1996 - Gunaratana - Mindfulness in Plain English - Revised and Expanded Edition.pdf

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Mindfulness In Plain English
By
Ven. Henepola Gunaratana
Preface
In my experience I found that the most effective way to express something in order to
make others understand is to use the simplest language. Also I learned from teaching that
the more rigid the language the less effective it is. People to not respond to very stern and
rigid language especially when we try to teach something which normally people don't
engage in during their daily life. Meditation appears to them as something that they
cannot always do. As more people turn to meditation, they need more simplified
instructions so they can practice by themselves without a teacher around. This book is the
result of requests made by many meditators who need a very simple book written in
ordinary colloquial language.
In preparing this book I have been helped by many of my friends. I am deeply grateful to
all of them. Especially I would like to express my deepest appreciation and sincere
gratitude to John Patticord, Daniel J. Olmsted, Matthew Flickstein, Carol Flickstein,
Patrick Hamilton, Genny Hamilton, Bill Mayne, Bhikkhu Dang Pham Jotika and Bhikkhu
Sona for their most valuable suggestions, comments and criticisms of numerous points in
preparing this book. Also thanks to Reverend Sister Sama and Chris O'Keefe for their
support in production efforts.
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About the Author
Venerable Henepola Gunaratana was ordained at the age of 12 as a Buddhist monk at a
small temple in Malandeniya Village in Kurunegala District in Sri Lanka. His preceptor
was Venerable Kiribatkumbure Sonuttara Mahathera. At the age of 20 he was given
higher ordination in Kandy in 1947. He received his education from Vidyalankara
College and Buddhist Missionary College in Colombo. Subsequently he traveled to India
for five years of missionary work for the Mahabodhi Society, serving the Harijana
(Untouchable) people in Sanchi, Delhi, and Bombay. Later he spent ten years as a
missionary in Malaysia, serving as religious advisor to the Sasana Abhivurdhiwardhana
Society, Buddhist Missionary Society and the Buddhist Youth Federation of Malaysia.
He has been a teacher in Kishon Dial School and Temple Road Girls' School and
Principal of the Buddhist Institute of Kuala Lumppur.
At the invitation of the Sasana Sevaka Society, Venerable Gunaratana came to the United
States in 1968 to serve as Hon. General Secretary of the Buddhist Vihara Society of
Washington, D.C. In 1980 he was appointed President of the Society. During his years at
the Vihara, he has taught courses in Buddhism, conducted meditation retreats, and
lectured widely throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and New
Zealand.
He has also pursued his scholarly interests by earning a B.A., and M.A., and a Ph.D. in
Philosophy from the American University. He taught courses in Buddhism at the
American University, Georgetown University and University of Maryland. His books and
articles have been published in Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka and the United States.
Since 1973 he has been buddhist chaplin at The American University counseling students
interested in Buddhism and Buddhist meditation. He is now president of the Bhavana
Society in West Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley, about 100 miles from Washington,
D.C. teaching meditation and conducting meditation retreats.
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Introduction
American Buddhism
The subject of this book is Vipassana meditation practice. Repeat, practice. This is a
meditation manual, a nuts-and-bolts, step-by-step guide to Insight meditation. It is meant
to be practical. It is meant for use.
There are already many comprehensive books on Buddhism as a philosophy, and on the
theoretical aspects of Buddhist meditation. If you are interested in that material we urge
you to read those books. Many of them are excellent. This book is a 'How to.' It is written
for those who actually want to meditate and especially for those who want to start now.
There are very few qualified teachers of the Buddhist style of meditation in the United
States of America. It is our intention to give you the basic data you need to get off to a
flying start. Only those who follow the instructions given here can say whether we have
succeeded or failed. Only those who actually meditate regularly and diligently can judge
our effort. No book can possibly cover every problem that a meditator may run into. You
will need to meet a qualified teacher eventually. In the mean time, however, these are the
basic ground rules; a full understanding of these pages will take you a very long way.
