To Master the Skill

We’re here to learn a skill. You have to think about the different qualities of mind that are needed in a skill. One is determination—that you really want to master this. And two is a sense of stability inside. As you’re learning a new skill, it can get frustrating when you keep on making mistakes. If you’re not really solid in your confidence that you can do this, it’s easy to get discouraged. So you’ve got to keep reminding yourself that this is something that’s humanly possible: “Other people have done it; I can do it, too.”

But don’t let your self-confidence get in the way of noticing when you do things wrong. That really is something you want to work on. So you need to be observant. As the Buddha said, the Dhamma is nourished by committing yourself to it and then by reflecting on what you’ve done.

So you commit yourself. You have the desire to do it. You have the persistence to stick with it. And you really give it your full attention. While you’re here at the monastery, there are many hours where you can give it full attention. When you go home, you may not have that many hours, but you do want to put aside some time out of the day when it’s just you and your mind and the breath.

Then, finally, use your ingenuity. That’s the reflective part. You notice what’s right, what’s wrong, and then you try to figure out why they’re right or wrong. If you’ve been paying careful attention while you’re doing what you’re doing, it’s easy to see. But if you’re simply looking at the results, it’s hard to make the connection between what you’ve done and what comes out.

Say that you’re molding a pot. You have to be very careful about noticing the proportions of how you mix the clay, how you put it on the wheel, how you turn the wheel, how you move your hands, and what qualities of mind you bring to this.

I was watching a potter one time in Thailand, turning a pot on a wheel, and I said, to him “You have to have good concentration while you’re doing this, right?” And he said, “Yes. Your mind has to be set straight up.” In other words, you don’t lean to the future; you don’t lean to the past; you’re right there. So try to develop these qualities of mind, and you find that it’s not simply a matter of getting really good at staying with the breath, but your inner conversations get more skillful as well.

Years back, there was a book called The Craftsman. It talked about how people who develop a craft tend to develop a really solid character, a really solid attitude toward what they’re doing. Once they’ve learned to be solid with that, then they learn to be solid with other things in their life. So try to have that solidity in your craft, combined with your powers of observation, and you can go far.