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Living This Life Fully: Stories and Teachings of Munindra
Anagarika Munindra (1915–2003) was a Bengali Buddhist master and scholar who was teacher to an entire generation of practitioners—including some of the most prominent Insight Meditation teachers in America. His students include Daniel Goleman (author of Emotional Intelligence), Sharon Salzberg (author of Lovingkindness), Jack Kornfield (author of A Path with Heart), and Joseph Goldstein (author of Insight Meditation). As the teacher of a whole generation of American teachers, he was thus himself a pivotal figure in the transmission of Buddhism to the West. This is the first book available about Munindra’s life and teaching, and it • A brief biography of Munindra • Never-before-published excerpts of his teachings • Stories and remembrances from Western students including Daniel Goleman, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield • Rare photographs
297 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 12, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 9, 2014
Things do seem to happen as they are supposed to, in their own peculiar time. A review copy of Mirka Knaster’s Living This Life Fully: Stories and Teachings of Munindra, was mailed to me last year, but mysteriously failed to reach me. Perhaps I was not ready to receive it at the time, who knows? In any event, a replacement did reach me this past week, at a moment when I had the right amount of time to devote to it.
And reading it reminded me of another, much bigger and more significant time lapse in my life. I’ll need to return to this in a moment. First, though, Munindra’s story: starting in the 1960s, after a long stint as a student and novice Theravada monk in Burma, this Bengali-born truth-seeker laid aside his robes and arrived as a simple layman at the site of the Buddha’s awakening, Bodh Gaya. Here—and in his subsequent travels—he was to become one of the most widely influential teachers of the dharma, devoting his life to spreading the word throughout the world. This, remember, was a time at which an endless stream of young Westerners from both Europe and the two Americas were heading East, many of them disenchanted with materialistic values and finding, in Buddhism, a source of spiritual renewal. For many of them, Munindra became both a mentor and a role model, whose guidance provided them with lifelong inspiration.
Knaster’s book embraces a vast number of these former students in the ample quotations in which they recall Munindra, his teachings, and his influence on their lives. Many returned to their home country and became, themselves, the leading Buddhist teachers of their own and following generations. Names like Ram Dass, Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Lama Surya Das, and Joseph Goldstein are by now well known for their contribution to the promulgation of Buddhist thought and practice in this country—and these are but a handful amongst the many Knaster interviewed. (There’s a useful listing of these people at the back, including brief biographies—along with a handy glossary of Buddhist terms.)
What they recall is not only a man of profound knowledge and understanding of the Buddhist texts, but one for whom the dharma was not mere abstract truth but a way of life. The chorus of their voices is a celebration of the man, and everything they learned from his example as much as from his words. That the author organizes her sixteen chapters around Munindra’s teachings on the qualities that form the basis of all Buddhist practice—sati (mindfulness), dana (generosity), karuna (compassion) and so on—allows her to provide the reader with a rather comprehensive overview of the dharma itself. But it’s the practical application of those principles to the skill of living life to its fullest that interests Munindra and, by extension, his students and followers. Far from a simple biography, Knaster’s book should be read as a manual for an ethical, joyous, and meaningful life.
There will be those, surely, who complain that this chorus of laudatory voices borders on the hagiographic. I myself would likely have been among them, had I read all this adulation of a holy man those many years ago, when students from the West were seeking him out. At the time, in the late 1960s and early 1970s—and here I return to that other time lapse I mentioned—I was much aware of those around me who were starting out excitedly on spiritual paths and urging me to do the same: “You’ve got to read this book,” good friends would tell me, waving a copy of Be Here Now before my skeptical eyes. “It’ll change your life.”
Alas—I say this now, in retrospect, but with the understanding that the important things in life do reach us when we’re ready for them—I was not ready at the time. I was busy rejecting not only the Christian teaching of my youth, but anything that smacked of “religion”, and with a good measure of anger and hostility. Now, nearly a half century later, I have learned differently. Had I been otherwise preoccupied than with the conceit of my own fierce rationalism, had I been ready to sacrifice head for heart, I could have learned it all back then from Munindra: it’s not just about “religion”, it’s about “living this life fully”; it’s not just about moral imperatives, it’s about compassion; it’s not just about righteousness, it’s about love.
But as I say, things do seem to happen when they are supposed to, not when one might have wished them with the benefit of hindsight. So now, with the humility of one reminded by this book of his own late-coming to the wisdom of the dharma, I say: “Read it!”
And reading it reminded me of another, much bigger and more significant time lapse in my life. I’ll need to return to this in a moment. First, though, Munindra’s story: starting in the 1960s, after a long stint as a student and novice Theravada monk in Burma, this Bengali-born truth-seeker laid aside his robes and arrived as a simple layman at the site of the Buddha’s awakening, Bodh Gaya. Here—and in his subsequent travels—he was to become one of the most widely influential teachers of the dharma, devoting his life to spreading the word throughout the world. This, remember, was a time at which an endless stream of young Westerners from both Europe and the two Americas were heading East, many of them disenchanted with materialistic values and finding, in Buddhism, a source of spiritual renewal. For many of them, Munindra became both a mentor and a role model, whose guidance provided them with lifelong inspiration.
Knaster’s book embraces a vast number of these former students in the ample quotations in which they recall Munindra, his teachings, and his influence on their lives. Many returned to their home country and became, themselves, the leading Buddhist teachers of their own and following generations. Names like Ram Dass, Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Lama Surya Das, and Joseph Goldstein are by now well known for their contribution to the promulgation of Buddhist thought and practice in this country—and these are but a handful amongst the many Knaster interviewed. (There’s a useful listing of these people at the back, including brief biographies—along with a handy glossary of Buddhist terms.)
