No One in Charge

We have that chant that says, “There’s no one in charge.”

You can listen to it in two ways. The scary way is that there are a lot of things in life that you cannot control. The encouraging way is to remind yourself there’s nobody who tells you that you have to serve their purpose in life. In other words, there’s no one in charge of the universe with a universal plan that says, “Oh, you have to die for my plan,” or “You have to do this for my plan.”

Remember the Buddha’s vision of the world on the night of his awakening: beings going up, going down, in line with their karma—going nowhere, really, except for those who got out. And it’s the karma that drives things, which means that you get to choose what kind of goal you want in life, keeping in mind the fact there are a lot of goals that slip out of your fingers as soon as you get them.

But there is the goal of a true happiness, the Buddha promises, that comes when you train the mind. And you are in charge of your intentions. You can make your intentions go in that direction.

Then the question is, how do you go there? That requires training. You can’t just wish your way to the end of suffering. We have to go there in line with the principles of causality. But those are things we can learn. The mind is something we can train.

And it’s not the case that this training saves all of its rewards for the end. All along the way, there’s a sense of well-being, a sense of being centered, a sense of self-worth that comes as you practice the Dhamma.

Ajaan Lee compares this to walking along a path to the ultimate happiness. But along the way there are plants on the side of the path that you can eat, that you can use as medicine. There’s entertainment along the way. So it’s a good path. But it does require work.

So you can ask yourself, “What do I want out of my life? I’m born here as a human being. There’s no one to tell me what to do, what I want, or what I have to do with my life. I’m free to choose.”

So. Make the most of that freedom. The Buddha recommends that you devote yourself to developing good qualities in mind. Because if the path to that freedom takes more than one lifetime, those are the things you can take with you as you go from this lifetime to the next: things like compassion, goodwill, discernment, determination, endurance—all kinds of good qualities. And, of course, as they say, virtue is its own reward. The fact that you’re living a virtuous life is, in and of itself, a source of comfort, a source of well-being.

So. Work on the qualities of your mind. Choose which ones you want to work on. Give yourself over to the training, and you’ll be happy you did.