Make a Difference

When you make up your mind you’re going to stay with the breath, you want to keep your mind made up. In other words, stick with that intention. Any other thoughts that come in, you have to let them go. You’ve got to hold on to your one object, which is the breath. You’re trying to make it comfortable, so that it’s a good place to stay. But you also have to exert some willpower. You’re going to stay right here, and you’re not going to look at the flowers along the side of the path and wander off into the woods. You’ve got work to do here. You want to make a difference in your mind.

We start out with right resolve. We learn about the causes of suffering and how there is a path to the end of suffering, so we resolve that we want to think the thoughts that are in line with the path and stop thinking the thoughts that are not in line with the path. That’s one level of resolve.

We’re trying to think thoughts of renunciation, non-ill will, harmlessness. Where do those thoughts find their full embodiment? In a state of concentration. You’re not engaged in sensual thoughts. You’re not engaged in any ill will, any harmfulness. The mind is thinking about its one object, trying to adjust the object, so that it’s a good place to stay.

Then you go beyond right resolve, as the mind settles down and is totally still. It’s just the perception of breath, while the breath fills the body. A sense of ease fills the body. This is not a sensual ease; it’s an ease of form. The breath energy in the body feels good. Your mind can expand to fill the whole body. The breath expands to fill the whole body. The ease fills the whole body. This makes a difference in the mind.

Once you have that sense of inner ease it’s a lot easier to say No to the thoughts that are unskillful and Yes to the skillful thoughts at the right time. But you also know when to stop thinking. As the Buddha said, you learn to think the thoughts you want to think and not think the thoughts you don’t want to think. And the times you don’t want to think at all, just hold that perception in mind.

That makes a difference in the mind. It provides the basis for real insight to arise, real discernment to arise, because you can see what’s going on. So work on this, making up your mind to stay here and then sticking with your mind made up like that. Maintain that intention as best you can.

It’s going to be a struggle, because the mind is used to wandering around. And it’ll tell itself: Well, as long as I’m wandering around in good thoughts, it’s okay. But you’re still wandering. The whole purpose of this is to put an end to the mind’s wandering, to find happiness inside in the stillness inside. These layers of stillnesscan grow deeper and deeper, so work on them—because that really does make a difference.

The Buddha didn’t teach us just to accept things. Look at his life. He could have accepted being in the palace, but nothing would have happened. Or when he gained his awakening he could have accepted—“Well, okay, the world is going to be the way the world is going to be, so just leave it alone.” But he didn’t. He went out and walked around northern India for 45 years, and his message wasn’t just to leave things alone or just accept things as they are. He was out to make a difference and he was teaching people how they can make a difference, too.

So think of his example and see what you can learn from it. It’s in this way that we take the refuge of the Buddha and internalize it. That way, we have a refuge inside in the good qualities we develop as we get the mind to settle down.