The process of becoming who you will be begins first with the total acceptance of who you are. Henepola Gunaratana More Quotes by Henepola Gunaratana More Quotes From Henepola Gunaratana 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 disciplineskillsself 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 be-kindrunninglong 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 painrealspiritual No matter how hard you pursue pleasure and success, there are times when you fail. No matter how fast you flee, there are times when pain catches up with you. Henepola Gunaratana painselfmatter 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. Henepola Gunaratana powerfulignorancesuffering 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 simpleselftwo Ignorance may be bliss, but it does not lead to liberation. Henepola Gunaratana learningignorancedoe 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 aversionminddesire Deeply buried in the mind, there lies a mechanism that accepts what the mind experiences as beautiful and pleasant and rejects those experiences that are perceived as ugly and painful. This mechanism gives rise to those states of mind that we are training ourselves to avoid-- things like greed, lust, hatred, aversion, and jealousy. Henepola Gunaratana beautifulgivinglying 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. Henepola Gunaratana good-manariselooks You can only have bliss if you don't chase it. Henepola Gunaratana blissifshappiness The you that goes in one side of the meditation experience is not the same you that comes out the other side. Henepola Gunaratana meditation-practiceinspirationsides 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. Henepola Gunaratana philosophypastthinking No problem. You are not crazier than you were yesterday. It has always been this way, and you just never noticed. Henepola Gunaratana problemyesterdayway Don't cling to anything and don't reject anything. Henepola Gunaratana rejects Each step along the Buddha's path to happiness requires practising mindfulness until it becomes part of your daily life. Henepola Gunaratana mindfulnesspathsteps Civilization changes man on the outside. Meditation softens him within, through and through. Henepola Gunaratana meditationmencivilization 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. Henepola Gunaratana mindmemoriespast 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 Henepola Gunaratana prayerspiritualexercise [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. Henepola Gunaratana healthy-habitspatternsmorality
