Magazine Meditation & Practice

Mindfulness and Concentration

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana on the difference between mindfulness and concentration

Fall 1998

Magazine Teachings

Do Thoughts Ever Stop?

THE BUDDHA ADVISED his bhikkhus (ordained followers), “Bhikkhus, when you have assembled together you should do one of two things—have dhamma discussions or observe noble silence.” Noble silence is the state of mind where there are no thoughts. The mind is totally silent. But thoughts can be stopped only if we train our mind to […]

By Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

Spring 1997

Magazine Meditation & Practice

Breathing

Ancient Pali texts liken meditation to the process of taming a wild elephant. The procedure in those days was to tie a newly captured animal to a post with a good strong rope. When you do this, the elephant is not happy. He screams and tramples, and pulls against the rope for days. Finally it […]

By Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

Spring 1995

Sitting Still

ONCE YOU SIT, do not change the position again until the end of the time you determined at the beginning. Suppose you change your original position because it is uncomfortable, and assume another position. What happens after a while is that the new position becomes uncomfortable. Then you want another and after a while it, […]

Summer 1993

Buddhist Teachings for Fools and Losers

When we fail, it’s easy to feel bad about ourselves—after all, we live in a society that judges us for our material successes. But the most prominent Buddhist masters were people who failed badly: the Buddha failed in his ascetic practices; Shinran Shonin, founder of the Jodo Shinshu school of Buddhism, was exiled and defrocked early in his career. In this series, Jodo Shinshu Reverend Mauricio Hondaku will explain what Shakyamuni and Shinran’s failures can teach us about shedding social pressures, abandoning our masks, and ultimately finding peace with our imperfections.

May 2018