Mindfulness by Bhante Gunaratana
April 5th, 2010 | 213 Comments
Mindfulness
by Bhante Gunaratana
Adapted from Voices of Insight.
“Mindfulness” is the English translation of the Pali word sati. Sati is an activity. What exactly is that? There can be no precise answer, at least not in words. Words are devised by the symbolic levels of the mind, and they describe those realities with which symbolic thinking deals. Mindfulness is pre-symbolic. It is not shackled to logic. Nevertheless, mindfulness can be experienced—rather easily—and it can be described, as long as you keep in mind that the words are only fingers pointing at the moon. They are not the thing itself. The actual experience lies beyond the words and above the symbols. Mindfulness could be described in completely different terms than will be used here, and each description could still be correct.
What’s In It For You – Mindfulness In Plain English by H. Gunaratana Mahathera
April 5th, 2010 | 52 Comments
What’s In It For You
Chapter 16 from Mindfulness In Plain English by H. Gunaratana Mahathera
You can expect certain benefits from your meditation. The initial ones are practical, prosaic things; the later stages are profoundly transcendent. They run together from the simple to the sublime. We will set forth some of them here. Your own experience is all that counts.
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness
February 17th, 2010 | 398 Comments
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness
A Dhamma Talk by Ven. Sopako Bodhi Bhikkhu
[Note: the comments in brackets are the editor's.]
The dhamma talk tonight is on the four foundations of mindfulness. ‘Vipassana’ means to develop mindfulness until it becomes insight-knowledge [the realization of impermanence, unsatis- factoriness, and impersonality]. In order to get insight-knowledge you have to observe the four foundations of mindfulness. The foundations are four kinds of objects to put mindfulness on. It’s like a table – all four legs have to be stable before you can put something on the table.
Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn
November 28th, 2009 | 222 Comments
Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn
Jon Kabat-Zinn leads a session on Mindfulness at Google.
You Can Teach An Old Dog New Tricks, But It Will Cost You
November 18th, 2009 | 95 Comments
You Can Teach An Old Dog New Tricks, But It Will Cost You!
Daily, I try my best to walk this Pure Beautiful Path. Meditating and reading the Dharma daily. I am starting to see the changes in my life, from being less anxious and more like the controller of a situation. Not allowing anger to shine through when someone does wrong to me, but brushing it away like dirt and then wish peace unto him or her. Is it easy? No, not at all. I am dealing with
Ajahn Chah – Mindful Way
October 30th, 2009 | 10 Comments
Ajahn Chah – Mindful Way
Excerpts from the BBC documentary ‘The Mindful Way’ which show Luang Por Chah (also available in full on video.google.com), briefly featuring the young Ajahn Liam who was later nominated by Luang Por Chah to lead Wat Pah Pong and continues to do so.
For more video, audio and text see http://www.watnongpahpong.org
http://www.ajahnchah.org
Video series of biography of Ajahn Chah: http://www.ajahnchah.org/videos.htm
PAPAJI – Absolute Watchfulness
October 26th, 2009 | 107 Comments
PAPAJI – Absolute Watchfulness
Papaji speaks about watchfulness – paying attention to one Self – and realising the true nature of maya-illusion. Hari OM.
How to do Mindfulness Meditation
October 17th, 2009 | 216 Comments
How to do Mindfulness Meditation
By Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
“Mindfulness practice is simple and completely feasible. Just by sitting and doing nothing, we are doing a tremendous amount.”
In my last column I discussed why mindfulness is essential to spiritual practice, for no matter what spiritual tradition we follow, we must have a mind that is able to stay in the present moment if our understanding and experience is to deepen. Now I would like to talk about some aspects of the actual mindfulness practice.
Tulku Lama Lobsang on Mindfulness
September 20th, 2009 | 315 Comments
Tulku Lama Lobsang on Mindfulness
Mindfulness…and Happiness
September 5th, 2009 | 355 Comments
Mindfulness…and Happiness
In the rush and clamor of daily life, it is all too easy to become so preoccupied with our own opinions and desires that we may easily forget to pay attention to what is really important. Our awareness of the glory and magnificence of the present moment is often given very little attention as we chase headlong after our own personal goals and ambitions in the never ending, never satisfied pursuits of the self-centered ego. Certainly we each need to have some measure of concern for ourselves, but when the whims of the ego become an all encompassing obsession, we have lost our awareness of what is really important, we have lost our true nature, we have lost our awareness of the Divine Presence.
Human beings living in their shells are mostly unaware of the privilege of life and so are unthankful to the Giver of it. In order to see the grace of God man must
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