Upul Nishantha Gamage: 23 books

This book is based upon public talks given by Upul Nishantha Gamage, on the Buddhist teaching as recorded in the discourse of Girimānanda Sutta.The Buddhist teaching, with its ten insightful ‘perceptions,’ prepares the ground for the seeds of awareness to be planted, cultivating the right...

Upul: By saying that there is no owner to anger, do you mean that it occurs spontaneously?Godwin: No. It is the result of a cause.Upul: You said that anger is something with no substance. But when there is anger, one feels as if there were an enormous energy. Anger and hatred can even lead to killing...

Pure gold obtained by removing any contaminant metals is flexible, valuable, smooth, durable and sparkling. We need a mind like pure gold to see the truth. Our mind is contaminated with the wrong thought known as hindrances. A clever mediator can recognize these contaminants, which are obstacles for everything a person does. These hindrances are actions performed by us.

there is something impossible for another person to do for us, which is giving peaceful joy. Nobody can give us peaceful joy. It cannot be passed around from hand to hand or head to head. Peaceful joy is something that cannot be given or taken but to be emerged within. If a person has the need, he/she can make it crops up within.

Nobody can shoulder your heart and mind. You’ve got to be your own helper. You’ve got to be your own refuge. We may have heard about this so many times. When you have a problem in your mind, just close your eyes for a moment. Just be attentive and listen to yourself instead of bewildering, struggling or sobbing your heart out. That is the path for bringing forth a wise person.

Human life is the most wonderful creation of the universe. There is nothing better than human life. We may come across great inventions but there is nothing superior to human life in the three worlds. As we are not aware of the value of human life we use this supreme creation to invent suffering,...

if you give priority to inquiring life, assessing life, valuating life or meditation, you'll have enough time to attend to all your needs. If you give priority to meditation, after finishing everything planned for the day, you'll have somemore time to attend to something else. Meditation...

Silence can create an enormous amount of peaceful joy, freedom and consolation. Under such circumstances, silence is a skill. Such a silence is called “Noble Silence.” You are silent not because you are angry with somebody or with yourself. Sometimes, someone is silent while they are angry with...

Meditation is a qualitative development. We misidentify meditation for rest and stop there without reaching that qualitative state. We always wear a wrong dress as meditation. Rest is only a by-product of meditation. Ease is only a by-product of meditation. No need to meditate for ease, as it is possible to relax when leaving the restless and stressful society for a calm and quiet place.

Let us try to identify the practitioner and the non-practitioner from within us! We love to call ourselves practitioners of meditation, and presume to live a spiritual life. What really makes you think you are a practitioner? Surely, exteriors or the outward appearance of a person may not be a proper yardstick. Then, on what basis do we recognize the meditating or non-meditating mind?

The head is open to a world full of arguments, but the heart is close. The head goes after ideas and knowledge, but the heart is quiet. The head goes with pretension, but the heart goes with honesty.The head cannot change a person, but the heart can.The heart changes upon meeting a living exemplar...

A painkiller taken in the past becomes a pain today and one given today can become another illness by tomorrow. Just see how this chain develops. A day will come where no painkiller is left but only suffering. Therefore, practice meditation to be mindful and be observant today, and thereby to be watchful of you or inner nature or pain looking for painkillers.

Having put what was heard, thought and seen together, all of us have had personal conclusions and opinions about what meditation is. What do we need meditation for? Why should we meditate? What do we look for in meditation? What type of changes in us do we try to achieve? What could go wrong by not...

At any moment when a person becomes unhappy and restless, s/he becomes a poor person at that moment. Happiness is the measure of richness and poverty. A person who is happy is rich. A person who is unhappy is poor. As soon as the mind gets unhappy it becomes poor. The poor mind extracts reserves from the body for its existence.