Strength Inside

Close your eyes; take a couple of good, long, deep, in-and-out breaths. And notice where you feel the breathing in the body. Focus your attention there. Then try to keep it there—all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out-. If long breathing feels good, keep it up. If it doesn’t feel good, you can change.

Try to get a sense of well-being right here in the present moment, because when you make up your mind you’re going to stay, you need to support that original intention. Otherwise, it’s going to get pushed out by other thoughts in the mind that pull you away, thinking about something else.

You’ve got to keep coming back here, back here, back here, because you’ve got to get your mind under control. There are so many things in the world outside that are beyond your control. And if you can’t control your own mind, where are you going to find any sense of refuge inside? Or anywhere? You’ve got to create a safe place here inside for yourself. A place where you’re strong. A place where you’re solid. A place where you can depend on yourself. So if the mind wanders off, you say, “Not right now. We can think about those things later.”

Right now is the time to develop some concentration, develop some stability, some continuity in your mind, so that when thoughts sprout in the mind, you can see them before they take over. Otherwise, they’re like someone who sneaks up behind you, slips a burlap bag over your head, throws you into the burlap bag, hauls you off, and then drops you someplace else. You don’t know how you got there. Then someone else comes with another burlap bag and drops you off someplace else.

If we live our lives like this, we’re totally out of control. Our thoughts take over, and who knows where they come from. Some of our thoughts come from past karma, some come from present karma. The present-karma ones are the ones you can change. As for the past-karma ones, learn how not to be overcome by them.

So focus on your present moment, what you’re doing right now. You’re making up your mind to stay right here, all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out-. When you learn how to maintain that intention, that’s when you gain some control over your mind, because everything in your life comes out of your intentions.

You’ve got past intentions, present intentions. There’s not much you can do about the past ones, but you can make sure the present ones are good, as long as you stay right here, alert. When you’re right at the breath, you’re at the thing closest to the mind without being inside the mind. If you’re totally inside your mind, it’s easy for thoughts to come and slosh you around, one thought versus another thought. But when you hold on to the breath, you’ve got something physical that you can take as your frame of reference. You know you’re staying right here because there’s no future breath you can watch, no past breath you can watch. You’ve got the breath right now.

So make up your mind to stay here. Have some conviction that this really will be important, getting some control over the mind, along with the conviction that you can do it. Then there’s persistence in sticking with it, and mindfulness, remembering to stay here. Not only that, but remembering what’s the right thing to do, what’s the wrong thing to do. When your mindfulness gets strong, it turns into concentration. Then concentration forms the basis for discernment.

Those five qualities—conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment—are the qualities that make the mind strong. Then you can be in control. So if something slips up behind you, you can turn around and catch it before it does anything. In that way, you can sort through your intentions, to see which ones really are worth going with, which ones are not. They become your servants. Before, you were their servant, running around, running around, doing whatever they pushed you to do. But now you can say No. You’re going to take charge. After all, when you meet with the future, those thoughts are not going to be there. There’ll be other thoughts, but you’ll still be there, reaping the results of your actions. You should have some compassion for your future self.

So. Hold on to the good thoughts, let go of the bad ones, and be alert to make sure that the bad ones don’t sneak up behind you. This way, you can really be in control, and you find a safe place inside. The world outside may not be safe, but it’s never been safe. Yet you can make your mind into a safe place that you can really depend on.