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Discovering Meditation
"What I am encouraging you to do is to make your own discoveries. Forget what you have read, forget what you have heard. Just be simple and practical and find out. This can be so fascinating. If you can have the openness to learn, you can discover so much.
This is meditation. Not taking anything for granted I mean, how fortunate we are, how grateful we should be that we have this experience. I call it the laboratory of mind and body. But it seems that though this mind and body are so close to us, they are in many ways so very far away.
So please, generate a fascination for this, please find a taste for this, please develop a curiosity for this. Find this the most meaningful thing one can do in this life, because it is learning all the time about the thoughts, about emotions, about perception, about so many things in this world of ours."
-Godwin Samararatne
This is meditation. Not taking anything for granted I mean, how fortunate we are, how grateful we should be that we have this experience. I call it the laboratory of mind and body. But it seems that though this mind and body are so close to us, they are in many ways so very far away.
So please, generate a fascination for this, please find a taste for this, please develop a curiosity for this. Find this the most meaningful thing one can do in this life, because it is learning all the time about the thoughts, about emotions, about perception, about so many things in this world of ours."
-Godwin Samararatne
219 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2012
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July 13, 2024
Sometimes, the simpler approach can be the most useful and meaningful. And this book is one of those occasions.
I read this book a couple of years back. But it did not make a strong impression on me. The problem was me, not the contents of the book. I think when our minds are not ready, we would be unable to get much out. But when we have more experience, and more maturity, and re-read a text, we find so many gems that we have missed before! Where have I been? What was I thinking then?
So, I am superbly grateful for having read this book again. And gleaned so much out of it. The simplicity in Godwin’s approach to meditation and awareness covers the most fundamental grounds of mindful living and meditation. It is similar to the simplicity of the Thai Forest Tradition's approach - to be very open, to discover how the mind works, to be amused by it, to be curious, to study how we react and practise non-racting, and to be kind to oneself and others.
My teacher, the 75-year old Buddhist monk Bhante Shravasti Dhammika knew Godwin Samaratne well. They set up the Nilambe Meditation Centre in Kandy, Sri Lanka in the 70s or 80s. He considered Godwin his kalyanimitta - a Pali term used by Buddha himself for a "spiritual friend". Buddha told Ananda that spiritual friendship consists “the whole of the spiritual life”. Bhante Dhammika said Godwin was the kindest and most patient person he knew. So that counts for something.
The entire book resonated with me and some chapters especially so, for the insights that Godwin has on the human mind and nature, and how he explains it simply and guides the meditator with kindness. The chapter on loving-kindness is one of these chapters. He said that many of us have experienced wounds and some of these wounds are very deep and come with guilt towards ourselves too. And because of these wounds and guilt, we punish ourselves in very subtle ways. We are always giving pluses or minuses to every situation and person, including ourselves. And those who suffer from depression tend to give themselves the most minuses.
His suggestion on healing these wounds is to find out how these were created in the first place -were they a result of our own expectations of how things should be or how other people or ourselves should be? Then forgive ourselves and others. And when these hurts and feelings arise again, we can try to understand how they arose – and how our memories are related to these hurts. We can try simply observing this hurtful feeling (this monster!) as this creates some space around it, and be curious about it and make friends with it, telling ourselves “it is ok”. Gradually our strong emotion towards that feeling can be moderated and softened over time.
And one of the very useful tools of practising loving-kindness to yourself is to be your own best spiritual friend. To listen first, to understand first, and to guide with gentleness and flexibility. What a wonderful suggestion!
Every situation in life, especially the challenging ones, are opportunities to discover how our minds work and how we habitually react in a certain way. This is a very important point. The awareness gives us chances to explore alternative ways to re-act, or even better – not react.
At the end of the book, Godwin shows us how our meditation practise can be akin to the process of disease and cure, and is aligned to the Four Noble Truths.
Our craving, our aversions are part of our agitated minds and these tendencies make us suffer with unease. This is akin to having a disease, and is aligned to the first noble truth of dukkha (of unease, dissatisfaction, or even suffering). Discovering how our minds work, and the source of our suffering is like discovering the cause of the disease. This is aligned to the second noble truth of the origin of suffering. Observing our unhappiness and mental suffering and realising that it can be reduced and even cured permanently if certain conditions are removed, shows us that the health can be restored. This is aligned to the third noble truth of the cessation of suffering. And then we apply the practical steps to administer the medication to ease our suffering permanently. And this is the fourth noble truth – the Noble Eightfold Path. This is the path set out by the Buddha – the path of practise.
Godwin points out some very important points about the medicine. He said it is very subtle and I really agree with him. That very often, we learn about the benefits of the medicine, and we are so excited about it and we talk a lot about it. Or we precribe it to others. But we have never applied the medicine on ourselves and we have never tried it. Then it is of no use to ourselves. So this is a very important point for me – I must remember not to just study it, admire it, and write beautiful book reviews about it. And then don’t take the medicine for myself. What a hypocrite I am then, haha.
