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
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.
happiness bliss ifs
You can only have bliss if you don't chase it.
reality vision fundamentals
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.
pain suffering inevitable
Pain is inevitable, suffering is not.
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.
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.
real long brain
By silencing the mind, we can experience real peace. As long as various kinds of thoughts agitate the brain, we don't experience 100 percent peace.
yesterday way problem
No problem. You are not crazier than you were yesterday. It has always been this way, and you just never noticed.
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.
giving discipline over-you
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.
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.
men civilization meditation
Civilization changes man on the outside. Meditation softens him within, through and through.
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.