Practice & Perform

We practice mindfulness and concentration together. You focus on the breath, and then you remember to stay here. The remembering is what makes a difference. If you focus on the breath but then forget—you’re off someplace else—nothing much happens. Nothing much gets developed. It’s being able to remember that makes you keep at it.

The Buddha teaches that mindfulness helps concentration, but concentration also helps mindfulness. Once the mind gets settled down, it’s a lot easier to remember the things you should remember.

What is mindfulness? It’s the ability to remember what should be done, what shouldn’t be done. Often when anger comes up, or greed comes up, or some strong emotion comes up, it burns up our mindfulness, burns up our memory of what should and shouldn’t be done. We start saying and doing things that we later realize: “Oh, that was not right.” But then when it’s done, it’s been done.

You want the mindfulness to be right there when you need it.

That requires that you learn how to keep your mind calm regardless of what the events are. Then you can think more clearly, remember more clearly what needs to be done.

So remember, mindfulness and concentration work together. Sometimes we’re told that they’re two separate things, but the Buddha never said that. They’re intimately related. Without mindfulness, concentration can’t happen. And without concentration, your mindfulness, as I said, gets burned up.

So work on the two together, and not just while you’re sitting here with your eyes closed. Don’t be the sort of person who goes down to the gym, lifts lots of weights, but then comes back home and won’t even lift a finger to help around the house. You want to be the kind of person who takes what you’ve learned here as you meditate and use it as you go through the day, remembering to stay with your breath as much as you can.

It may be too much to ask to be with each in-and-out breath, but have a general sense of the quality of the breath energy in your body. Wherever it tenses up, allow it to relax. Wherever it feels that it’s lacking, give it some more energy. That way, your mind has a good grounding. When it’s well-grounded like that, then it’s easier to get into mindfulness, easier to get into concentration. The two of them work together.

So. Use your talents; use your skills. Because that’s what they’re meant for.

We call this practice as we’re sitting here meditating. Then you go out in the world and perform. When you practice, it’s like practicing a musical instrument; you have to go off and be quiet for a while. But when you perform, you don’t perform in the practice room. You have to go out into the larger halls; you go where there are audiences. In other words, you bring your skills into the world. That’s when they show their real value.