Determination
October 08, 2023

Close your eyes. Watch your breath. Make up your mind you’re going to stay with the breath all the way in, all the way out. And the next breath. And the next breath, trying to be sensitive to how the breathing feels. Notice what kind of breathing feels comfortable. You can start with long breathing. If that doesn’t feel comfortable, you can make it shorter, faster, slower, heavier, lighter, deeper, more shallow. Find a way of breathing that makes it easy to stay here, comfortable to stay here, refreshing to stay here. Because we’re trying to train the mind to stay focused on one thing continually.

When we say you make up your mind in English, in Pali they call it adhiṭṭhāna, which means basically to make a determination, to take a vow. You’re going to do something good and you want to stick with that determination. Don’t let your other desires come in and push you off course.

Have you noticed dust motes in a shaft of light? They go back and forth, up and down, then back and forth again, up and down again, and don’t really go anywhere. A breeze blows, and they get stirred up a little bit, but they have no purpose, no goal. Most people’s lives are like that. They get blown around by events and as a result don’t take full advantage of the fact that they’re born as human beings with all the capabilities that human beings have. We’re capable of being virtuous, capable of being generous, capable of training our minds. That’s the sort of thing you want to determine on.

As the Buddha said, there are many, many paths out there. There are paths that go to hell. Paths that go to animal realm. Paths that go to the realm of the hungry ghosts—the human realm—the deva realm. Paths that go to nibbāna. You want to make sure you’re on the right path, and you stay on a good path. Don’t go hopping around from path to path, because you end up not going anywhere good. Back and forth, up and down just like dust motes. You want to have a clear goal in mind.

The Buddha was born with a clear goal. He wanted full awakening. He was determined to create all the causes that led to that. And one of them was determination. You stay focused on your goal and don’t let other things push you off. Make sure you’ve chosen a good goal and that you’re clear about what needs to be done. Then you just stick with it. Any other determinations that would push you off, you can resist them. That’s the quality of mind you want. In Pali this is also called resolution. You resolve on a good goal, and you stay on the path, and the path that will take you there.

So reflect on your life. Where is it going? Don’t be like a dust mote blown around by the slightest breeze. Make sure that you have a good determination and you stick with that determination regardless of what events there are outside, because the events of the world are very unpredictable, very undependable. If you let your life get blown around by these things, you don’t know where you’re going to end up. So make up your mind. The Buddha has set a good example for us, so try to follow his example as best you can. Make up your mind that this will be the meaning for your life.

We’re born without any specific meaning. There’s no overall purpose for the universe that we have to fit into. We’re free to choose whatever goal we want. So try to choose a wise one and stick with it. That way, you’ll then have something to show for this life—something of value, something of solid worth.