Success on the Path

January 13, 2009 To stay with the breath, you first have to want to stay with the breath. Its the first basis of success in the practice. Some people object to the idea that theres success and failure in the practice. But this is a path that leads to a goal. Thats something we always should eep in mind! that were going someplace. "illy# nilly, were going someplace. "ere heading to aging, illness and death$but you want to as yourself, is that the place you want to head% &r the only place you want to head% The body does have to age, grow ill and die, but does the mind have to do that% 'oes the mind have to su(er from those things% Is there a place where you can go where you dont su(er from those things% )s the Buddha said, its not found by going anywhere in the physical universe. But it is found by going inside. )nd the fact that there is that possibility, that potential for going in a direction that doesnt age, doesnt ill, doesnt die! thats why we have the Buddhas path. Thats why there are the right factors of the path, and the wrong factors of the path. )nd thats why theres success and failure. If it were the case that there wasnt that potential for putting an end to su(ering, that life was simply a matter of learning how to accept whats already here, then the practice would be very di(erent. But what the Buddha is as ing you to do is to accept something else, that there is a potential to put an end to su(ering. )nd its going to demand a lot out of you. There is one place where he says that even if the practice involves su(ering to the point where there are tears streaming down your chee s, you stic with it, because the path ultimately does lead to a goal that more than ma es up for all the tears. The few tears running down your chee s are very few compared to all the tears youve been shedding already. If you drive up Interstate * along the coast and loo out across the +acific &cean, you reali,e that theres a huge amount of water there. It stretches out to the hori,on, and you now it goes far beyond that. )nd yet the amount you see is nothing compared to all the water in all the oceans, and all the water in all the oceans is nothing compared to the volume of the tears youve been shedding over all these many lifetimes. If you dont follow the path, there are probably going to be that many more tears waiting for you in the future. So there are two reasons to have the desire to focus on the path. &ne is reali,ing that the path leads you away from a lot of su(ering. There are many comparisons in the -anon. The Buddha pic ed up a little bit of dirt under his fingernail one time and said, which is greater, the dirt under my fingernail, or the dirt in the earth% &f course, the dirt in the earth was much greater. .e said, in the same way, for someone who has seen the 'harma, has bro en through the e/perience of the 'harma 0ye$in other words gained the first level of awa ening$the amount of su(ering that remains for that person is li e the dirt under the fingernail, whereas the amount of su(ering that awaits those who havent is li e the dirt in all the earth. So thats one reason for following the path, is that its a way to avoid an awful lot of su(ering.

The other reason for engendering desire for the path is that its a good path and it leads to a really good destination. The destination is something we cant see yet, but we can see the path. 1ight 2iew, 1ight 1esolve, 1ight Speech, 1ight )ction, 1ight 3ivelihood, 1ight 0(ort, 1ight 4indfulness, 1ight -oncentration! These are all good things to do. The Buddha is not as ing you to do anything that youd be ashamed of, not as ing you to do anything thats going to be harmful to anybody. .es as ing you to develop good, honest, upright 5ualities of the mind, things you can be proud that you can develop. So as you thin about the rewards of the practice, and all the dangers that the practice ta es you away from, it can help give energy to your practice. This is why recollection of the 'harma is one of the recollections the Buddha recommends. .e says that when youre focusing on one of the frames of reference, or establishing mindfulness based on the body, feelings, mind, mental 5ualities, there may come times when the practice starts getting di(icult. )s he says, there may be a fever in the body, or a fever in the mind. That, he says, is when its good to put that topic aside and thin about something inspiring. )nd the practices he recommends that are inspiring are recollection of the Buddha, the 'harma, and the Sangha6 recollection of your own generosity, virtue6 recollection of the 5ualities of the devas, thin ing about the fact that youve been developing those 5ualities as well. )nd you thin about those themes as much as you need to get rid of that fever in the body and the fever in the mind, to get the mind feeling inspired and uplifted. In this way you develop the desire to get bac on the path. Its not that these recollections are o( the path, but theyre supplementary re7ections. They can get you bac into the practice of 1ight 4indfulness, 1ight 0(ort, and on into 1ight -oncentration. "hen things start getting dry, remember that its wise to gladden the mind to give rise to that sense of desire. Its part of learning how to read your own mind, to diagnose its diseases, and then provide the medicine it needs. If that the desire is lac ing, stop and thin ! "hat would your life be li e if there were no prospect of putting an end to su(ering% Thin of how fortunate we are that we have the path, that it hasnt been forgotten. "e dont have to forge the path ourselves in a very uncertain world. Thin about the Buddha, about how uncertain things were at his time. ) lot of people were saying that there was no way to put an end to su(ering, that you should just accept things as they are. &thers were saying that there was an end to su(ering, but nothing you could do about it. It was just going to happen naturally, just li e a ball of string unwinding and eventually youd get to the end of the string. But in the meantime, youve got to put up with all the su(ering thats entailed in what remains of the string. The Buddha had the courage not to accept either of those ideas. .e thought, 4aybe there is something that can be accomplished through human e(ort. )nd so he put his life on the line to test that idea. )t present we have the e/ample of many people in the past, the Buddha himself and all of his 8oble 'isciples. So its not 5uite so uncertain. "e may still have our doubts about it, but at least theres a path laid out. )nd a lot of very honest and upright people have said that it wor s. "hen the practice gets dry, its useful to thin about these things, so that you can wor through any hesitation you may have in focusing on the breath or any

