Success

Close your eyes. Make up your mind you want to stay here, to be able to succeed in the meditation. It has to start with desire. As the Buddha said, all things are rooted in desire. So the question is, what kind of desire do you want? Right now you want the desire for the mind to settle down, to have a sense of well-being inside. So the desire is where you start, but it’s not going to carry you all the way.

You also have to have persistence. In other words, whatever’s getting in the way of the concentration, you put it aside. Whatever is helpful, you try to develop. You can make yourself want to develop it.

So right now, you need some mindfulness to remember where you’re staying, where you want to stay—and alertness to see what’s actually going on, what you’re doing, the results you’re getting. If the mind is wandering away, you want to know, so that you can pull it back. So give it your full attention. Be intent on what you’re doing.

Ajaan Suwat would say again and again, “We’re not here just to fool around or just go through the motions.” We act, and then we learn from our actions by reflecting on them.

This brings in the fourth quality, which is your powers of analysis, figuring out how things are going. Some people say, “Don’t try to figure anything out, just be with whatever comes up.” But you never learn anything that way. When the mind settles down, you want to know why. When it doesn’t settle down, you want to know why. What’s the difference? Be observant.

When it doesn’t settle down, try to figure out exactly what is the problem. Is the problem with the breath? Is the problem with the mind? If the problem is with the breath, what can you do to change the breath? If the problem is with the mind, what can you do to change the mind? When you find something that works, okay, remember that. That becomes part of your repertoire. This is how the meditation becomes a skill.

So it is possible to succeed in meditation. Again, some people say there’s no such thing as failure or success. That’s just to make you feel good if things are not going very well. But a wise teacher and a compassionate teacher isn’t going to just leave you there. They’re going to help you figure out, when things are not going well, why. Sometimes a teacher can have some advice and some input. Other times, you have to observe on your own.

But it’s this combination of these four qualities—the desire, the persistence, intent, and analysis: That’s how success comes about.

So if you see that things are not going well, ask yourself: Which quality are you missing? Sometimes we sit down to meditate but we don’t really want to be here. We want to be someplace else. Well, work on the desire. Remind yourself of why you would want to get the mind under your control.

Other times you’re getting lazy. Ask yourself, “If I’m lazy now, what happens when I get older? Is it going to get easier?” Well, no. You’ve got strength now. Make the best use of it.

Pay careful attention and be really inquisitive to figure out, when things are not going well, what’s the problem. That way you can use this as a checklist. You’ll find that the meditation becomes more and more of a skill, something that, more and more, you can predict of how to do it well.