Make the Causes Complete

Close your eyes and feel the breath as it comes in, as it goes out. Try to keep your mind established here. As for any other thoughts that come into the mind right now, just let them go. You don’t have to block them out, but you don’t have to follow them. They can come in; they can go out. That’s their business. Your business is trying to establish a good, solid foundation here.

We’re trying to create a sense of well-being inside to make our happiness complete. We all want a happiness that’s complete, so we have to make sure that the causes are complete, which includes being generous, being virtuous, spreading thoughts of goodwill. This kind of happiness is a safe happiness because you’re not taking anything away from anyone else.

The happiness of the world—which has to do with material gain, status, praise, sensual pleasures—is not very solid, not very secure, because wherever there’s material gain, there’s loss. Wherever there’s status, there’s loss of status. Wherever there’s praise, there’s criticism. Wherever there’s sensual pleasure, there’s sensual pain. And that kind of happiness also creates divisions. When you gain something, somebody else has to lose. Or they gain, you lose. This is why there are divisions in the world: Most people are looking for happiness in the wrong place. It’s wiser to look inside, at the potentials you have right here.

You have the potential to be generous. If you don’t have much in terms of material goods, you can be generous with your time, generous with your energy, generous with your knowledge, generous with your forgiveness. Being generous like this creates a more spacious mind. And the people around you benefit, of course.

The same with the precepts. When you refrain from breaking the precepts, you gain; the people around you gain.

As you meditate and develop thoughts of goodwill for everybody, you’re not being partial. You’re not saying, “Well, I’ll be good to the people I like and not good to the people I don’t like”—or “good to the people I think are good and not good to the people I think are bad.” That kind of partiality creates all kinds of problems. You can say, no matter what other people do, “My goodness will not be affected.”

The image the Buddha gives is of space. People can try to write words in space, but there’s nothing for the words to hang on to. When other people do things and say things, think of them writing in space. The letters just fall down. In other words, make your mind open and spacious like that, and you can live in this world and be happy. And because your happiness doesn’t cause any trouble to anybody else, they’re happy to see you happy. If your happiness depends on gaining wealth, status, praise, there are going to be people who are jealous. They’re not going to be happy for your happiness.

So you want a happiness that’s safe all around. This is where you look. And try to make it complete. Some people like to do meditation but are not interested in generosity or virtue. Other people are interested in generosity but not interested in meditation. The happiness that comes from that kind of attitude is very partial. It’s not complete. So when we want the results to be complete, we have to make sure the causes are complete. That way, our happiness is good all around.