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5bb37ee
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we try mentally to grab onto it or push it away. That sets the worry response in motion.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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Every evil deed, every example of heartlessness in the world, stems directly from this false sense of "me" as distinct from everything else."
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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don't get distracted by your expectations about the results.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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The process of becoming who you will be begins first with the total acceptance of who you are.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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Don't dwell upon contrasts. Differences do exist between people, but dwelling upon them is a dangerous process.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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comparisons, if any, lead to feelings of kinship rather than of estrangement. Breathing
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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b5a2cbb
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You can learn to perceive your life as an ever- flowing movement, a thing of great beauty like a dance or symphony. You can learn to take joy in the perpetual passing away of all phenomena. You can learn to live with the flow of existence rather than running perpetually against the grain.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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Seeing with wisdom means seeing things within the framework of our body/mind complex without prejudices or biases springing from our greed, hatred and delusion.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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f80ab0e
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As your mindfulness develops, your resentment of change, your dislike of unpleasant experiences, your greed for pleasant experiences and the notion of self hood will be replaced by the deeper insight into impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and selflessness. This knowledge of reality in your experience helps you to foster a more calm, peaceful and mature attitude towards your life. You will see what you thought in the past to be permanent is c..
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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157be5a
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Here we see how even a small degree of desire for permanency in an impermanent situation causes pain or unhappiness. Since there is no self-entity to control this situation, we will become more disappointed.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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8b0b3b5
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Mindfulness reminds the mediator to apply his attention to the proper object at the proper time and to exert precisely the amount of energy needed to do the job.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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587f8c6
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Concentration is the lens. It produces the burning intensity necessary to see into the deeper reaches of the mind. Mindfulness selects the object hat the lens will focus on and looks through the lens to see what is there.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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75bf43a
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Mindfulness is a broader and larger function than concentration. it is an all-encompassing function. Concentration is exclusive. It settles down on one item and ignores everything else. Mindfulness is inclusive. It stands back from the focus of attention and watches with a broad focus, quick to notice any change that occurs. If you have focused the mind on a stone, concentration will see only the stone. Mindfulness stands back from this pro..
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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defea79
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Too much awareness without calm to balance it will result in a wildly over-sensitized state similar to abusing LSD. Too much concentration without a balancing ratio of awareness will result in the 'Stone Buddha' syndrome. The meditator gets so tranquilized that he sits there like a rock. Both of these are to be avoided.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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If you find your mind extremely active, then simply observe the nature and degree of that activity. It is just a part of the passing show within.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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efe6f00
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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 we do not understand, we tend to blame the world for our pain and suffering. But with sati, mindful remembering, we understand that the only place to find peace and freedom from suffering is this very place, right here in our own body and mind.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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7a3cbcc
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The roots of suffering are within us. And the method for eliminating suffering is within us as well.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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7bc678a
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This goal has five elements to it: purification of mind, overcoming sorrow and lamentation, overcoming pain and grief, treading the right path leading to attainment of eternal peace, and attaining happiness by following that path.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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Below the threshold of conscious awareness, ignorance infiltrates our perceptions, and from there spreads to our thoughts and views, resulting in distorted modes of understanding
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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259b556
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Always remember: becoming mindful of losing our mindfulness is mindfulness.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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a1925b9
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When we focus on the breath, we become mindful of the universal nature of all beings.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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All you should notice in all these occurrences is the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and selfless nature of all your experiences whether mental or physical.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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a6a5b8e
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Meditation on the breath is not a breathing exercise. We are simply using the breath as a point of focus to cultivate mindfulness.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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42e7c66
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We categorize experiences. We try to stick each perception, every mental change in this endless flow, into one of three mental pigeon holes: it is good, bad, or neutral. Then, according to which box we stick it in, we perceive with a set of fixed habitual mental responses.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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e71a697
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What you are now is the result of what you were. What you will be tomorrow will be the result of what you are now. The consequences of an evil mind will follow you like the cart follows the ox that pulls it. The consequences of a purified mind will follow you like your own shadow. No one can do more for you than your own purified mind -- no parent, no relative, no friend, no one. A well-disciplined mind brings happiness.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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eb4691d
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We inhale and experience pleasure and then tension. We exhale and experience release but also anxiety. But even this pattern has much to teach us. When we experience tension, we remind ourselves not to be disappointed. When we experience pleasure, we remember not to attach to it.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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4a60f70
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Ignorance may be bliss, but it does not lead to liberation.
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Henepola Gunaratana |
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5b8d134
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When you finally overcome the five hindrances, you experience a great relief. This relief slowly increases until it culminates in piti, joy. This joy is purely internal. It does not arise dependent on worldly or household pleasure. Nothing outside you causes it. It arises through renouncing outward pleasure.
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Henepola Gunaratana |