Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English: An Introductory guide to Deeper States of Meditation

by Henepola Gunaratana

“A straightforward and pragmatic guide to deepening levels of concentration and insight. This book is a joy to read and a great gift to us all.”—Joseph Goldstein, author of MindfulnessCountless people worldlwide have made Mindfulness in Plain English a beloved and bestselling classic in almost a dozen languages. Now after nearly two decades, Bhante helps meditators of every stripe take their mindfulness practice to the next level - helping them go, in a word, beyond mindfulness. In the same warm, clear, and friendly voice, Bhante introduces the reader to what have been known for centuries as the "jhanas" - deeply calm, joyous, and powerful states of meditation that, when explored with the clearly presented tools in this book, can lead to a life of insight and unshakeable peace.

Genres: Buddhism, Meditation, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Self Help, Religion

236 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana is the founding abbot of the Bhavana Society. Born in rural Sri Lanka, he has been a monk since age 12 and took full ordination at age 20 in 1947. He came to the United States in 1968. “Bhante G” (as he is fondly called by his students) has written a number of books, including the now-classic meditation manual Mindfulness In Plain English and its companion Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness. Bhante G regularly leads retreats on vipassana, mindfulness, metta (Loving-friendliness), concentration, and other topics both at the Bhavana Society and elsewhere.

Bhante Gunaratana is an internationally recognized author and meditation teacher. Prior to coming to the United States, he spent five years doing in missionary work with the Harijanas (Untouchables) of India and ten years in Malaysia. He has taught in a number of settings, including American University of Washington DC where he served as Buddhist chaplain and the Buddhist Vihara of Washington DC, where he served as president. Bhante G has a strong scholarly background and livelong commitment to dhamma.

In 1985 Bhante G co-founded the Bhavana Society and became its abbot. He wanted to teach meditation in an environment allowing for longer retreats and intense practice free from the trappings of a city vihara. He continues to teach in the direct, compassionate style that characterizes his books and articles. Bhante G conveys a well-rounded approach to Buddhist Dhamma, touching on all aspects of the Noble Eightfold Path. He emphasizes metta bhavana (the cultivation of loving-friendliness) as a basis for samma-samadhi, or right concentration. As a teacher, he is known for his emphasis both on samadhi and on metta as part of spiritual training.

In 1996, Bhante G received the title of Chief Sangha Nayaka Thera for North America. This acknowledged his status as highest-ranking monk of his sect in the United States and Canada. In 2003, his autobiography, Journey to Mindfulness, was published. In 2005, the Sri Henepola Gunaratana Scholarship Trust was founded under his guidance. This trust provides educations for poverty stricken children in rural Sri Lanka.

Bhante G continues to write articles, lead retreats, and teach at the Bhavana Society and all over the world.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

The jhanas are states of deep relaxation and presence of mind with a detachment from external stimuli. Many people are familiar with Insight Meditation (Vipassana) of Theravada Buddhism, the oldest surviving form ( not the oldest form absolutely ) of Buddhism. However, until recently almost nothing has been written about the Jhanas in English and what was written has been mistaken, as well as confusing. "Beyond Mindfulness In Plain English" is one of about 4 new books about the Jhanas meant to clear up misconceptions and be accessible to a Western audience. The author is the Venerable Henepola Gunaratana, a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk for most of his life who enjoys a reputation as a top Buddhist scholar and who runs the Bhavanna Society Buddhist meditation retreat center in West Virginia.

The reader will not find sharply defined step by step directions in this book for achieving the Jhanas. This being the second book I've read on the subject in addition to several articles, my opinion is that there isn't any such thing as a recipe for getting into the jhanic states. Achieving such states isn't something someone can do as part of a meditation session isolated from the rest of their life. The first half of this book gives very good advice for where you want to go in your daily psychological life to make the jhanas more likely to happen. That advice is also likely to make you a happier person.

As other authors on the subject have written, the Venerable Gunaratana honestly states that meditation retreats are likely essential for achieving the jhanas. No esoteric reason. The jhanas simply require a peaceful environment and a large amount of meditation time that people will likely not be able to sustain in their homes.

From the perspective of actually doing meditation, the most important factor for getting closer to the jhanas, according to Bhante Gunaratana, is cultivating mindfulness of the mind. Mindfulness, is having your mind fully in the present moment without drifting off. Additionally, as one advances in meditation Bhante Gunaratana strongly emphasizes mindfulness of what is going on in the mind as being essential for moving closer to and achieving the jhanas.

The book matches its title. It is a discussion of these deep states of meditation without deluging the reader in many foreign terms. However, despite the plain language the subject of the jhanas is approached from the perspective of Theravada Buddhist teachings. This book isn't a secular cookbook of precise recipes for achieving particular meditative states.

