The transition to the harmony of the whole, which is hidden somewhere nearby, in the neighborhood, will make you happier. Advice from a monk from Sri Lanka on how to find yourself, strength and opportunities to be a little wiser.
The Venerable Bhante Henepola Gunaratana is a monk from Sri Lanka. He is often simply referred to as Bhante "Ji" (G). He is currently the Chairman of the Bhavan Society and Abbot of the High View Monastery and Meditation Center in West Virginia.
1. No matter how persistently you strive for pleasure and success, there are periods of failure. No matter how fast you run, there are times when you get hurt.
2. Happiness is achieved only if you do not pursue it.
3. Nothing worth accomplishing overnight.
4. During meditation, do not expect anything. Just sit and watch what happens. Treat it like an experiment. Be actively interested in the experience that is happening, do not let yourself be distracted by expectations of results. Actually, don't worry about any result at all.
5. Don't strain yourself. No coercion, do not use excessive force. Meditation is non-aggressive, non-aggressive. There is no room for violent aspirations in it. Let your attempts be relaxed, calm, balanced.
6. They say that there are only two tragedies in life: not achieving what you want and achieving it.
7. Seeing a truck rushing towards you, of course, you jump to the side.
8. Take time to meditate. Learning to cope with deprivation and anxiety is the only way to prepare yourself for a truck rushing towards you that you have not seen.
9. Do not cling to anything and do not reject anything. Let what comes come. Make peace with everything, whatever. Are there positive mental images? It's good. Do negative ones arise? Also good. Take all this as equal, learn to feel comfortable, no matter what happens. Do not try to overcome what you are experiencing at the moment, just observe it in full awareness.
10. Don't think. See and be aware.
11. Pain is inevitable, suffering is not.
12. The basis of our life experience is change. The changes are incessant. Life flows moment by moment, never remaining the same. Constant alternation is the essence of the subjectively perceived universe. A thought arises in your head, and half a second later it is gone.
A new thought immediately arises - and it also disappears. The sound reaches your ears, then there is silence. Open your eyes - and the whole world will flow into them, close your eyes for a moment - and there is nothing.
People appear in your life and leave again. Friends leave, relatives die.
Your property grows and shrinks. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
It is continuous: change, change, change.
13. Free yourself. Learn to move along with all the changes that arise. Relax and unwind.
14. Accept whatever happens. Accept your feelings, even those you would like not to have. Accept life experience, even one that you hate. Don't judge yourself for human flaws and weaknesses. Learn to perceive all phenomena in your mind as completely natural and understandable. Try in all cases to train disinterested acceptance in relation to what you are experiencing and experiencing.
15. Meditation is joint observation. What you are looking at responds to the viewing process. What you are looking at is yourself; what you see depends on how you look.
16. Be nice to yourself. Be kind to yourself. You may be far from perfect, but you yourself are all you can work with. The process of becoming who you will become begins with fully accepting who you are.
17. Ignorance may be a blessing, but it does not lead to liberation.
18. It is difficult to imagine anything more boring in its essence than a motionless hour sitting in complete inactivity - except, perhaps, watching how air enters and exits through the nose. During meditation, you will get bored many times. It happens to everyone. Boredom is a mental state, and this is how it should be perceived.
19. Study yourself. Question everything. Don't take anything for granted. Do not believe just because something sounds wise and pious and was said by some holy people. Judge for yourself.
This does not mean that you should be cynical, cocky, or disrespectful. This means that you have to rely on experience. Test any statement in terms of your experience, and let the results be your guide to the truth.
Meditation with an understanding of mental processes evolves from an inner desire to awaken to the authentic, to gain a liberating insight into the true structure of being. All practice revolves around this striving to awaken to truth. Practice is superficial without it.
20. Based on the simple fact that you are a human being, you find out that you have inherited an innate dissatisfaction with life that will never go away. You can suppress it for a while, you can be distracted for an hour or two, but this dissatisfaction, this dissatisfaction will return - as a rule, when you least expect it.
21. Think of any problem as a challenge. View the negative as an opportunity to learn and grow. Don't run from problems, don't judge yourself, don't bury this burden in righteous silence. Are you having difficulties? Fine. More grains to grind on your millstones. Rejoice, dive in and explore.
22. There is no pleasure without a grain of pain. There is no pain without a bit of pleasure.
23. Full awareness never gets bored.
24. It's no secret that thoughts can make us happy or unhappy. Let's imagine that you are sitting under a tree on a clear spring day. Nothing special happens, only the breeze plays in your hair.
But your consciousness is somewhere far away. You may be recalling another spring day, a few years ago, when you were unbearably ill. You then just lost your job, or failed an exam, or your cat disappeared. This memory turns into worry.
“What if I’m out of work again? Why did I have to say this and that? Undoubtedly, this and that will happen, and I will be expelled in disgrace. I am so sorry! How will I pay the bills? " One anxiety entails another, and that one more. Soon, you will feel as if your life is in a terrible mess - and all this while you were sitting under a tree!
25. Skillful speech not only implies that we closely monitor the spoken words and their intonation, but also requires that these words reflect compassion and concern for others; so that they heal and help, not hurt and destroy.
26. Something bad happens to each of us. By blaming your parents or society for your problems, you find an excuse for yourself not to change. The moment you take responsibility for the position in which you find yourself (even if other people had a hand in it), you begin to move in a positive direction.
27. Whatever our habitual relationship to ourselves, the same will be our relationship to others; whatever our position in relation to others - such it will be in relation to ourselves.
This can be compared to distributing food (to yourself and others) taken from a shared cauldron. As a result, everyone eats the same thing - so it is necessary to carefully monitor which foods we lay out.
28. Remaining fully aware in all situations of communication with other people, also be extremely careful when you are especially vulnerable. For example, when you are grieving over the loss of someone or a loved one, even the smallest annoyance can provoke your anger. Therefore, you should be especially careful with others, just as a barefoot person steps cautiously where broken glass may be.
The same is true when you are sick, tired, hungry, lonely, when you are in pain - or when you are simply in a bad mood. When it's hard for you, complete, moment by moment, mindfulness will help you remember your vulnerability and avoid regrettable actions.
