Strength of Conviction

The Pali word for meditation, bhavana, means to develop. We’re trying to develop strength in the mind because the mind is attacked all day long with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations. Some of them are good; some of them are not good. We have to build up some resilience inside so that whether they’re good or bad, whether we like them or don’t like them, we don’t want the mind to be shaken by them.

The mind has to be firm in its determination that it’s going to act only in skillful ways, speak only in skillful ways, think only in skillful ways, and yet it’s so easy to get knocked off course. Something bad happens, you start thinking, “All that good that I’ve done—it’s not protecting me from bad things.” You have to remember: You don’t know how much good or bad karma you have from the past. So you have to have conviction that what the Buddha taught about karma is true. Hold to that conviction, and it gives you strength to do what needs to be done, strength to do whatever is skillful regardless of the situation outside.

As you’re meditating and little thoughts come up into the mind, don’t let them push you around. You’re going to be firm in your intention to stay right here. And the more you can set down roots right here—in other words, the more comfortable you can make it for the mind to stay here, for making the breath comfortable—then the more easily you’ll be able to resist other things that would push you around.

As the breath softens the body, it’s easier for the mind to melt down into the body, for your awareness to go all the way down to the tips of the toes, tips of the fingers, and to inhabit the whole body. Then you’ve got the body as your foundation. Otherwise, you’re just floating around, and our only foundations are our thoughts—and you know how ephemeral they can be. So work on solidifying your awareness by bringing it into the body. Be firm in your determination that whatever is going to come out of your mind is going to be good. Because that’s all you have.

We’re born into this world empty-handed, and we go empty-handed. All we have when we come is our past karma. All we take with us when we leave is the new karma we’ve made. As the Buddha said, it follows you around. If it’s bad karma, it’s like a cart that weighs you down and obliterates everything you do. Whereas if it’s good karma, it’s like a shadow that follows you wherever you go. It’s light. It doesn’t impinge on anything, but it provides you with shade.

So do what’s good. Be firm in your conviction. Be strong in your conviction that, whatever you do, you have to live with the consequences. Do good things so that living with good consequences doesn’t weigh the mind down. You don’t want to be weighed down by needless things. We don’t know what karma we have from the past, but we do know what karma we’re doing right now. So be strong in doing what’s good.