What they recall is not only a man of profound knowledge and understanding of the Buddhist texts, but one for whom the dharma was not mere abstract truth but a way of life. The chorus of their voices is a celebration of the man, and everything they learned from his example as much as from his words. That the author organizes her sixteen chapters around Munindra’s teachings on the qualities that form the basis of all Buddhist practice—sati (mindfulness), dana (generosity), karuna (compassion) and so on—allows her to provide the reader with a rather comprehensive overview of the dharma itself. But it’s the practical application of those principles to the skill of living life to its fullest that interests Munindra and, by extension, his students and followers. Far from a simple biography, Knaster’s book should be read as a manual for an ethical, joyous, and meaningful life.
There will be those, surely, who complain that this chorus of laudatory voices borders on the hagiographic. I myself would likely have been among them, had I read all this adulation of a holy man those many years ago, when students from the West were seeking him out. At the time, in the late 1960s and early 1970s—and here I return to that other time lapse I mentioned—I was much aware of those around me who were starting out excitedly on spiritual paths and urging me to do the same: “You’ve got to read this book,” good friends would tell me, waving a copy of Be Here Now before my skeptical eyes. “It’ll change your life.”
Alas—I say this now, in retrospect, but with the understanding that the important things in life do reach us when we’re ready for them—I was not ready at the time. I was busy rejecting not only the Christian teaching of my youth, but anything that smacked of “religion”, and with a good measure of anger and hostility. Now, nearly a half century later, I have learned differently. Had I been otherwise preoccupied than with the conceit of my own fierce rationalism, had I been ready to sacrifice head for heart, I could have learned it all back then from Munindra: it’s not just about “religion”, it’s about “living this life fully”; it’s not just about moral imperatives, it’s about compassion; it’s not just about righteousness, it’s about love.
But as I say, things do seem to happen when they are supposed to, not when one might have wished them with the benefit of hindsight. So now, with the humility of one reminded by this book of his own late-coming to the wisdom of the dharma, I say: “Read it!”
December 2, 2010
What a gift this book is. Like the life of the beloved Vipassana (Insight) meditation teacher Anagarika Munindra, “Living This Life Fully” combines scholarship with meditation practice. Its unique format focuses each of the sixteen chapters on a different quality of the awakened mind and heart, and tells the story of how Munindra taught and embodied these qualities through the words of his students. In the process we learn about how to understand and practice these qualities ourselves: mindfulness, generosity, determination, compassion, wisdom, etc.
David Wong is quoted as saying of Munindra, “He made himself transparent. He pointed to the moon and I saw the moon; I did not see the finger.” In the same way, author Mirka Knaster’s prose is transparent, and Munindra shines through. A brief biography of Munindra by Robert Pryor presents the outline of his life in a spare but informative way, and each chapter fleshes out the depth, dedication, and lightness of this remarkable teacher. Munindra greatly influenced the spread of the Dharma (teachings of the Buddha) in the West but is less known than many of his students because he did not publish books or start a Dharma center of his own. Now, by writing “Living This Life Fully,” Mirka Knaster has answered the question that appeared in her mind while meditating in May 2004, shortly after his death: “Who is honoring Munindra-ji’s life and legacy in the Dhamma?”
David Wong is quoted as saying of Munindra, “He made himself transparent. He pointed to the moon and I saw the moon; I did not see the finger.” In the same way, author Mirka Knaster’s prose is transparent, and Munindra shines through. A brief biography of Munindra by Robert Pryor presents the outline of his life in a spare but informative way, and each chapter fleshes out the depth, dedication, and lightness of this remarkable teacher. Munindra greatly influenced the spread of the Dharma (teachings of the Buddha) in the West but is less known than many of his students because he did not publish books or start a Dharma center of his own. Now, by writing “Living This Life Fully,” Mirka Knaster has answered the question that appeared in her mind while meditating in May 2004, shortly after his death: “Who is honoring Munindra-ji’s life and legacy in the Dhamma?”
November 28, 2010
I was one of Munindraji's many students. He was dear to me and this book opened his life up to me--new respect and more love. At the same time I wish Knaster hadn't shrunk from digging into some of his human foibles and mistakes. She frequently alludes to 'problems' and then moves on. I understand not wanting to speak ill of the dead, yet it would have felt more truthful and satisfying, a true biography of a human being and less a hagiography that keeps talking about its subject's humanity had she actually had the courage to describe incidents in particular. Labor of love, can't believe the number of interviews or how skilfully woven they are.
February 28, 2019
A really great mix of biography, Buddhism, and inspiration for those on a spiritual path. I recently read the biography on Dipa Ma, and while good, this one on Munindra is much more detailed and I found much enjoyment in it.
November 5, 2023
Munindra was the teacher of many of my meditation teachers and it was interesting to learn more about him. The book was not a real biography but more like a collection of anecdotes and stories about Munidra.
April 28, 2021
This is the great book that I had ever read. Anagarika Munindra teachs us how to be good person.
March 5, 2023
I heard this book by audio book (VN ver), it’s very inspired me
November 10, 2010
Munindra was the meditation teacher for Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Larry Rosenberg, and a number of other American vipassana teachers. He is definitely an admirable person, and an inspiration; he has a remarkable life story. This book--composed of stories that his students told--is probably about a third too long; the stories just go on and on, and they're all admiring. Apparently Mirka Knaster didn't want to leave anyone out. Still, I found it an inspiring book to my meditation practice, and an interesting read.
August 7, 2012
This book is a gift to the world. Munindra is the personification of dharma.
January 10, 2013
Living this life in a state of being present and in full meditation. A beautiful testimony of how to live life to our fullest.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews