PDF Summary:Mindfulness in Plain English, by Bhante Gunaratana

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Meditation requires regular practice to achieve lasting benefits. You can’t meditate a few times and expect to achieve complete equanimity. Use the suggestions in this book summary to start a regular practice.

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To begin, you must see yourself as who you are without illusion or judgment. Then you see your place in society among other humans, and see the collection as a single unit.

Meditation is the path to this level of understanding and mental peace. It purifies the mind of “psychic irritants,” bringing you to a new state of tranquility and awareness. It makes you deeply aware of your own thoughts and actions.

• It’s like cultivating new land. Clear the trees, pull out the stumps. Then till the soil, fertilize, and sow your seed.

Through meditation, you learn compassion and ethics from within, not without.

• Many people obey the law because they fear the penalties. See what happens in the stress of war and economic collapse - people will revert to savagery.
• With meditation, you discover your true values, which are stable and resist influence by the outside world.

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• With meditation, you examine the very process of perception. You watch the feelings that arise and the changes that occur in your own consciousness.

Awareness is attentive listening, mindful seeing. You look at what is right there in front of you, rather than getting caught up in an endless thought-stream that overrides reality.

Awareness is being completely honest with yourself. You watch your mind and body, notice things that are unpleasant to realize, then come to terms with it.

• You learn not to reject things you dislike about yourself or your life - growing old, having your mistakes pointed out, your bad habits.
• You find the roots of emotions like greed, hatred, and anger. You extinguish them.
  • If you do not have the root of hatred, no one can make you angry by pointing out your faults. Instead, you are thankful to that person for pointing out a deficiency that you can improve about yourself.

When you’re mindful you see through the “hollow shouting of your own impulses” and pierce their secret. Your urges yell at you, coaxing, beckoning, threatening, but you realize they have no power at all.

For much of your life, you have given in to your...

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Don’t dwell upon contrasts. Focus on similarities.

• Ordinary thinking is full of comparisons, leading to greed, jealousy and pride - “I’m more/less attractive/wealthy than that person.”
• Instead, focus on the factors universal to all life that will move you closer to others. Build feelings of kinship rather than estrangement.

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• Once your mind is focused on the breath, give up counting.

(Shortform note: Don’t beat yourself up over getting distracted. Don’t fixate on the goal of achieving some desired end state. Don’t feel like a failure for not meeting mindfulness. Instead, think of meditation as the exercise of bringing your mind back to concentration. Every distraction is a chance to practice this and get better.)

Over time, your breathing will become shallower and more subtle. This is an indicator of concentration.

• You will develop a new more subtle “sign” - which appears differently to different people (a star, a long string, a cobweb, the moon, a flower). Over time, master this so that whenever you want the sign, it should be available.
• You will find great calm here free of psychic irritants. No agitation, greed, lust, hatred. These are beautiful, clear states of mind.

The mind must keep up with what is happening at every moment, so do not try to stop the mind at any one moment. This is momentary concentration.

When you feel in a state of concentration, the mind can then move to other sounds, memories, or emotions, one at a time. As they fade away, let your mind return to...

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*   Half lotus - both knees touch floor. One leg and foot lie flat along the calf of the other leg.
*   Full lotus - both knees touch floor. Each foot rests on the opposite thigh.
*   The lotus positions are best because they are most stable for long periods of time.

• Hands are cupped one on the other, resting on lap below navel with wrist pressed against thigh, with palms turned upward. Relax arms.

When sitting on a chair:

• Choose a chair with a level seat, straight back, no arms. Do not lean against the back of the chair.
• The seat should not dig into your thighs.
• Place legs side by side, feet flat on floor.

Sit in the entire session in that posture without moving.

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• Breath is universal to all living things, so it also connects you to the rest of the living world.
• The breath is naturally a present-moment process. Once it passes it passes, and the next one comes. This transience is different from our memories or our future worries and plans.

Handling Distractions

Distractions will naturally arise. You’ll learn ot deal with them.

At times you will find yourself utterly incapable of wrangling your mind from thinking random thoughts. You will not be aware of where the thoughts come from, and you will feel crazy. This is the “monkey-mind.” Realize that your mind has always been this way - you have just never noticed.

Gently but firmly return to your focus. Do not get upset or judge yourself from straying. Do not force things out of your mind - this adds energy to the thoughts that will make them return stronger.

Set small goals. Try to focus for just one inhalation and exhalation. You will still fail, but keep at it.

(Shortform note: Again, don’t beat yourself up over getting distracted. Don’t fixate on the goal of achieving some desired end state. Don’t feel like a failure for not meeting mindfulness. Instead, think of...

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How Long to Sit

Start with 20-30 minutes for sitting.

Choose the length before sitting, and stick to it. Don’t peek at your watch during it, just let the sitting come to a close.

After a year, you should be able to sit for an hour at a time. Seasoned meditators practice 3-4 hours a day.

Don’t force yourself to sit with pain just to feel all tough and mighty. This isn’t an endurance contest.

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This recitation overcomes the ego. Balance the negative emotion by instilling a positive one. Giving confronts greed; benevolence confronts hatred.

First you banish thoughts of self-hatred and self-condemnation, letting good wishes flow to yourself.

Then you expand out to other people, overcoming greed, selfishness, resentment, and hatred.

This is “universal loving friendliness.”

But you dislike your enemies. How can you wish well on your enemies?

• Realize that they are suffering, just like you and everyone else. If your enemies were well, happy, and peaceful, they wouldn’t be your enemies. If they were free of pain, suffering, paranoia, fear - they wouldn’t be your enemies. So the practical approach is to help them overcome their problems, so you can live in peace and happiness.
• In contrast, if you wish poorly on another person - “let him be poor. Let him fail. Let him be ugly” - this will generate a physiological stress response that handicaps you and makes you less pleasant to others.
• By wishing well on them, you practice noble behavior, which will more likely improve your enemy’s life and convert him from an enemy.

This is also useful to recite...

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• These techniques will carry over into the rest of life, including anxiety and sadness.

Drowsiness

• Apply your mindfulness to the state of drowsiness itself. This awareness will evaporate drowsiness.
• Try to eat lightly before meditating or wait after a big meal.
• If you need to sleep, then sleep. You will not gain any new insight from fighting sleep.

Distraction

• If you have irritating tasks or problems that keep coming up, solve them first before meditating. But don’t use this as an excuse to not meditate, thinking all your problems need to be solved.
• If you don’t know what you’re agitated about, observe it, and the cause will eventually surface.

Stupor

• By deepening concentration, you can enter a state where you feel pleasantly divorced from the body. If you dive into the pleasure too much, your mind will stop being mindful, attention scattering aimlessly through vague clouds of bliss.
• Mindfully observe this and it will dissipate.

Miscellaneous

• Legs going to sleep - don’t worry about legs going to sleep. It’s just nerves pinching, not lack of blood circulation. Numbness will disappear as you practice.
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Trickiest of all is positive mental states - happiness, peace, compassion. Depriving yourself of this makes you feel like a traitor to humanity. But treat them like any other mental state - don’t become attached. Observe them for what they are, and watch them come and go.

If multiple sensations arise at once, then focus on the strongest one, let it fade away, then return to your breathing.

Tactics for Dealing with Distractions

Sometimes you won’t be able to merely observe the distraction and ponder them without thoughts. In these cases, there are more techniques:

• Gauge the time that’s passed since you got distracted. This makes you pull out of the thought and become mindful of it.
  • The accuracy of the time estimate isn’t important - it’s the mindfulness that is.
• If you feel agitated, take a few deep breaths and apply force to your attention. This helps clear the mind.
  • Think “in…out” as you breathe
• Count numbers with your breaths, as described in chapter 5.
• Oppose unskillful thoughts with skillful thoughts
  • An unskillful thought is for instance based in greed, hatred, resentment. These are unskillful in that they are easy for...

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• Mindfulness is a sensitive function leading to refined sensibilities. It notices things. It cannot be cultivated by struggle.

Mindfulness picks the objects of attention and notice when the focus has strayed. Concentration does the actual work of holding the attention steady. Concentration is the sun’s parallel rays, and mindfulness is the lens that focuses the rays onto an object.

They should be developed as a team. Mindfulness is more important, but one cannot survive without the other.

• Concentration without mindfulness leads to conscious obsession - lust, greed, resentment. It does not understand what it sees. Or, if the mind is blank, it can lead too much to the “stone buddha” syndrome, where you fall into a stupor.
• Mindfulness without concentration sees too many things pass. It looks on as the attention shifts rapidly. It does not aim at anything. Without the power of concentration, mindfulness cannot penetrate the deepest level of the mind.

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The purpose is not to correct your posture or admonish yourself for having bad posture. Instead, it’s a break from the day.

Slow-Motion Activity

Slow down an everyday activity to 10x the time it normally takes to complete. Witness every single component of the action, pay full attention to every nuance.

For example, if you are sitting and drinking tea:

• Note your posture as you sit
• Feel the handle of the cup in your fingers
• Smell the aroma of the tea
• Note the placement of the cup, the tea, your arm, the table
• Watch the intention to raise your arm within your mind
• Feel your arm as it rises
• Feel the cup against your lip
• Feel the liquid pouring into your mouth.

Do the same with your thoughts, words, and movements.

Breath Coordination

When moving, coordinate the activity with your breathing. (Walking, biking, cleaning, etc). This lends a flowing rhythm to your movement and smooths out transitions.

Stolen Moments

Do you feel you have any periods of wasted time in your day? When you feel bored?

Turn every spare moment into meditation. Be alert and aware throughout the day. What are you feeling at the moment? Why?

Examples -...

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When you look behind your impulses and automatic emotional reactions, you see that they are just a collection of processes that have been caused and conditioned by previous processes. Your cravings become extinguished, and you are much more at peace.

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May all that I see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and think help me to cultivate loving friendliness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity. May all these experiences help me to cultivate thoughts of generosity and gentleness. May they all help me to relax. May they inspire friendly behavior. May these experiences be a source of peace and happiness. May they help me be free from fear, tension, anxiety, worry, and restlessness.

No matter where I go in the world, in any direction, may I greet people with happiness, peace, and friendliness. May I be protected in all directions from greed, anger, aversion, hatred, jealousy, and fear.”

Extend Outwards

All beings want happiness and less suffering. This connects you with the rest of the living universe. Wish well-being for them.

“May all beings in all directions, all around the universe, have good hearts. Let them be happy, let them have good fortune, let them be kind, let them have good and caring friends. May all beings everywhere be filled with the feeling of loving friendliness - abundant, exalted, and measureless. May they be free from enmity, free from affliction and anxiety. May they live happily.”

Wish...