Henepola Gunaratana Quotes

Quotes about:

• Mindfulness gives you time. Time gives you choices. Choices, skillfully made, lead to freedom. You don't have to be swept away by your feeling. You can respond with wisdom and kindness rather than habit and reactivity.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Time

  Bhante Henepola Gunaratana (2010). “Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English: An Introductory Guide to Deeper States of Meditation”, p.43, ReadHowYouWant.com

  132 Copy quote

• Somewhere in this process you will come face-to-face with the sudden and shocking realization that you are completely crazy. Your mind is a shrieking gibbering madhouse on wheels barreling pell-mell down the hill utterly out of control and hopeless. No problem. You are not crazier than you were yesterday. It has always been this way and you just never noticed. You are also no crazier than everybody else around you. The only real difference is that you have confronted the situation they have not.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Crazy, Real, Differences

  38 Copy quote

• The process of becoming who you will be begins first with the total acceptance of who you are.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Life, Acceptance, Firsts

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.35, Simon and Schuster

  35 Copy quote

• We usually do not look into what is really 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 endless thought-stream that reality flows by unnoticed. We spend our time engrossed in activity, caught up in an eternal flight from pain and unpleasantness. We spend our energies trying to make ourselves feel better, trying to bury our fears. We are endlessly seeking security. Meanwhile, the world of real experience flows by untouched and untasted.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Pain, Real, Mistake

  21 Copy quote

• Buddhism advises you not to implant feelings that you don’t really have or avoid feelings that you do have. If you are miserable you are miserable; that is the reality, that is what is happening, so confront that. Look it square in the eye without flinching. When you are having a bad time, examine that experience, observe it mindfully, study the phenomenon and learn its mechanics. The way out of a trap is to study the trap itself, learn how it is built. You do this by taking the thing apart piece by piece. The trap can’t trap you if it has been taken to pieces. The result is freedom.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Taken, Eye, Buddhism

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.92, Simon and Schuster

  22 Copy quote

• Whatever attitudes we habitually use toward ourselves, we will use on others, and whatever attitudes we habitually use toward others, we will use on ourselves.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Attitude, Use

  Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Buddha's Path”, p.78, Simon and Schuster

  31 Copy quote

• View all problems as challenges. Look upon negativities that arise as opportunities to learn and to grow. Don't run from them, condemn yourself, or bury your burden in saintly silence. You have a problem? Great. More grist for the mill. Rejoice, dive in, and investigate.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Running, Buddhist, Opportunity

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.35, Simon and Schuster

  31 Copy quote

• Peace is not a thought, not a concept; it is a nonverbal experience.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Nonverbal, Concepts

  10 Copy quote

• But look within and watch the stuff coming up-restlessness, anxiety, impatience, pain-just watch it come up and don't get involved. Much to your surprise, it will simply go away. It rises, it passes away. As simple as that. There is another word for self-discipline. It is patience.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Pain, Simple, Self

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.80, Simon and Schuster

  15 Copy quote

• When you have learned compassion for yourself, compassion for others is automatic.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Compassion, Compassion For Yourself, Compassion For Others

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.9, Simon and Schuster

  19 Copy quote

• Pain is inevitable, suffering is not.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Pain, Suffering, Inevitable

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.93, Simon and Schuster

  9 Copy quote

• You can learn not to want what you want, to recognize desires but not be controlled by them.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Desire, Want, What You Want

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.6, Simon and Schuster

  18 Copy quote

• They have no power over you. It's all a show, a deception. Your urges scream and bluster at you; they cajole; they coax; they threaten; but they really carry no stick at all. You give in out of habit. You give in because you never really bother to look beyond the threat. It is all empty back there. There is only one way to learn this lesson, though. The words on this page won't do it.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Discipline, Giving, Over You

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.80, Simon and Schuster

  18 Copy quote

• The brain does not manufacture thoughts unless we stimulate it with habitual verbalizing. When we train ourselves by constant practice to stop verbalizing, the brain can experience things as they are.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Practice, Brain, Doe

  21 Copy quote

• Mindfulness helps us freeze the frame so that we can become aware of our sensations and experiences as they are, without the distorting coloration of socially conditioned responses or habitual reactions.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Philosophy, Medicine, Soma

  Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Buddha's Path”, p.194, Simon and Schuster

  17 Copy quote

• Watch the functioning of your own mind in a calm and detached manner so you can gain insight into your own behavior.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Mind, Watches, Gains

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.12, Simon and Schuster

  19 Copy quote

• You can only have bliss if you don't chase it.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Happiness, Bliss, Ifs

  9 Copy quote

• Don't cling to anything and don't reject anything.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Rejects

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.34, Simon and Schuster

  5 Copy quote

• You can't ever get everything you want. It is impossible. Luckily, there is another option: You can learn to control your mind, to step outside of the endless cycle of desire and aversion.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Mind, Desire, Aversion

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.6, Simon and Schuster

  11 Copy quote

• The purpose of meditation is personal transformation.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Personal Transformation, Meditation, Purpose

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.10, Simon and Schuster

  17 Copy quote

• Real peace comes only when you stop chasing it. When you relax your driving desire for comfort, real fulfillment arises. When you drop your hectic pursuit of gratification, the real beauty of life comes out. When you seek to know the reality without illusion, complete with all its pain and danger, that is when real freedfom and security are yours.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Spiritual, Pain, Real

  15 Copy quote

• Discipline is a difficult word for most of us. It conjures up images of somebody standing over you with a stick, telling you that you're wrong. But self-discipline is different. It's the skill of seeing through the hollow shouting of your own impulses and piercing their secret.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Self, Skills, Discipline

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.80, Simon and Schuster

  11 Copy quote

• Vipassana: looking into something with clarity and precision, seeing each component as distinct, piercing all the way through so as to perceive the most fundamental reality of that thing.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Reality, Vision, Fundamentals

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.27, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

• The Buddha's message was simple but profound. Neither a life of self-indulgence nor one of self-mortification can bring happiness. Only a middle path, avoiding these two extremes, leads to peace of mind, wisdom, & complete liberation from the dissatisfactions of life.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Simple, Two, Self

  Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Buddha's Path”, p.25, Simon and Schuster

  10 Copy quote

• We have to learn to be kind to ourselves. In the long run avoiding unpleasantness is a very unkind thing to do to yourself.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Running, Long, Be Kind

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.92, Simon and Schuster

  15 Copy quote

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