Heedfulness Makes a Difference

Close your eyes and think of the whole body breathing in, the whole body breathing out. You can start with some long breathing to see how that feels. If long breathing feels good, keep it up. If it doesn’t, you can change. Make it shorter, more shallow, heavier, lighter. When we talk about the breath here, we’re talking about the breath energy in the body. It flows along the nerves, flows along the blood vessels, all throughout all the parts of the body. So try to be aware of the whole body. Be alert all around.

And keep in mind the fact that this is where you want to be. We’re mindful here because we realize there are dangers in life. The nature of our life is that we’re not just experiencing the results of past actions. We’re actually doing important things right here, right now, as we shape the results of past actions, as they ripen.

So how are you doing it? Are you doing a good job or not?—because this is where you can make a difference. If you’re not skilled in the present moment, you can suffer even from the results of good actions in the past. If you are skilled, you learn how not to suffer from the results of bad ones, because we do live in this uncertain world; you don’t know what your karma account is—or your many karma accounts.

As the Buddha said, karma is like seeds planted in a field. You don’t know which ones are going to sprout. Sometimes you can water a few seeds and they’ll sprout earlier. But some of the seeds are going to sprout regardless of whether you’ve watered them or not. So you have to be prepared for them.

This is why the Buddha said you have to be heedful, because you don’t know what you’ve done in the past. You can remember some things in this lifetime. But even a lot of things that you’ve done in this lifetime, you’ve forgotten—to say nothing of things done in past lifetimes. So you’ve got to be prepared.

So learn the skills that you need. Learn how to breathe in ways that are skillful. Learn how to talk to yourself in ways that are skillful. Learn how to use perceptions and feelings in a skillful way. In that way, you’re prepared for whatever is going to come up. You can take this skill with you wherever you go.

We like to come to the monastery because it’s a quiet place—in spite of the dogs. But we can’t stay in the monastery all the time. We have to go out into the world. As you go out into the world, you have to take the skills with you. That’s the important thing.

As Ajaan Suwat used to like to say, “This is a quiet corner here.” You come here to work on your skills, work on being heedful. Then you carry that attitude of heedfulness, along with those skills out with you. That’s how you benefit from your time here.

So. Learn the skills of breathing properly. Learn how to talk to yourself. Be alert to whatever’s going on around you, whatever’s going on inside you. And be heedful to the fact that there are dangers. There are possibilities of all kinds of things happening because of your past actions. But you do have the possibility of creating good actions right now. That’s going to make all the difference.

This is why the Buddha recommends heedfulness. He says all skillful qualities come from heedfulness. What does that mean? It means that you’re aware of the fact that there are dangers that come from your actions, but there’s also the possibility of safety. If there weren’t the possibility of safety, there wouldn’t be any point in being heedful. If there were no dangers, you wouldn’t need to be heedful. But there are dangers and you can learn how to avoid them. That’s why heedfulness makes a difference. So maintain that attitude wherever you go.