Obstacles
January 21, 2024

Make up your mind you’re going to stay with the breath, all the way in, all the way out. And then the next breath. And then the next.

Now there will be other thoughts coming into the mind, but you don’t have to pay them any attention. One of our problems is we find our thoughts too interesting. It’s good to get out of them for a while.

There are going to be noises outside; there are going to be other disturbances. And if you want, you can make a lot out of those disturbances, out of those obstacles.

There’s a saying in Thai that if you want to develop goodness, the goodness is not going to come unless you meet up with obstacles. So you have to take the obstacles in stride. In most cases, the obstacles don’t make things impossible for us, it’s just that they make things difficult. So we have to look into our own minds to see: Why are we not up for the difficulties? We may not see the value of doing whatever we’re doing, which is one thing. But we may just be lazy. Sometimes it’s an old habit we have.

For instance, say that you’re trying to observe the precepts, and someone comes up to you and asks you a question about something you’d like to hide—or something that you know if you told them the truth, it wouldn’t please them—and you change what you’re going to say and end up breaking the precept to please the other people. You have to realize: The obstacle is not the other person. The obstacle is your desire to please the other person right then. You have to figure out some other way of saying the truth and putting it in a way that’s not going to be upsetting, if possible. Other times, if it’s going to be upsetting, you have to put up with the fact that the truth is sometimes upsetting.

So you learn how not to take the obstacles as a major problem—at least not the obstacles outside. You have to look at the problem inside your own mind. We all have some old habits that aren’t really good for the practice. We have to have the attitude that we have to choose between the practice and our old habits. We’ve got to choose the practice, because the practice is designed for our true happiness.

The Buddha recommends that you be generous and virtuous, and that you meditate. A part of your mind says “No, I’d rather hold on to my things and not share them. Or I’d like to break a few precepts. Or I don’t have time to meditate. Or my mind is a mess. How can I meditate”? Those attitudes are the real obstacles there. Then, of course, you’ll probably go out and try to find obstacles outside to excuse your inside obstacles. You’re not really focusing on where the real problem is.

So remember, the real problem is inside.

In the Pali Canon, the personification of evil is Mara, who tries to come get in the way of the Buddha. The Buddha keeps reminding Mara, that the only reason Mara would be able to have some power over him is if inside his own mind he gave in to his defilements. When you don’t give in to your defilements, then outside temptations, outside obstacles, don’t have any power over your mind.

So keep remembering to look inside—that the real obstacles are here, not out there. If you fall for the inside obstacles, you’ve harmed yourself, even though you may identify with them very strongly. As I said, our attitudes are: “This is my way of doing things; this is the type of person I am,” which is plain old laziness. We can’t identify with those attitudes. If we do, then they drag us down.

We have our choice. We can identify with the better sides of our minds, the part of the mind that’s wiser, that looks for long-term happiness rather than short term satisfaction. So when you meet up with an obstacle, you have to ask yourself, “Okay, what can I do so that I’m not on the side of the obstacle—so that I don’t let it have power over me?” Realize that the inside obstacles are the things you’ve really got to watch out for. But you do have the ability to overcome them.

The Buddha and all of his noble disciples have shown that this is something that human beings can do. It wasn’t the case that they were superhuman when they were born. They were born with all the same defilements we have. It’s simply that their attitude was that they really wanted to find true happiness, a happiness that doesn’t change, a happiness that doesn’t disappoint. So they didn’t let minor happinesses, minor pleasures, get in the way. Sometimes it’s not necessarily evil that tempts us, it’s just minor pleasures that get in the way of larger well-being. So watch out for those.

As for outside difficulties, learn how not to let them make inroads in your mind. Make sure you don’t have a fifth column inside your own mind that sides with them. In that way, they don’t have any power over you at all. You can still do the goodness you want to do.

It’s a real shame in our society that we don’t talk about goodness that much. A couple years back, I got online and went to Amazon and typed “goodness” into the search box. Most of the books that came up had to do with how to cook cookies, cakes, pies. The idea of searching for goodness in your own life seemed to be very foreign—yet is really is for our true best interest, if we decide that “I want to make goodness the accomplishment of my life, in my thoughts, and my words, and my deeds, and not let minor pleasures get in the way.”