Focused on Your Duties (outdoors)

When we meditate, we focus on the present moment, not because it’s a wonderful moment, but it’s the moment where we have to think about our duties. This is where the duties get performed. What duties do we have? As the Buddha said, you have the choice of taking on the duties or not. But if you want to put an end to suffering, you have to comprehend suffering, to see clearly what it is. You have to abandon its cause and develop the path so you can realize the cessation of suffering. Those are your duties if you accept them.

Where does suffering happen? Where can you see it clearly enough so that you can comprehend it? You could think about suffering in the past, but if you really want to comprehend it, you have to watch it happening in the present moment. The same thing with craving, which is the cause of suffering: It’s not the sort of thing that you can abandon ahead of time, where you can think back, “I abandoned my cravings in the past.” Those cravings have already done their work and gone. It’s the cravings in the present moment that you have to be responsible for. These are the ones you have to abandon. The qualities of the path, you have to develop those in the present moment, too. All the work needs to be done right here.

We focus on the present moment because we don’t know how much time we have to perform these duties. This is why, when the Buddha teaches about being in the present moment, focusing our attention on the present moment, it’s always in the context of mindfulness of death, with the realization that there are duties that need to be done before you die, and you don’t know how much time you have to do them. You could die at any time. It’ll be a big challenge to face death. If you think the sufferings of daily life are bad, think of what it’s going to be like then. But it’s the same process. Craving is going to be the problem again.

The image the Buddha gives is of a fire in a house. The wind blows, the fire latches onto the wind, and then it goes and sets fire to a house next door. He says that, in the same way, beings latch on to their craving, and the craving takes them to the new life. So you can imagine what it’s going to be like when you can’t stay in this body anymore and you have to leave. Craving will be very strong, trying to find a new place to go. If you’re not careful, you’re going to latch on to the wrong cravings. Ideally, you don’t want to latch on to any cravings at all. That requires a lot of skill. But even just the skill of being able to choose your cravings wisely so that you can go to a good place where you can continue practicing requires that you put a lot of time in to get to know your mind and understand the various ways in which craving has fooled you in the past.

It lies to you. It says, “Over there is going to be good.” You go there. And it may be okay, but it’s not as good as you thought it would be. It says, “No, over here is going to be good.” You go there. This is why this is called the wandering on. We just keep going on, on, on. Craving goes along, as the Buddha said, as our companion, telling us where to go, what to do. We’ve believed it all along.

But if you want to protect your happiness, both in this life and as you go to other ones, you really do have to be careful about which cravings you choose to go with and which ones you say No to.

And to get to know your cravings, you’ve got to get the mind quiet. That, too, is a kind of craving, but it’s a good one. So it’s a question of learning how to be skillful in bringing it about, realizing what a quiet mind is like, how you can get it there, how you can keep it there. You give it a good place to stay.

This is one of the reasons why we work with the breath. Think of the breath energies in the body. How are they flowing right now? You start with the in-and-out breathing, which is easy to see. Then you ask yourself, when you breathe in, how far does the energy go? When you breathe out, how far does it go? Ideally, you should be able to breathe in and out feeling it everywhere in the body. Then notice if there are any patterns of tension anyplace that are getting in the way of the free flow of the energy. Allow those to relax. Then you get a sense that it feels really good to be here.

The sense of ease goes with the breath, but you have to make sure you don’t drop the breath and just wallow in the ease. You’re trying to give rise to the ease but you don’t want to fall for it. Sometimes you hear it said, “Watch out for concentration, you’re going to get stuck on the pleasure.” Well, the problem of getting stuck is, one, when you drop the breath as your anchor, when you’ve lost your mindfulness, you just drift around in a nice, pleasant cloud. That doesn’t go anywhere.

The other problem is when the mind has settled down, and you just want to keep it quiet, quiet, quiet. You don’t want to pose any questions.

But those two problems are easy to solve. The big problem is that, if the mind can’t get into concentration at all, you’re going to go looking for your pleasure in other places and you’ll get blinded by your craving again. It’s only when the mind is in concentration that you can see things clearly. All the background noise has settled down.

So don’t be afraid of getting the mind concentrated. Don’t be afraid of getting a sense of well-being with the breath. Just learn how to use the sense of well-being wisely.