The reader who will get the most out of this book is a person with a solid familiarity of Theravada Buddhist concepts and who has had a strong meditation practice for several years. Other readers will find the Venerable Gunaratana's book "Mindfulness In Plain English" much more useful. That book is an extremely well written introduction to Theravada Buddhist meditation.

[Vilhelm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because I liked his first book (Mindfulness in Plain English (MIPE)) so much. This book too is a very straightforward and clear read, and you can feel that it's written out of personal experience from practice and teaching countless students. But in the last third of the book where he details the Jhana states, I feel like some of this falls away. The otherwise so clear distinction between concentration and mindfulness becomes a bit muddy to me, and I struggle to understand many of the metaphors. And there seem to be a lot of reliance on what the ancient texts have to say about it. In his defense, he is very clear about how hard it is to explain the Jhana states in words, because they are beyond concepts, and I'm not nearly there in my own practice so might not be in the best position to judge it. Still, I cannot give the book more than three strong stars.

This book is about the path of concentration, which goes hand in hand with the path of mindfulness (explained in MIPE). There are a lot of similarities and repetitions from MIPE and arguably those are the best parts of the book.

Some of my notes I keep here for myself:
- Metta is a very good preparation for concentration practice, as it generates a calmer more positive mind. His suggestion for every sitting is to start with setting your intention/motivation, then metta, then concentration/mindfulness.
- Given enough mindfulness, a good metta practice is to do it with every living being you meet. Easier to begin with quiet meetings (perfect at retreat!).
- Good chapter on metta. He urges one to really feel how metta feels physically.
- Talk to your (physical) pain, to objectify it, and remind yourself of its impermanence. "I should not suffer from pain. I should use this pain in order to get rid of suffering."
- The purpose of the practice itself is to get insight into
- anicca (impermanence)
- dukkha (suffering/unsatisfactoriness)
- anatta (selflessness) (anatman = no-self)
- Impermanence or change is easily understood on the conceptual, intellectual level, for longer time spans (e.g "this chair wont last forever"). This can be helpful to reflect upon, but is not what is referred to when talking about experiencing impermanence in a Buddhist context. Neither are short moments like a few seconds of itching on your nose. What is actually referred to is when mindfulness and concentration allows you to see every moment of experience. It's "where the whole world of experience is coming up and passing away so rapidly that there is just nothing to hang on to. Nothing lasts long enough for you to mentally 'glue' it together into 'something'. As soon as you turn your attention to any occurrence, it goes 'poof!'. It vanishes as soon as pure awareness touches it. It all just comes up and goes away, leaving no trace. There is no time for such a trace to be left. As each thing comes up, it pushes the last thing out of the mind and there is no residue."
- Concepts cannot be experienced because they are not real, although we can think about concepts. Comparative or evaluative thoughts are concepts, Monday is a concept, a clock is a concept, "I" is a concept. Non of them are real. (But concepts are of course extremely valuable and required for meaningful communication.)
- There are four material Jhanas and four immaterial Jhanas. The material and immaterial Jhanas are together called the mundane Jhanas. Then there are supramundane Jhanas.
- As mentioned earlier, the Jhanas are beyond concepts and impossible to precisely describe with words. The material Jhanas are however still somewhat closer to ordinary experience, and so the approximation of language might be more accurate for those states.
- First Jhana: the external world goes to the background and you're struck with Joy. Normal conscious thought stop and only subtle thoughts of good will remains.
- Second Jhana: Even the subtle thoughts drop away.
- Third Jhana: Equanimity rises, joy reduces, replaces by happiness/bliss. Confidence, mindfulness, concentration strengthens. External world is gone (sights, sounds), only physical sensations remains.
- Fourth Jhana: Equanimity stronger, awareness very intense. Even happiness drops away now. You can feel the body, but with perfect equanimity. After having passed through the first three Jhanas rather quickly, this is where you stay to look deeply into impermanence, suffering and selflessness.
- Access concentration is what he calls the transition state between non-Jhana and Jhana, and it seems this can be achieved in different ways, e.g metta or mindfulness. It's described as a gradual process in a very nice way that I can relate to. When in a state of good concentration and a relatively quiet mind, you should try to become mindful of subtler details of the breath, like beginning, middle, end, paus, etc. (without thinking about those concepts!).

[Dona · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first half of this book is about the basics of Buddhism and meditation. It outlines the hindrances and fetters and provides some helpful hints to stay focused during meditation. The suggestions are clear, easily applicable, and helped me to isolate and de-escalate my anger in several situations. The second half of the book describes the four stages of jhana--what I understand to be deep meditation. Even though I have never experienced deeper states of meditation, the explanations of jhana provided by Gunaratana are intriguing and once again, fairly easy to comprehend.

[Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

The follow-up to Mindfulness in Plain English, this book explores deeper states of consciousness, called "jhanas." It assumes the reader has read the first book. It lays the foundation with a lengthy discussion of removing "fetters" and "hinderances," a strong "metta" practice (lovingkindness meditation), and a strict discipline of mindfulness and concentration. Then it devotes most of the book to explanations of the jhanas: the four material jhanas, the immaterial jahanas, and the supramundane jhanas. My favorite part of this book is the chapter "The Purpose of Practice" which makes the best case for "anatta" (the philosophy of "no self") I have yet to read.

As an intermediate meditator, I've had plenty of opportunity to notice the different directions I could take my practice, and I've conceived of many mindfulness practices and experiments of my own. Eliminating thoughts is not really the point of mindfulness, but it's natural for the mind to calm down if you sit for long enough. It was interesting to read an explanation of what would happen if I did actually eliminate thoughts entirely, although I didn't understand much of it. As the book progressed, it made sense to me that this would be impossible if I still had feelings of ill-will, anger, worry, sloth, and desire. It's ironic that these are so similar the concept of "sin" in Judeo Christian thinking. I appreciate that they're just called "hinderences" which takes the shame out of it.

On the other hand, what's the point? Ending the cycle of birth and death, and eliminate suffering entirely? And why not let the meditator find their own paths to enlightenment? Isn't Buddhism supposed to be about the path and not the destination? If desire is considered a hinderence, then wouldn't a desire to reach jhana states or enlightenment also count as a hinderence?

[Grace Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful framework, although the latter half of the book becomes really abstract and difficult to relate to for the novice practitioner.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was more challenging to get through than Mindfulness in Plain English for a few reasons. The first is that the concepts here are far more abstract and advanced. Gunaratana uses the same words over and over again to describe different states and progression, some states that have no basis in the physical world and cannot be fairly represented with words, so it starts to feel like a jumble. Another challenge is that this book spans the divide between hobbyist/novice and professional/advanced practitioner. It's hard to imagine that anyone practicing below these levels lives a traditional life in mainstream society--it's easier to picture them as monks and nuns. Still, as an infrequent practitioner of mindfulness and heavy reader of associated literature, it's fascinating to see how powerful and prominent it can become in a person's life and how far it can go. This does seem like the natural escalation of the practice, and it also seems like a lifetime's journey. Back to my intro to mindfulness books.

[Magnus Lidbom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read. Not convincing in the least though in my opinion. All the different levels and methods sound to me like little other than non-essential embellishments at best. I heard nothing in here to convince me that all these super-mystical states are beneficial at all, if they even exist. Rather I see every reason to suspect that if you get sidetracked into hunting these mystical, likely fictitious and certainly unverifiable, states you will be wasting time and quite possible moving away from well-being rather than towards it.

I for one will be cultivating insight, studying, and living life instead of dedicating absurd amounts of time trying to achieve some sort of ultimate meditation circus trick out of legend.

[Nico · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably too advanced for me right now. The first Mindfulness in Plain English changed my life, this one was tedious

[Kumail Akbar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked up this one to see where Henepola would take readers next, after his incredible Mindfulness in Plain English, and I daresay I do not have clear opinions/feelings about this one. For one I was surprised to find the ‘Metta’ (or loving and kindness) meditative practices he talks about as a more advanced form of meditation, as I have been following Sam Harris’ Waking Up courses for guided meditations, and he introduced Metta immediately after practitioners get basic footing on vipassana. So, it was a surprise to find Metta as an advanced form, as the actual practice itself does not feel particularly advanced, in fact the nature of the practice feels a little easier than breath watching, etc. for the amateur/noob meditator. Although, from a purely experiential point of view, the effects of Metta are pretty vivid, and you can immediately feel a flushing of emotional states when practicing Metta, so I am not sure if advanced categorized meditation on the basis of effect rather than difficulty.

On the other hand, the rest of the practices talked about, such as the Jhanas, sound a little dubious if I read them from a purely analytical point of view – a little to metaphysical, a little too out there. But I would have said exactly the same thing about Vipassana, Tummo or Metta a year or so ago, so I guess I will reserve judgement on the narration and slowly build up my practice and attempt to experience them myself some day. Wish me luck!

Give it a shot only if you’ve practiced meditation and can relate to the experiences, otherwise pass it on. 4 of 5 stars.

[Manlio Pi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This made me think of the Map and the Territory metaphor.

A solid chunk of this book - the Map - is about mental states that are so removed from whatever most people, even most meditators, will ever conceive (let alone experience) that towards the end it becomes disconcerting, awe-inspiring and a bit tedious all at the same time.

As far as Maps go, is a great map. Authoritative, clear, and grounded in personal experience (a lot of it, at least). The Theravada angle can sometimes feel a bit dry and excessively analytical, but that might say more about my personal taste than anything else.

