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Henepola Gunaratana Quotes

Somewhere in this process, you will come face to face with the sudden and shocking realization that you are completely crazy.

Henepola Gunaratana

Somewhere in this process, you will come face to face with the sudden and shocking realization that you are completely crazy.

Any action that comes from a mind not currently filled with greed, hatred, or delusion brings happiness to the doer and to the receiver. Such an action is, therefore, skillful or right.

Henepola Gunaratana

Any action that comes from a mind not currently filled with greed, hatred, or delusion brings happiness to the doer and to the receiver. Such an action is, therefore, skillful or right.

About Author
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana is a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk. He is affectionately known as Bhante G. Bhante Gunaratana is currently the abbot of the Bhavana Society, a monastery and meditation retreat center that he founded in High View, West Virginia, in 1985.

You can’t make radical changes in the pattern of your life until you begin to see yourself exactly as you are now. As soon as you do that, changes will flow naturally. You don’t have to force anything...

Henepola Gunaratana

You can’t make radical changes in the pattern of your life until you begin to see yourself exactly as you are now. As soon as you do that, changes will flow naturally. You don’t have to force anything...

Meditation changes your character by a process of sensitization, by making you deeply aware of your own thoughts, words, and deeds.

Henepola Gunaratana

Meditation changes your character by a process of sensitization, by making you deeply aware of your own thoughts, words, and deeds.

Never mind what I have been taught. Forget about theories and prejudices and stereotypes. I want to understand the true nature of life.

Henepola Gunaratana

Never mind what I have been taught. Forget about theories and prejudices and stereotypes. I want to understand the true nature of life.

We usually do not look into what is actually there in front of us. We see life through a screen of thoughts and concepts, and we mistake those mental objects for reality. We get so caught up in this e...

Henepola Gunaratana

We usually do not look into what is actually there in front of us. We see life through a screen of thoughts and concepts, and we mistake those mental objects for reality. We get so caught up in this e...

Just because of the simple fact that you are human, you find yourself heir to an inherent unsatisfactoriness in life that simply will not go away.

Henepola Gunaratana

Just because of the simple fact that you are human, you find yourself heir to an inherent unsatisfactoriness in life that simply will not go away.

When you see deeply, as a real experience, with your own wisdom-eye, that all conditioned things are impermanent, your mind state changes. Your superficial understanding of impermanence becomes a deep...

Henepola Gunaratana

When you see deeply, as a real experience, with your own wisdom-eye, that all conditioned things are impermanent, your mind state changes. Your superficial understanding of impermanence becomes a deep...

To cultivate your mind, first you have to clear out the various irritants that are in the way—pull them right out by the root so that they won’t grow back. Then you fertilize: you pump energy and disc...

Henepola Gunaratana

To cultivate your mind, first you have to clear out the various irritants that are in the way—pull them right out by the root so that they won’t grow back. Then you fertilize: you pump energy and disc...

Come four more stages that have almost nothing whatever

Henepola Gunaratana

Come four more stages that have almost nothing whatever

Resting comfortably in awareness, we relax into things as they are right now in this very moment, without slipping away into what happened in the past or will happen in the future. Normally, because w...

Henepola Gunaratana

Resting comfortably in awareness, we relax into things as they are right now in this very moment, without slipping away into what happened in the past or will happen in the future. Normally, because w...

Meditation objects are like launching pads. Once you have gained jhana, everything that follows after that is the same. The concentrated mind is on its own, alone, dependent upon nothing external. Wha...

Henepola Gunaratana

Meditation objects are like launching pads. Once you have gained jhana, everything that follows after that is the same. The concentrated mind is on its own, alone, dependent upon nothing external. Wha...

Distractions are really paper tigers. They have no power of their own. They need to be fed constantly, or else they die. If you refuse to feed them by your own fear, anger, and greed, they fade.

Henepola Gunaratana

Distractions are really paper tigers. They have no power of their own. They need to be fed constantly, or else they die. If you refuse to feed them by your own fear, anger, and greed, they fade.

Always remember: becoming mindful of losing our mindfulness is mindfulness.

Henepola Gunaratana

Always remember: becoming mindful of losing our mindfulness is mindfulness.

Meditation deals with levels of consciousness that lie deeper than conceptual thought. Therefore, some of the experiences of meditation just won’t fit into words.

Henepola Gunaratana

Meditation deals with levels of consciousness that lie deeper than conceptual thought. Therefore, some of the experiences of meditation just won’t fit into words.

We try mentally to grab onto it or push it away. That sets the worry response in motion.

Henepola Gunaratana

We try mentally to grab onto it or push it away. That sets the worry response in motion.

Advanced meditators are generally found to be pretty jovial people. They possess one of the most valuable of all human treasures, a sense of humor.

Henepola Gunaratana

Advanced meditators are generally found to be pretty jovial people. They possess one of the most valuable of all human treasures, a sense of humor.

A state of mindfulness is a state of mental readiness. The mind is not burdened with preoccupations or bound in worries. Whatever comes up can be dealt with instantly. When you are truly mindful, your...

Henepola Gunaratana

A state of mindfulness is a state of mental readiness. The mind is not burdened with preoccupations or bound in worries. Whatever comes up can be dealt with instantly. When you are truly mindful, your...

The Dhammapada, an ancient Buddhist text (which anticipated Freud by thousands of years), says: What you are now is the result of what you were. What you will be tomorrow will be the result of what yo...

Henepola Gunaratana

The Dhammapada, an ancient Buddhist text (which anticipated Freud by thousands of years), says: What you are now is the result of what you were. What you will be tomorrow will be the result of what yo...

Our human perceptual habits are remarkably stupid in some ways. We tune out 99 percent of all the sensory stimuli we actually receive, and we solidify the remainder into discrete mental objects. Then...

Henepola Gunaratana

Our human perceptual habits are remarkably stupid in some ways. We tune out 99 percent of all the sensory stimuli we actually receive, and we solidify the remainder into discrete mental objects. Then...