Self-Defense

As the Buddha once said, if you have an army but you don’t abide by the Dhamma, you leave yourself unprotected. But if you live by the Dhamma, you protect yourself, even if you don’t have an army.

Mindfulness, he says, is like the gatekeeper in a fortress. Like right now: Focus your attention on the breath and try to keep the breath in mind each time you breathe in, each time you breathe out. Any other thoughts that come up, you can turn them away.

This is like the wise gatekeeper who knows who’s a friend and who’s an enemy—keeps the enemies out, lets the friends in. In other words, mindfulness is not just a passive acceptance of things or a nonreactive attitude. You’re nonreactive only to the extent that you want to see clearly what’s going on, but then if something wrong is coming up in the mind, you want to be mindful to get rid of it.

As for the concentration and mindfulness you’re trying to develop, you encourage those. Make sure they don’t go away.

Then you have soldiers inside. Those are your right efforts. They’re armed with learning the Dhamma. This protects you because there are so many vagrant thoughts that can come through the mind at any time—things you picked up from who knows where. If you’re not careful about what you allow to influence your actions, you can be influenced by some pretty unskillful stuff. So it’s good to have knowledge of the Dhamma floating around in your mind to remind you of what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s skillful, what’s not skillful, what should be done, what shouldn’t be done.

This, the Buddha said, is his gift to us: a strong sense of what should be done and what shouldn’t be done, so we have guidance in our lives. Otherwise, we’re subject to the guidance of the media out there, and they don’t necessarily have our best interests in mind. They’re there to make money. That seems to be all they’re concerned about these days: making more and more money.

So for the health of your own mind, the health of your own heart, you have to take charge. You have to imbue yourself with the right attitudes, the right knowledge. That way, you’re well-armed.

Then have a sense of shame and compunction. Shame is a word that’s got a bad rap in America right now. But there are two kinds of shame. There’s the shame that’s the opposite of pride, which is not the shame the Buddha is teaching. He’s teaching you the shame that’s the opposite of shamelessness: the attitude that you don’t care what other people think, you’re just going to do what you want to do. So you should have a good sense of healthy shame, that you do care. At the same time, you have compunction. You realize your actions have consequences, so you want to be really careful not to do anything that will have really bad consequences, no matter how minor.

These are some of the things that protect you. These are our means of self-defense. When you defend yourself this way, you’re really safe. The way of the world is to set up armies to go out and kill people. That’s not self-defense. That’s leaving yourself exposed to all kinds of bad things.

So. Remember that your actions are the big determining factor in your life. Have conviction in this. This is also part of that fortress. This is the foundation post for the fortress, that your actions really do matter, so you’re going to be careful what you do, what you say, what you think.

This is all fed by concentration. Concentration is the food that keeps the soldiers strong, keeps your gatekeeper strong and alert. So try to develop as much concentration as you can, so you that can see things clearly. Give the mind a sense of well-being that comes from within. When you have well-being that comes from within, then you’re not so hungry for things outside to be a certain way. In this way, you’re really safe.