It's a book to keep around for the decades to come, and see if in due time the Map and the Territory will eventually come together, if only a little more. There's no rush - it's the work of a lifetime, and more.

[P-Google · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing introduction to meditation. When I started meditating, I was afraid that I would spent the whole time thinking "Am I doing this right?" but this book definitely played a big role in getting rid of those feelings. I usually don't meditate for more that 20-30 minutes a day, but I can stay focused for much longer than I though I could. This book covers why mediation is good, what it does, and how to do it, almost perfectly. Great book.

[Daniel Aguilar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of weird stuff here (meditation stages and techniques described in very abstract terms), obviously targeted to advanced meditators. Interesting, nevertheless.
Maybe worth revisiting in the future.

I give it only two stars as I don't feel I can get much out of it now, and reading it (specially the second half) was pretty painful. But looks like it can be much more valuable to someone proficient in this area.

[Spine Dining · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not help. "Self" defeating, in more ways than one, if you know what i mean. You have taken an essentially simple thing and made it complicated. In this, you do not practice what you preach. Too many layers, too many labels and levels to conquer (that's ambition for you, which should be at odds otherwise with the Buddhist way of life) and way too much terminology to be of assistance.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a follow up to mindfulness in plain English it's a good book for deeper insight in further practice. I did skip a few parts at the end of the book which I didn't find relevant to the practice I did at the time. (Read during BSR)

[Mackenzie B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing! The last two chapters made a lot of things dissolve. I don't know if I'll be disciplined enough with meditation to achieve these levels of insight, but just reading the book alone was enough to give reality a nice, thorough restructuring.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is excellent for learning about vipassana meditation. I found it extremely helpful and useful. The other book that is equally useful is „The Illuminated Mind“. I found it very useful to read both books since they nicely complement each other.

[Kevin Sweet · Rating 4 out of 5]

As advertised, a straightforward guide to mindfulness meditation. Definitely some good tips to try out.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as useful to me personally as the first book, but then I haven't gotten to the jnanas yet. The guy reading the audiobook can't pronounce jnana correctly, and it's kinda irritating.

[Avid Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to follow. The wisdom and gifts of a mindfulness meditation practice in simple terms.

[Paschalis]

elibrary

[Carlos Lopez · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have read different books resulted with mindfulness is another one. Not a great thing.

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 stars

[LauraJL · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Joseph Knecht · Rating 4 out of 5]

A practical guide on how to deepen your meditation.

[Linda Vituma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grāmata ne šai dzīvei - ne nākamajā tūkstošs dzīvēm - bez ilūzijām -

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not meant to replace a samatha meditation teacher or long term retreats (or bootcamps if you prefer to use that term). It encourages me however that samatha meditation, and thus jhana, is a meditationtechnique that properly practiced under proper guidance, will lead to good results. I, too, used to consider samatha meditation as a technique not appropriate for lay people, but only for the olympic athletes among the meditators, as Bhante G put it, until I met a meditation teacher who started with Vipassana in the Mahasi Sayadaw lineage, and switched later to Samatha and Vipassana according Pa Auk Sayadaw. That meeting / retreat was also the reason why I decided to buy some books of Samatha meditation. As any meditation books written by practitioners, though the language is plain English, still there are parts that are beyond my imagination, simply because I've not direct experience of them, yet.

[Brian Wilcox · Rating 3 out of 5]

A helpful guide to 'states' of beingness beyond mindfulness, the latter serving as preparatory. I sense many see mindfulness as the end-all of meditation and spiritual living, when it is one of the courtyards leading progressively to 'deeper', or more 'inward', expressions of Awareness, the Most Holy Place, or what some would call Emptiness. Here, if one clings to mindfulness, one blocks allowing this more indepthness to arise and to relocate 'there'. Gladly, one who has written on the value of mindfulness, returns to say there are more stops along the way, as we relocate and relocate and relocate, until there is nowhere to relocate.

[Dan Tasse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this guy is a super champ and really knows something about some of the more developed states of the mind, particularly the "jhanas" or concentration states. A little bit grounding after reading Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha; helped me realize I still have a long way to go. (sigh)

[Juergen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A primer on samadhi, specifically on jhanas, the concentrated states arrived through dedicated concentration meditation. Fair warning that this book can appear dry and perhaps a bit confusing if one hasn't put in the requisite time. Therefore, I would encourage anyone who is interested in meditation to do the hard work and use books like these as guideposts on the path.

[Rasmus · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book. But a fair warning for non-native English speakers, this is far from "plain English".
Thankfully my e-reader has an inbuilt dictionary so I could look up all the "advanced" and "academic" words.
Otherwise, a very relaxing and thought-provoking book on how to live life in a more mindful manner.