Once you have this spot in the present moment where you’re anchored, then if other thoughts come in, you can question them. Your first response, of course, is just not to get involved at all. But you find yourself, every now and then, slipping off. You have to ask why. What was the appeal of that thought? What was the appeal of this thought? Why does the mind go for these things? Here you are sitting, and everything is perfectly still, perfectly calm, and yet you can still fall for random cravings. Why is that? Which part of the mind is lying to another part of the mind?

You want the mind to be very clear about what the allure of those thoughts is. In other words, what do you find attractive about them? Then be honest with yourself about the drawbacks: If you followed that kind of thinking, where would it take you? Anywhere good? If not, why go with it? You’ve got something good here with the breath. Why do you treat it so casually? Why do you treat it with so much disrespect?

It’s in this way that you dig down and get to know your defilements. Those are the things that get in the way here in the present moment and later on in life as you’re approaching death. They’re the same defilements, the same hindrances, causing the same problems. It’s important, now that you’re healthy and strong enough, that you learn to see these things clearly and understand their reasoning—and that you learn how to see through their reasoning by coming up with better reasons of your own for not going with them. That way, later on in life, as you’re approaching death, and the same cravings come up, you won’t fall for their stupid reasons again. You realize you’ve seen through all that.

So each time you overcome a distraction, each time you overcome a hindrance in your mind as you’re sitting here getting the mind concentrated, think of it as good practice, because you’re going to face the same kinds of hindrances, the same kinds of distractions as you’re dying. Those are the ones that lead people astray. You’re staying here focused on the breath, and all of a sudden, the memory of something horrible that somebody did to you way back in the past comes up. You suddenly find yourself going back into that state of becoming. If you happened to die at that moment, that’s where you’d go, in line with that idea—maybe to get revenge, maybe to go back and relive the issue, try it out in a new way, neither of which is going to be very helpful. So you want to get practice in being on top of your distractions all the time and not let yourself get fooled by them.

So ultimately, when you clear them all away, then you can be with a state of concentration. You realize that this, too, is a state of becoming. It, too, depends on craving and clinging. If you want something better than this, you have to look into this, too. See what it is that you’re doing to keep this going and ask yourself, “Is there something that’s quieter, something less fabricated?” But before you get there, you first have to learn how to do battle with all the other things that have in the past pulled you away from concentration. Make sure you know all of their tricks and deceits, because at the very least, if you die in a good state of concentration, you’ll go to a good place. You may not gain ultimate release, but at least you’ve got a good chance of continuing your practice. If you can see through your attachments here, can understand what it is that keeps the mind trapped in the process of fabrication, so much the better.

But in every case, the work is done right here. If it doesn’t get done right here, it’s not going to get done. This is why we keep death in the background as our topic of recollection. It’s not the case that when you’re doing recollection of death, you just think “death, death, death, die, die, die.” All you have to do is remind yourself that there’s important work that needs to be done. The process of death is not something you just ride through passively. You’re going to be playing an active role. You’ve got to prepare.

Then what you take as your preoccupation is not so much death itself, but the things that need to be done before you die, what your duties are: comprehend suffering, abandon its cause, realize its cessation by developing the path. As long as you keep with those duties all the time, that becomes recollection of death. Whether you think death or don’t think death, the fact that you’re on top of your duties and don’t let them lapse: That’s the whole point.

Our problem is that, as we follow the noble eightfold path, sometimes we go off on a side road someplace else. The Buddha’s image is of someone who’s been traveling along a highway with a cart, everything is nice and safe. Then they decide to go off into a side road that leads them up a mountain. It’s unpaved, uneven. They end up breaking their axle, breaking their wheel. They can’t get back on the road because they’ve destroyed what they had. Or if you do get back on the road, but you go off every side road you come across, you’re never going to get to the end of the road. You keep finding another side road, another side road.

It’s like those forest lanes up in the national forest at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. One forest lane leads to another forest lane, which leads to another one. You can go for miles that way, get further and further away from the main road. So stay on the main road all the time. Remind yourself how important it is to be right here, doing your work all the time.

Of course, it’s work with the sense of well-being. The breath is easy. The things the Buddha has you think about are things that are pleasant, noble, good to do. He’s asking you to work all the time, but he’s giving you rewards all the time as well. The path doesn’t save all its rewards for the end. You can sit here breathing in a way that feels really content right now as you’re doing your work. Just make sure you do it as continuously as you can, and that will count as mindfulness of death. And as the Buddha said, when it’s done right, mindfulness of death leads to the deathless. So understand where your focus should be and get to work.