What if you could go back and sit under a tree with the Buddha and listen to him giving his original meditation instructions? What did he teach over 2500 years ago, and are those original instructions valid for today's practitioners? Most of us cannot travel through time, but we do have the records of the Buddha's teachings in the Pali suttas.

In this book, Mark Edsel Johnson, Ph.D., demonstrates that by following a meditation practice called Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation or TWIM, which is directly based on the records of the Buddha's teachings, practitioners quickly experience the positive and profound uplifting of mind that matches the Buddha's own words. When the American Buddhist monk Bhante Vimalaramsi began to read the suttas and put into practice the original teachings of the Buddha, he found the Buddha's promises of the transformation of suffering, stress, confusion, and depression into peace, joy, and liberating wisdom to be true. From the sutta teachings, Bhante Vimalaramsi reconstructed the Buddha's original method, which he has named Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation (TWIM).

Mark Edsel Johnson holds TWIM up to the light of the teachings of the Buddha as recorded in the Pali suttas and demonstrates the TWIM method is in keeping with those teachings. Using the actual experiences of TWIM meditators, he demonstrates TWIM's effectiveness. At the least, it is a method of personal growth and at the most, one of profound spiritual attainment.
Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation: Samatha-Vipassana Meditation based on the Sutta Pitaka, Mark Edsel Johnson Ph.D., Independently Published, Paperback, 496 pp, $20.00

Mark Edsel Johnson has a PhD in Buddhist Studies from Mahachulalongkorn University in Thailand. He is a member of the post-graduate faculty at Sri Lanka International Buddhist Academy.

Mark has researched and practiced various meditation methods since 1972. He has avidly studied TWIM with Ven. Bhante Vimalaramsi since 2008.

CONTENTS: Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation
Preface		iv
List of Tables		ix
List of Figures		ix
List of Abbreviations		x
Introduction		1
Part One: Theory and Practice of Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation		27
1.	Basing Practice on the Suttas	28
2.	The 6Rs: Right Mindfulness and Right Effort in the Practice of TWIM	51
3.	Harmonious Practice	94
4.	The Union of Samatha and Vipassana in TWIM	134
5.	Mindfulness of Loving Kindness and The Four Divine Abodes Meditation	165
6.	Mindfulness of Breathing ( anapanasati) in TWIM	216
7.	The TWIM Practice of Satipatthana	273
8.	Seeing the Links of Dependent Origination	320
9.	The Rose Apple Tree: Meditation that is open, relaxed, aware	357
Part Two: The Experience of TWIM Practitioners		379
10.	TWIM Practitioners Share Their Experiences	380
Part Three: TWIM and the Findings of Science		409
11.	TWIM Meditation, Neuroscience and Psychology	410
Conclusion		456
Appendix I: The Authenticity of the Anupada Sutta		461
A short spiritual biography of Mark Edsel Johnson		479
Bibliography		483