reluctance, any sense of weariness. )s )jaan 9uang said, you lubricate the mind so that it doesnt sei,e up the way an engine would sei,e up when it runs out of lubricant. :ou give rise to the desire to stic with the path. 9rom that desire develops persistence! the energy, the stic #to#it#iveness thats re5uired in training the mind. )fter all, the mind has a lot of old habits. )nd its going to ta e time and persistence to deal with these things. So its important to learn how to give yourself energy all along the way. +ersistence as )jaan 3ee says, goes together with your powers of endurance. )nd the best way is to eep yourself on the path, eep yourself strong on the path, is not to weigh yourself down with unnecessary doubts about yourself, unnecessary complaints about how di(icult things are. Its always good to focus on where things are going well, and not to eep obsessing about the things that are di(icult or wearisome. "e may distrust the +ollyanna approach of always loo ing for the bright side, but it ma es the practice a lot lighter to eep reminding yourself that there are a lot of positive things about being on this path. )nd you find that they give you energy. :ou can save your doubts for your defilements. 3earn how to be s eptical about your defilements. In other words, you really loo at them and 5uestion the assumptions that get in the way of the practice. &f course that means you have to learn how to recogni,e them. This is where the 5uality of citta or intent interest comes in. )s you give yourself to the practice, loo to see what eeps pulling you bac ! "hat nagging doubts do you have% "hat complaints does the mind have% 3earn to 5uestion them. This is where citta merges in with vimansa, your powers of analysis, your powers of discrimination, your ability to 5uestion the thoughts that come into your mind. :ou can as yourself, 0/actly where does that thought come from% -an you identify the person who in your past would thin in that way% -an you identify the tone of the voice that thin s in that way% Is it a tone of voice that you want to adopt% )nd you can loo at that thought in terms of the issue of freedom. 'o you want to be a slave to that ind of thin ing% This is one of the reasons we try to eep the mind with the breath! so that it can loo at its thoughts with a certain of detachment, from a certain amount of distance, get some perspective on them. &ne really e(ective way of dealing with them is to refuse to go along with them and see how they complain. Then as them, ;"hy should I believe that complaint%< )nd try to see what ind of reasons that part of the mind comes up with. =eep pushing your 5uestioning until you find the point where the reasons brea down. "hen you can develop these four bases for success, youre in a position where you can be your own teacher, read the situation in the mind and not fall for it. &r to use another analogy, youre your own doctor. 3earn to recogni,e the illness, and recogni,e the cause of the illness, and give the right medicine$because as the Buddha said, he merely points out the way. Its up to you to follow it. )s a doctor, he is the one who prescribe the medicine. Its for you to find the various herbs that he prescribes and then to ta e the medicine. The Buddha cant give you a shot and cure your illness. But he can tell you what the right herbs are and how you ta e them. )nd he gives you some e/planation of the cause of the illness so you can understand how the herbs are related to the cause. In other words, he teaches you how to become your own doctor.

So try to develop this sense of whats needed to be your own doctor, to be your own teacher, so that at the very least, the dialogue in your mind can be more helpful, more intelligent, more wise, and actually head in that direction that we want to go$to the end of su(ering. )t the very least, test to see if what the Buddha had to say is true. The only way youre going to now is if you give it a good honest serious test. If you dont give it that test, then all the su(erings of life begin to move in on you. They dont promise a way out at all. The denial of any way out! thats whats so insistent about the way life normally is. )nd that defilements that go along with that denial are what eep us trapped. So we owe it to our desire for happiness to give the path a serious try. )nd to try to develop whatever 5ualities are needed to see us through.