Determination

Close your eyes. Take a couple of good, long, deep, in-and-out breaths, and notice where you feel the breathing in the body. Allow your attention to settle there—and stay right there, all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out-. If you wander off, just come right back. Wander off again, come back again. Don’t give up.

You have to be determined to do this well. You’re developing good qualities in the mind, like mindfulness, alertness, ardency. Those are qualities you’re going to need for any activity. You have to be really determined, though, that you’re going to do this. It’s not going to happen on its own. The breath will come in and out on its own, but if your mind is someplace else, you’re not developing any special good qualities. You’re trying to develop the ability to stay with something right now.

This is the way it is with all good things in life. If you want them to become true, you have to be determined on them. The Buddha taught four different things you have to keep in mind as you form a determination.

One, is you use your discernment—first, to figure out what would be a good goal to attain: What would you like to accomplish in life? You’re born into this world, and there are no directions. There’s no handbook. As the Buddha saw on the night of his awakening, there’s no one in charge of this world. People are scrambling around doing what they want, being forced to do a lot of things they don’t want. Basically what it comes down to, is that they’re making choices. And so you can make the choice too.

What kind of choice do you want? A skillful choice or an unskillful one? You say, “I want a skillful one.” Well, what would be a skillful choice? What would be something that would be wise to choose as a goal in your life? Think about that. And then ask yourself: How do you go about attaining that goal? What are the steps? It’s not going to happen without a cause, and the cause has to come from within you.

So those are the two sides of the first quality, discernment: You’re discerning in choosing a good goal and in figuring out what you need to do to attain it.

The second quality is truth. Once you’ve made up your mind that something’s a good goal and you’ve got a good path to follow, then follow it. This is where you develop your mindfulness, your alertness, and your ardency. You keep in mind your goal. You don’t forget it. Then you watch your actions to make sure that they’re in line with the goal.

Say that you’ve decided to follow the precept against telling lies. You’ve got to keep the precept in mind, then you’ve got to watch your behavior. Every time you open your mouth, make sure whatever comes out is true. Ideally, it should be true, beneficial, and timely. But at the very least, make sure it’s true. If you find yourself tempted to say things that are not true, be ardent in coming up with ways of saying the truth, not giving in to that desire to please other people with your lies or to make yourself look good with your lies. As long as you side with the truth, then there’s nothing to fear. It’s when you try to create false impressions, both inside and out, that it becomes hard to say the truth and to stick by the truth. So make sure that your ideals are in line with the truth, and you’re willing to admit the truth. That’s how you learn.

The third quality is relinquishment. There are going to be things you’re going to have to give up. Every goal in life requires that you give up things. So make sure that what you’re giving up will be the things that are of minor importance. You hold on to something of greater importance. As the Buddha said, if you see that there’s a greater happiness that comes from letting go of lesser happinesses, you have to be happy to let go of those lesser happinesses, those lesser pleasures. Most of us want all our pleasures. We want to win at chess and keep all the pieces. It doesn’t work that way. You’ve got to be willing to lose some of the pieces to get the victory you want.

Then the final quality is calm. Calm is one of those things you aim at. You want a goal where the mind can settle down and feel at ease. In the meantime, whatever setbacks you have, you don’t want to let yourself get upset. Try to maintain your equanimity as you work on getting around those setbacks. If you let yourself get upset, then it’s hard to do anything reasonable, anything that’s really effective. So try to keep your mind on an even keel.

As the Buddha said, when you meditate, make your mind like earth. There will be pleasant and unpleasant things placed on the earth, but the earth doesn’t react. It just is, right there. Your awareness is right here, so you can see things clearly when you’re calm in this way. Then you can see what needs to be done more clearly. That way, you get closer and closer to the ultimate calm, which is the calm that comes when you’ve done something really well, and you’ve attained the goal that you really want.

So those are the four things to keep in mind when you set goals for yourself. Use your discernment to choose a wise goal and a wise path to that goal. Be true in following that path. Be willing to relinquish whatever gets in the way. And keep your mind on an even keel, calm all the way through. That way, whatever you want in life will be easier to attain.

It’s not going to happen on its own. It happens only if you do it. So make sure you do it well and do it wisely. Take the advice of people who’ve been through this before and know how to do it well.