Developed in Mind

Focus on your breath. Watch it all the way in, all the way out. And notice where you feel it in the body, because you don’t feel the breathing just at the nose. You can feel it at the chest, in the stomach, in the shoulders. Anywhere where it’s clear, focus your attention there. Then try to stay there. We’re trying to develop good qualities in the mind, and one them is this ability to set up a skillful intention and then to maintain that intention.

As the Buddha said, simply having a good intention is meritorious right there. It’s skillful right there. But you don’t want it to fall away. Once you’ve got something good like that, you want to maintain it. This, the Buddha said, is our duty with regard to skillful qualities. When they’re not there in the mind, you try to give rise to them. When they are there, you try to maintain them and let them develop. The word develop, bhavana, is the word we use for meditation. It doesn’t mean simply sitting with your eyes closed. Anytime in the day, when you’re developing good qualities, counts as bhavana. You can do that anywhere at any time.

So the more you can be aware of the mind, the better: the more you realize you have opportunities all the time to think skillful thoughts, say skillful things, do skillful things. This is the best way to find happiness. It’s a responsible way to find happiness. At the same time, you’re learning about your mind.

All too often, we just go with the force of whatever urge comes up in the mind without really thinking about it. Sometimes you’ll do something and people will ask you, “Why did you do that?” You don’t really know. If you don’t know that, what are you going to know? You want to know your mind. Here the Buddha is recommending that we spend a lot of time getting to know our minds—not just to know what they’re like right now, but also getting to know what we can do with them, what good things we can make out of our minds.

What could be a better thing to do in the world?—as your world is shaped by your mind. If you don’t know your mind, you’re in a bad place. It’s like being in the dark. If you can’t shape your mind in a good direction, you don’t know where you’re going.

So here’s your opportunity to do something that’s really fascinating: Get to know your mind really well. You’re going to see a lot of things in the mind you don’t like. Be prepared for that. But there are a lot of things that are good in the mind. You want to encourage those, develop those, because that’s how true happiness is found. That’s how goodness is found in the world. The goodness we do for ourselves, the goodness we do for other people all comes from developing good qualities in the mind.

So take whatever time you have, whatever opportunity you have, to develop your mind. And don’t treat it lightly. Here at the monastery, we have group sessions, and sometimes you’re sitting in the session and telling yourself, “Well when is the session going to end?” There may be pains in the body, unskillful thoughts in the mind. You don’t like sitting with them. But if you don’t like sitting with them, then they’re going to push you around. In the beginning, learn how to sit with them, learn how to be with them, but not get pushed around by them. Then you can begin to direct the mind in a good direction. There’s plenty to learn here, plenty of good things you can do. So when you have the opportunity to do them, make the most of the opportunity. It doesn’t come all the time. But you’ve got that opportunity right now.