There are many styles of meditation. Every major religious tradition has some sort of
procedure which they call meditation, and the word is often very loosely used. Please
understand that this volume deals exclusively with the Vipassana style of meditation as
taught and practiced in South and Southeast Asian Buddhism. It is often translated as
Insight meditation, since the purpose of this system is to give the meditator insight into
the nature of reality and accurate understanding of how everything works.
Buddhism as a whole is quite different from the theological religions with which
Westerners are most familiar. It is a direct entrance to a spiritual or divine realm without
addressing deities or other 'agents'. Its flavor is intensely clinical, much more akin to
what we would call psychology than to what we would usually call religion. It is an ever-
ongoing investigation of reality, a microscopic examination of the very process of
perception. Its intention is to pick apart the screen of lies and delusions through which we
normally view the world, and thus to reveal the face of ultimate reality. Vipassana
meditation is an ancient and elegant technique for doing just that.
Theravada Buddhism presents us with an effective system for exploring the deeper levels
of the mind, down to the very root of consciousness itself. It also offers a considerable
system of reverence and ritual in which those techniques are contained. This beautiful
tradition is the natural result of its 2,500-year development within the highly traditional
cultures of South and Southeast Asia.
In this volume, we will make every effort to separate the ornamental from the
fundamental and to present only the naked plain truth itself. Those readers who are of a
ritualistic bent may investigate the Theravada practice in other books, and will find there
a vast wealth of customs and ceremony, a rich tradition full of beauty and significance.
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Those of a more clinical bent may use just the techniques themselves, applying them
within whichever philosophical and emotional context they wish. The practice is the
thing.
The distinction between Vipassana meditation and other styles of meditation is crucial
and needs to be fully understood. Buddhism addresses two major types of meditation.
They are different mental skills, modes of functioning or qualities of consciousness. In
Pali, the original language of Theravada literature, they are called 'Vipassana' and
'Samatha'.
'Vipassana' can be translated as 'insight', a clear awareness of exactly what is happening
as it happens. 'Samatha' can be translated as 'concentration' or 'tranquility'. It is a state in
which the mind is brought to rest, focused only on one item and not allowed to wander.
When this is done, a deep calm pervades body and mind, a state of tranquility which must
be experienced to be understood. Most systems of meditation emphasize the Samatha
component. The meditator focuses his mind upon some items, such as prayer, a certain
type of box, a chant, a candle flame, a religious image or whatever, and excludes all other
thoughts and perceptions from his consciousness. The result is a state of rapture which
lasts until the meditator ends the session of sitting. It is beautiful, delightful, meaningful
and alluring, but only temporary. Vipassana meditation addresses the other component,
insight.
The Vipassana meditator uses his concentration as a tool by which his awareness can chip
away at the wall of illusion which cuts him off from the living light of reality. It is a
gradual process of ever-increasing awareness of the inner workings of reality itself. It
takes years, but one day the meditator chisels through that wall and tumbles into the
presence of light. The transformation is complete. It's called liberation, and it's
permanent. Liberation is the goal of all buddhist systems of practice. But the routes to
attainment of the end are quite diverse.
There are an enormous number of distinct sects within Buddhism. But they divide into
two broad streams of thought -- Mahayana and Theravada. Mahayana Buddhism prevails
throughout East Asia, shaping the cultures of China, Korea, Japan, Nepal, Tibet and
Vietnam. The most widely known of the Mahayana systems is Zen, practiced mainly in
Japan, Korea, Vietnam and the United States. The Theravada system of practice prevails
in South and Southeast Asia in the countries of Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Laos and
Cambodia. This book deals with Theravada practice.
The traditional Theravada literature describes the techniques of both Samatha
(concentration and tranquility of mind) and Vipassana (insight or clear awareness). There
are forty different subjects of meditation described in the Pali literature. They are
recommended as objects of concentration and as subjects of investigation leading to
insight. But this is a basic manual, and we limit our discussion to the most fundamental of
those recommended objects--breathing. This book is an introduction to the attainment of
mindfulness through bare attention to, and clear comprehension of, the whole process of
breathing. Using the breath as his primary focus of attention, the meditator applies
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