What Are You Becoming?

The Buddha has us ask ourselves every day: “What am I becoming as days and nights fly past, fly past?” The days and nights make you older. But what you become is not just getting older. It depends on your actions, your attitudes, the qualities of mind you’re developing.

How are those developing? What are they becoming? What kind of person are you becoming? Is your practice making you better or worse? If it’s making you worse, you’d better look at your practice very carefully. As the Buddha said, you commit yourself and then you reflect. If the results of what you’re doing are not really good, then you have to figure out, “What can I do to change?” Remember: We’re here to improve ourselves, especially to improve our actions.

That’s what the four noble truths are all about. The things you’re doing are causing suffering, but you don’t have to do them that way. You can change. As the Buddha said, if we couldn’t change our habits, couldn’t change our qualities of mind, there’d be no point in his teaching. But we can change the qualities of mind, and we can change them for the better.

So take advantage of this opportunity, especially in a place like this where you have the opportunity to develop goodness in all kinds of ways, through your generosity, through virtue, through your meditation.

Generosity can take many forms. It’s not just being generous with material things. It also can mean being generous with your time, being generous with your help, being generous with your energy.

Virtue also has many facets. You adhere to the precepts, but you also try to develop good qualities of the mind. Qualities like contentment, modesty, persistence.

Of course, with the meditation you’re developing the ultimate skills that you need, the skills that allow you to see where you’re causing suffering, where you don’t have to, and how you can change. We borrow the Buddha’s wisdom, but we have to make it our own as we apply it to ourselves.

When he talks about concentration, what is he talking about? When he talks about mindfulness, when he talks about compassion, goodwill, what is he talking about? How do you find those things in yourself? How do you develop them? His words are meant as guideposts. As he said, he points out the way, but it’s up to us to follow the way.

So make sure you follow it right—and that you do become a better person as a result. Otherwise, it’s like the example of the person twisting the cow’s horn. You twist and twist and twist. You don’t get any milk. You get tired. The cow gets harassed. Nothing gets accomplished.

So look around. Maybe you’re putting your efforts in the wrong place. Maybe you’re putting your efforts in the wrong way. So learn how to look after yourself. As the Buddha said, you have to be your own prosecutor. In other words, you have to point out to yourself where your actions are wrong and where you can make them right. Other people can help, but all too often we’re not all that open to other people’s comments. You have to learn how to be your own prosecutor.

What have you become as days and nights fly past, fly past? How are you going to answer that question in a way that you can be proud to answer it?

Well, live your life in that way. That’s how we benefit from the Buddha’s teachings.