Selective Thinking Meditation Guide

 
 
I would like to introduce to you a Buddhist Monk with a difference: a Doctor of Medicine and a PhD in western psychology and western philosophy and also is a Buddhist monk. So one would expect him to teach Buddhism as a science, which is what it is and a practice for everyday living activities. He has written a few books and all free publications and this one is especially interesting called “Selective Thinking meditation Guide”.  He has left 3 guides to meditation: above is level 1 and the other 2 levels are:  “Tranquility of Mind” and ”  Seven Steps to Awakening”. 
 
This is his full reading list if you are interested:

  • Beyond the Horizon of Time – Is Reincarnation Buddhist?
  • The Philosophy of VesakReturn to Tranquility
  • Ariyamagga Bhavana Meditation Guide Level I – Selective Thinking
  • Ariyamagga Bhavana Meditation Guide Level II – Tranquility of Mind
  • Ariyamagga Bhavana Meditation Guide Level III – Seven Steps to Awakening
  • Buddha The Radical Shrink – Buddhist Psychotherapy
  • Did We Cross The Threshold of Hope

“He studied modern science and Western medicine in Sri Lanka and he obtained

two doctorates while in the United States, one is Western psychology

and another in Western philosophy and comparative religion. Bhante

Punnaji has made an in-depth research into the original teachings of

the Buddha which he thinks is different from all the modern schools

of Buddhism: Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana including Zen

and Pure- land Buddhism. This research was not only academic but

also experiential. Bhante also did research into the form of Buddhist

Psychotherapy which he thinks is the best way to introduce Buddhism

to the modern world. As Buddhism in its original form was not a mere

religion of faith and worship but a psychological technique of growth

and evolution of the human consciousness.”

Foreword

Buddhist meditation, as taught in this retreat, is not a

mystical practice. This technique of meditation is for people

who are living a secular life as householders, who go to work,

have responsibilities, and who are involved in various social

relationships. What such people need is freedom from stress,

and freedom from worries and anxieties of life. They need

peace of mind, healthy relationships, self-confidence, success

in life, and efficiency at work. This means learning to gain

control over the emotional disturbances that prevent them

from thinking clearly or acting rationally. These problematic

emotional disturbances come in the form of anger, lust, worries,

fears, and anxieties. The form of Buddhist meditation taught

here helps one free the mind of emotional disturbances and to

think clearly and act rationally.

It involves a systematic technique of consciously

purifying the mind. All impurities arise from self-centred

emotional states. The pure mind is the tranquil mind. When the

mind is purified, one experiences an inner happiness, a physical

comfort, and a kindness and compassion that one has never

experienced before. The happiness referred to here is not a state

of emotional excitement, but a tranquil undisturbed state of the

mind. The kindness and compassion taught here is not based on

attachment. It is a state of unselfishness. Emotional excitement

is not true happiness, and attachment is not true love. Happiness

and kindness are attributes of the pure and tranquil mind.

Therefore, the aim of this method of meditation is to

purify the mind and relax the body resulting in happiness,

kindness and a mature intelligence. However, the mind can

only be purified by first restraining the behavior in the form of

sila.

The rest of the book in PDF is in the link below:

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pgMXw2PEOESIEV6WcaV7sbnO-KmZpltd/edit 

The video above is him explaining the dream of existence. His work is both knowledge and experiential in nature. So one would get lots of insight from him. He writes clearly and simply so all is easily understood. I gather Buddhism was never a religion to him but a practice of the mind and through observation to get to a stillness of mind and to see how it can be taken to its pure clean clear state of mind that does not trigger thoughts and emotions in mind and body and control emotion. 

He passed away on July 27, 2018, but left behind lots of experiential information on the human condition and mind, and how to get it to its purest state of being. 

16 December 2019.

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