Henepola Gunaratana
Henepola Gunaratana
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana is a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk. He is often affectionately known as Bhante G...
NationalitySri Lankan
ProfessionClergyman
Date of Birth7 December 1927
Henepola Gunaratana quotes about
- meditation-practice
- meditation
- sides
- rejects
- path
- steps
- mindfulness
- compassion
- compassion-for-others
- compassion-for-yourself
- healthy-habits
- patterns
- morality
- kindness
- giving
- choices
- personal-transformation
- purpose
- self
- skills
- discipline
- yesterday
- way
- problem
- practice
- brain
- doe
- desire
- want
- what-you-want
memories past mind
The present moment is changing so fast that we often do not notice its existence at all. Every moment of mind is like a series of pictures passing through a projector. Some of the pictures come from sense impressions. Others come from memories of past experiences or from fantasies of the future.
self skills discipline
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.
ignorance learning doe
Ignorance may be bliss, but it does not lead to liberation.
spiritual prayer exercise
Prayer and contemplation are both exercises in concentration. The normal deluge of conscious thought is restricted and the mind is brought to one conscious area of operation. The results are those you find in any concentrative practice: deep calm, a physiological slowing of the metabolism and a sense of peace and wellbeing
philosophy past thinking
DUE TO OUR FEELINGS ARISING FROM CONTACT, we think and we rationalize, conceptualize, theorize, philosophize and speculate. Because of the feeling arising from the six senses, we increase our desire; we come to wrong views and wrong beliefs. We recall our past sights, smells, sounds, tastes, touches and ideas and build up more desires, thoughts, concepts, beliefs, ideas, theories and philosophies.
flow radical-change patterns
You can't make radical changes in the pattern of your life until you see yourself exactly as you are now. As soon as you do that changes will flow naturally.
powerful ignorance suffering
The principal cause of suffering is craving. Once craving is eliminated, much suffering will be eliminated. Still more suffering will be eliminated once ignorance is eliminated. Both craving and ignorance are equally powerful defilements that cause suffering.
good-man looks arise
Let come what comes, and accommodate yourself to that, whatever it is. If good mental images arise, that is fine. If bad mental images arise, that is fine, too. Look on all of it as equal, and make yourself comfortable with whatever happens.
happiness bliss ifs
You can only have bliss if you don't chase it.
path steps mindfulness
Each step along the Buddha's path to happiness requires practising mindfulness until it becomes part of your daily life.
rejects
Don't cling to anything and don't reject anything.
pain suffering inevitable
Pain is inevitable, suffering is not.
yesterday way problem
No problem. You are not crazier than you were yesterday. It has always been this way, and you just never noticed.
healthy-habits patterns morality
[M]orality is not a ritualistic obedience to a code of behavior imposed by an external authority. It is rather a healthy habit pattern that you have consciously and voluntarily chosen to impose upon yourself because you recognize its superiority to your present behavior.