Guard your meditation and guard your attitude so that you don’t get discouraged and you don’t get proud.

"You’ve got the opportunity to train the mind. Think of all the people in the world who don’t have that opportunity. And whether the results come quickly or slowly, don’t let that be an issue. Sometimes the results will come very quickly — and it goes to your head. You’ve gained this. You’ve gained that. Other people don’t have that. And, of course, that thinking becomes a new kind of defilement. When the results come slowly, you get discouraged. You think, “I don’t have the potential.” Everybody has the potential. It’s simply that sometimes there are things that obscure it.

So try to guard your meditation and guard your attitude so that you don’t get discouraged and you don’t get proud."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Planting a Tree"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Equanimity rests on the confidence that as long as you put in positive energy with positive intentions, positive results will have to come out at some point.

"So equanimity means realizing that when things can’t be forced, you’ve got to step back. Whatever you can’t control, you let it take its own time, to develop or go away at its own pace. You focus your efforts instead on the skillfulness of your present intentions, which may require patience and equanimity, doing your best to put as much positive energy into the situation, and not getting upset because the results are not immediate. The important point is that you be secure in your confidence that as long as you put in positive energy, there will have to be positive results — if not right now, then someplace down the line. That’s what you control, the fact that you’re putting in positive energy, putting in skillful intentions right now. As for when these things will bear fruit, that’s up to them, that’s up to the jagged rhythm in the whole mix of your karma. So it’s important that you understand what equanimity means. It doesn’t mean that you’re totally non-reactive to everything,...
Read more

The even-mindedness of a fully awakened person is an attitude not of cold indifference, but rather of mental imperturbability.

"[An awakened person] feels sympathy for others and seeks their well-being, experiencing a sense of satisfaction when they respond to [his/her] teachings, but otherwise [he/she] stays equanimous, untroubled, mindful, and alert. This passage shows that the even-mindedness of a fully awakened person is an attitude not of cold indifference, but rather of mental imperturbability. Such a person has found true happiness and would like others to share that happiness as well, but that happiness is not dependent on how others respond. This is the ideal state of mind for a person who truly works for the benefit of the world." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Wings to Awakening"
Read more

What would actually happen if I made the effort to change the sad way things are? What would be the unintended consequences?

"You have to learn how to develop some equanimity around areas of the world where you look at them and say, “That’s really sad that that’s the way things are.” But you have to look at how much effort you would have to put in to change those things and ask yourself, “What would actually happen if I did make that effort? What would be the unintended consequences?” Some things in the world you can change without any bad side effects, but there are a lot of things in the world that you have to let go. You have to allow them to be. Because otherwise there’s no way you’re going to be able to train your mind. And your mind is the only thing where you really can take charge and you really can be responsible." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Perfecting the Mind in an Imperfect World"
Read more