I encourage everyone to read this. I think if the majority of us practise the simple steps, we will be happier people and the world will be a better place.
This book encourages me to continue with my practise, and not to place too much expectations on myself eg to meditate for xx hours, or to reach certain levels of concentration. While these are worthy goals, and are useful indicators of milestones and progress, they are not the main outcome. The main outcome and priority is transformation of our minds. Focussing on the outcome means there are many opportunities throughout the day to practise awareness too.
So if we miss a meditation session that day because we are too tired by work and the demands of daily life, it is ok to say “it is ok”. It is ok not to keep giving ourselves minuses. That it is very helpful to see our practise as interesting rather than a chore/work.
I read this book a couple of years back. But it did not make a strong impression on me. The problem was me, not the contents of the book. I think when our minds are not ready, we would be unable to get much out. But when we have more experience, and more maturity, and re-read a text, we find so many gems that we have missed before! Where have I been? What was I thinking then?
So, I am superbly grateful for having read this book again. And gleaned so much out of it. The simplicity in Godwin’s approach to meditation and awareness covers the most fundamental grounds of mindful living and meditation. It is similar to the simplicity of the Thai Forest Tradition's approach - to be very open, to discover how the mind works, to be amused by it, to be curious, to study how we react and practise non-racting, and to be kind to oneself and others.
My teacher, the 75-year old Buddhist monk Bhante Shravasti Dhammika knew Godwin Samaratne well. They set up the Nilambe Meditation Centre in Kandy, Sri Lanka in the 70s or 80s. He considered Godwin his kalyanimitta - a Pali term used by Buddha himself for a "spiritual friend". Buddha told Ananda that spiritual friendship consists “the whole of the spiritual life”. Bhante Dhammika said Godwin was the kindest and most patient person he knew. So that counts for something.
The entire book resonated with me and some chapters especially so, for the insights that Godwin has on the human mind and nature, and how he explains it simply and guides the meditator with kindness. The chapter on loving-kindness is one of these chapters. He said that many of us have experienced wounds and some of these wounds are very deep and come with guilt towards ourselves too. And because of these wounds and guilt, we punish ourselves in very subtle ways. We are always giving pluses or minuses to every situation and person, including ourselves. And those who suffer from depression tend to give themselves the most minuses.
His suggestion on healing these wounds is to find out how these were created in the first place -were they a result of our own expectations of how things should be or how other people or ourselves should be? Then forgive ourselves and others. And when these hurts and feelings arise again, we can try to understand how they arose – and how our memories are related to these hurts. We can try simply observing this hurtful feeling (this monster!) as this creates some space around it, and be curious about it and make friends with it, telling ourselves “it is ok”. Gradually our strong emotion towards that feeling can be moderated and softened over time.
And one of the very useful tools of practising loving-kindness to yourself is to be your own best spiritual friend. To listen first, to understand first, and to guide with gentleness and flexibility. What a wonderful suggestion!
Every situation in life, especially the challenging ones, are opportunities to discover how our minds work and how we habitually react in a certain way. This is a very important point. The awareness gives us chances to explore alternative ways to re-act, or even better – not react.
At the end of the book, Godwin shows us how our meditation practise can be akin to the process of disease and cure, and is aligned to the Four Noble Truths.
Our craving, our aversions are part of our agitated minds and these tendencies make us suffer with unease. This is akin to having a disease, and is aligned to the first noble truth of dukkha (of unease, dissatisfaction, or even suffering). Discovering how our minds work, and the source of our suffering is like discovering the cause of the disease. This is aligned to the second noble truth of the origin of suffering. Observing our unhappiness and mental suffering and realising that it can be reduced and even cured permanently if certain conditions are removed, shows us that the health can be restored. This is aligned to the third noble truth of the cessation of suffering. And then we apply the practical steps to administer the medication to ease our suffering permanently. And this is the fourth noble truth – the Noble Eightfold Path. This is the path set out by the Buddha – the path of practise.
Godwin points out some very important points about the medicine. He said it is very subtle and I really agree with him. That very often, we learn about the benefits of the medicine, and we are so excited about it and we talk a lot about it. Or we precribe it to others. But we have never applied the medicine on ourselves and we have never tried it. Then it is of no use to ourselves. So this is a very important point for me – I must remember not to just study it, admire it, and write beautiful book reviews about it. And then don’t take the medicine for myself. What a hypocrite I am then, haha.
I encourage everyone to read this. I think if the majority of us practise the simple steps, we will be happier people and the world will be a better place.
This book encourages me to continue with my practise, and not to place too much expectations on myself eg to meditate for xx hours, or to reach certain levels of concentration. While these are worthy goals, and are useful indicators of milestones and progress, they are not the main outcome. The main outcome and priority is transformation of our minds. Focussing on the outcome means there are many opportunities throughout the day to practise awareness too.
So if we miss a meditation session that day because we are too tired by work and the demands of daily life, it is ok to say “it is ok”. It is ok not to keep giving ourselves minuses. That it is very helpful to see our practise as interesting rather than a chore/work.
Displaying 1 of 1 review