Right Now
October 14, 2023
Close your eyes. Watch your breath. All the way in; all the way out. The world tells you that what it’s doing is important, more important than what you’re doing right now. But that’s not the Buddha’s message. The Buddha’s message is that you’re shaping your life by your choices right now, so you want to be very clear about what your choices are, what options you have, which are the best, which will be for your long-term welfare and happiness. You have that power. So you want to make the best use of it.
This is why we meditate, focusing on the breath here in the present moment: because we can see what’s going on in the mind and then decide. An intention comes up—is it something worth following or not? Sometimes the options you have are not all that good, but you do your best.
It’s like being a cook. You go into the kitchen, and sometimes there’s a lot of good food in the pantry, a lot of good food in the refrigerator. Other times there’s not much. But if you have skills in learning how to breathe properly—how to focus your mind properly, how to develop good qualities in your mind—then you’re like that good cook who can make good food out of anything.
I was reading once about a famous Vietnamese chef who said, *“*If you give me a good bottle of fish sauce, I can make good Vietnamese food out of anything else you give me.” Well, the same goes for a good meditator. You learn the skills of meditation, and you can make a good experience, a profitable experience, out of anything, even when unfortunate things happen in the world. There’s loss: loss of money, loss of status, people misbehaving all over the place, but you can learn how to keep your mind from suffering from that. And you don’t add to anybody else’s suffering either.
These are important skills to master. This is why the Buddha’s word for meditation is *bhavana: It *means to develop. You’re developing good qualities in the mind.
So take this time to develop mindfulness, develop your alertness, and develop your ardency—your desire to do this well—because those qualities will stand you in good stead no matter what’s in the refrigerator, what’s in the pantry. You can always make good food out of it—good food for yourself, good food to share with others. It starts with learning how to be generous, being virtuous, training the mind. That way you’ll be safe and well-fed wherever you go.