The Power of Consistency

Focus on your breath. Try to be with the breath all the way in, all the way out. Because the mind has a tendency to change so quickly, you want to train it in the other direction, to learn how to stay with one thing.

Sometimes people complain: “Get the mind still? Doesn’t seem very intelligent. You’re not being very creative.” But you are developing an important habit: the habit of staying. You’re also developing the habit of reflecting on what the mind is doing right now. We keep watch over it to make sure it does stay. In that way, you begin to see things in the mind that you didn’t see before.

Most of the time we spend our time going after our likes and dislikes, running into pleasure, running into pain, and it seems all pretty random. It’s hard to see the connection between what we’re doing and the results we’re getting—which is why we tend to blame people outside, things outside, situations outside for our suffering.

But if you were to keep constant watch over what you’re doing, you’d begin to see that there are patterns. You do certain things and certain things come about as a result. Then you can decide: Do you like the results?

So you’re developing good habits, even in just keeping the mind still. It doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, but maybe you don’t *need *to go anywhere. Maybe you need to learn how to stay. The mind is constantly going, going, going—running around. You want to learn how to keep it under your control so that when you see that something really is worth going for, you have the strength to go for it. Otherwise, we waste a lot of our energy wandering around, running around.

So learn how to appreciate stillness. That chant we have: “respect for concentration.” The Buddha emphasizes that because, of the different parts of the path, it’s the one that’s often hardest to respect—especially when our minds are active, creative. We don’t feel like they’re exercising their full powers.

Well, you’re learning a new power: the power of staying. It requires mindfulness; it requires alertness; it requires ardency—all of which are good qualities to develop. Otherwise, our mindfulness is just little bits and pieces. We’re not very alert. And as for ardency? Sometimes we try to do good, and sometimes we say, “Well, I just want to go for the pleasure of whatever seems pleasant right now.” So here you’re trying to develop the virtue of consistency. Learn how to appreciate that it’s going to be an important power. This is going to teach you a lot of valuable lessons. And it’s going to be good for you and good for the people around you, too.

The more you can learn how to be quiet in the midst of a lot of turmoil, the more you can be saved from getting pushed around by the turmoil. You can maintain your wisdom, you maintain your integrity, because you’ve learned how to be consistent. It’s a power that’s under-appreciated, but it’s a power nonetheless.