for ordinary people, and certainly not for a bunch of Westerners who’ve only been studying Buddhism for a few years, sometimes not even that. And then there’s bodhicitta—having absolutely no self-interest whatsoever ?” He raised his eyebrows.
Now I was shocked. “You don’t believe in that either.”
“Don’t misunderstand me. It’s an amazing idea—very appealing—but I don’t experience it, at least, not with any great continuity. And every tantric text makes the point that unless you’ve developed bodhicitta you’re really not going to get the initiation.”
“So belief’s got nothing to do with it?”
Steve frowned. “Belief’s always got something to do with it.
Buy this Book
Order The Novice now by clicking on Add to Cart (right). A shipping fee of $8.00 is added to all North American mainland orders. Overseas orders unfortunately cost more to ship: please enquire here, stating your shipping address, and we’ll let you know how much.
Special
Alternatively, take advantage of the special offer below and save on shipping. Order both It Begins with Silence and The Novice along with a copy of the CD The Art of Mindful Reflection — all for $55. There are no additional charges in mainland North America. Overseas orders will cost a little more, but we’ll keep it to a minimum: please enquire here, stating your shipping address, and we’ll let you know how much.