Welcome to meditation Monday! Modern science has proven that mindfulness and meditation bring countless benefits to your life. These include greater emotional & psychological well-being, physical health, mental performance, and even greater functionality in relationships. But way back in the beginning, when the Buddha first taught meditation in the Satipatthana Sutta, he laid out 7 benefits of meditation. In the text and video below the Ven. Sayadaw Vivekananda shares The Classic Benefits Of Mindfulness.

The below transcript from an interview with Ven. Sayadaw Vivekananda who is the abbot of the Panditarama International Meditation Center in Lumbini, Nepal. This clip is from the video series of interviews conducted during a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat held in Israel, at Kibbutz Hukuk in April 2014.

The Classic Benefits Of Mindfulness

In a passage in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta the Buddha describes the seven classical benefits of mindfulness, namely the purification of the mind, the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, the disappearance of dukkha and discontent, the entering of the right way, and the realization of Nibbāna. 

The very first benefit is already very important for our modern society. Reality is such that as human beings we experience at times wholesome mental states and at other times, unwholesome mental states. For most people, it’s a mixture of those.

Mindfulness meditation offers a means to gradually shape the mind, and certainly to decrease unwholesome mental states and to work towards an increase of wholesome mental states. The more the mind is purified of unwholesome mental states, the more happiness will come into our life. With this, the quality of our life will greatly improve.

Ven. Sayadaw Vivekananda

Question: What benefits have you gained from the practice of mindfulness meditation? Leave your comments below!

Ven. Vivekananda Bio

Ven. Vivekananda is the abbot of Panditarama Int. Meditation Center” in Lumbini, Nepal. He is a direct student of the late Ven. Sayadaw U Pandita who placed him as the guiding teacher of Panditarama, Lumbini. Sayadaw Vivekananda has been teaching Vipassana and Loving-kindness (Metta) meditation since 1998, both at his center in Lumbini and internationally. For more info please go to “Panditarama Lumbini.”

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