Mindfulness In Plain English

by Ricky
(Toronto)

My favorite meditation book is called Mindfulness In Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunarratana.

I learned about mindfulness in 2007 during a very difficult time in my life. I was given this book by a friend and honestly found that it wasn’t like a lot of the others.

Mindfulness is very difficult like many other Buddhist practices. But I found that Gunarratana's book helped me with my meditation practices a lot. I have never been interested in going to meditation classes because I just don’t have the time. But this book gave me what I needed. It was a stepping stone to a better understanding of meditation.

I had an idea of what meditating was before from other books. But to actually find clear steps on how to practice it was amazing. I think this book helped so much because it explained things people do wrong in meditation and how to do them correctly.

I also found out how much mind control you really need. It isn’t an easy task! Of course the book also covered the basics. Like proper breathing techniques and where to meditate.

How Meditation Helped Me

I believe that meditation has helped me in a tremendous way throughout the past few years. I used to be an extremely stressed out person. This caused me to be angry a lot of the time or in a bad mood. It also kept me up at night with thoughts constantly running through my mind. Which I hated.

I am not one to go to a doctor for some crazy sleeping medication. But meditation helped me a lot with this. When I am stressed or had a long day I can meditate before I go to sleep. This helps me to clear my mind and sometimes I just become so calm I fall right to sleep.

I also sometimes do it in the morning If I have a bad vibe about the day. Because I feel it can help to release a lot that’s in my head.

I would encourage people to read this book if they are interested in meditation. I feel it's more beneficial than many others. Also, a book I picked up not too long ago by the same author called Beyond Mindfulness is probably a good follow up. I haven’t been able to read it yet, but I am looking forward to it.