Quotes from Henepola Gunaratana

Meditation changes your character.

Civilization changes man on the outside. Meditation softens him within, through and through.

When you have learned compassion for yourself, compassion for others is automatic.

The present moment is changing so fast that we often do not notice its existence at all. Every moment of mind is like a series of pictures passing through a projector. Some of the pictures come from sense impressions. Others come from memories of past experiences or from fantasies of the future.

The process of becoming who you will be begins first with the total acceptance of who you are.

You can't make radical changes in the pattern of your life until you see yourself exactly as you are now. As soon as you do that changes will flow naturally.

Each step along the Buddha's path to happiness requires practising mindfulness until it becomes part of your daily life.

Don't cling to anything and don't reject anything.

Watch the functioning of your own mind in a calm and detached manner so you can gain insight into your own behavior.

The brain does not manufacture thoughts unless we stimulate it with habitual verbalizing. When we train ourselves by constant practice to stop verbalizing, the brain can experience things as they are.

The purpose of meditation is personal transformation.

You can learn not to want what you want, to recognize desires but not be controlled by them.

Mindfulness helps us freeze the frame so that we can become aware of our sensations and experiences as they are, without the distorting coloration of socially conditioned responses or habitual reactions.

Let come what comes, and accommodate yourself to that, whatever it is. If good mental images arise, that is fine. If bad mental images arise, that is fine, too. Look on all of it as equal, and make yourself comfortable with whatever happens.

Peace is not a thought, not a concept; it is a nonverbal experience.

You can't ever get everything you want. It is impossible. Luckily, there is another option: You can learn to control your mind, to step outside of the endless cycle of desire and aversion.

Whatever attitudes we habitually use toward ourselves, we will use on others, and whatever attitudes we habitually use toward others, we will use on ourselves.

By silencing the mind, we can experience real peace. As long as various kinds of thoughts agitate the brain, we don't experience 100 percent peace.

The you that goes in one side of the meditation experience is not the same you that comes out the other side.