The Dog & the Bear
October 24, 2023

Close your eyes. Take a couple of good, long, deep, in-and-out breaths. And notice, where do you feel the breathing in the body? Focus your attention there. Then ask yourself, “Does long breathing feel good?” If it does, keep it up. If it doesn’t, you can change. Make it shorter, more shallow, heavier, lighter, faster, slower. Experiment to see what kind of breathing feels good right now. After all, the breath is your property. You can do with it as you like. And if you explore the different variations of the breath, you realize that you can create a sense of well-being inside.

The fact that it’s yours is really important. Because you look at the world around you: Everyplace else you look for happiness, you have to fight somebody else off. The Buddha had this vision before he started looking for awakening. He said the world is like a stream of water that was drying up, and the fish in the water were fighting one another over the last little patches of water where they could stay and survive. Of course, they were killing one another in the process and they ended up all dead.

As he looked around, he saw that everything in the world was already laid claim to. If he was going find happiness in the world, he’d have to fight other people off. But then he looked inside and realized that the real problem was inside. The problem wasn’t outside. If he could train his mind, he could find well-being inside in a way that wouldn’t have to involve struggle with anyone—wouldn’t have to harm anybody.

So this is a form of well-being that’s good to develop. It takes some time, because it requires skill to keep your mind on one topic like the breath. But here you are sitting comfortably, and if you can’t keep your mind under control now, how are you going to keep it under control when things get difficult? If there’s problems outside when you face your own aging, illness, and death, you’ve got to keep your mind under control. Otherwise, your mind, instead of being your friend, becomes your enemy—and it creates a lot of suffering in ways that it doesn’t have to.

So try to get some control over the mind. The best way to do that is to create a sense of well-being inside—to stay with the breath as it comes in, as it goes out. Then the sense of well-being will grow. That way, the mind will become more tame. Then you can focus it on things that really are of true value to you. When it’s under your control, you can make sure that it doesn’t turn traitor on you and drag suffering in.

I had a student one time who was camping. He took his dog along with him. And the dog went around sniffing here, sniffing there, and happened to disturb a bear. The bear started chasing the dog. The dog comes running into the camp and then goes running out of the camp, and then the bear comes into the camp. That’s when the student realized he shouldn’t have brought the dog. Because the dog was totally out of control, it brought a lot of harm.

Well, our minds can be like that. We sniff around here, sniff around there, stir up trouble, and then bring the trouble inside. You don’t want that to happen. So learn to get some control over your mind, so that you can think the thoughts you want to think and don’t have to think the thoughts you don’t want to think. You can focus on things that really are of genuine value, genuine worth in your own life. That way, when you find a true happiness inside, it spills out to other people too. So for your sake and the sake of those around you, try to get some control over your mind. That way, wherever you go, you’re safe.