Goodness Without Boundaries

We sit here with our eyes closed, focused on our breath. What good are we doing for the world?

Well, for one thing, we’re getting our minds trained. You look at all the troubles in the world and, aside from natural disasters, the troubles come from the fact that people don’t train their minds. They just go along with whatever greed, aversion, or delusion comes up in the mind, and they run with it. They don’t care about the consequences.

When you practice the Dhamma, you think about consequences: What are the long-term benefits, what are the long-term drawbacks of different courses of action? You realize that there are a lot of things you’d like to do that are going to give long-term harm, a lot of things you may not like to do but will give long-term benefits.

So you have to train the mind. You can’t wait for the rest of the world to train their minds first. You have to start with your own. You’re taking at least one instance of greed, aversion, and delusion out of the world.

At the same time, you’re setting a good example, and there are people who find that example inspiring. We’re sitting here, each focused on our own breaths, but the fact that we have a monastery here, the fact that we have a community where people can do this, requires the support of a lot of people because they’re inspired by the example.

So the goodness spreads out in the world. Think about Ajaan Mun meditating alone in the forest: It’s because of him that the practice was revived and has now spread to all parts of the world.

One person sitting under a tree, one person sitting out in the forest, can have a huge impact on the world.

So whether your impact is large or small, still, realize that getting the mind trained is having a good impact all around. At the very least, you’re looking after your responsibility. As Ajaan Suwat used to say, “With all the people in the world, there’s only one person,” i.e., you, that you have to be responsible for—in the sense of being in charge of your thoughts and your words and your deeds.

Yet all too many of us abandon our responsibilities and try to straighten out other people’s thoughts, words, and deeds. But if you want to do a good job at that, first you have to do a good job inside. This is often where the most difficult work is, because, as I said, there are a lot of things we’d like to do that will give long-term harm, a lot of things that we don’t like to do that will give long-term benefits.

A sign of your wisdom is your ability to talk yourself out of doing the things you like that will give harm, and to talk yourself into doing things you don’t like that will give benefits. You have to get so that you want to do the right thing, the things that will give long-term benefits. And you want to abandon the parts of the mind that are getting in the way.

So wisdom isn’t just knowing books, knowing concepts. It’s learning how to strategize with your own mind, changing the likes and the dislikes so that they actually do work for your benefit.

When the Buddha said he got on the path, it wasn’t from following his likes and dislikes. He stepped back from his thoughts and looked at them in terms of where they came from in the mind—what kind of mental states—and where they were going in terms of the actions they inspired. If he saw that they were going to give long-term harm, he would keep his thoughts in check: like a cowherd who’s trying to prevent his cows from getting into the rice fields when the rice hasn’t yet been harvested. You have to beat them back.

As for thoughts that were good, he allowed them to roam, the same way that a cowherd might allow his cows to roam after the rice has been harvested and there’s no danger of their damaging the rice fields. So notice: The practice is one of looking at your thoughts in terms of cause and effect, and learning how to side with the things that will be for your benefit, and to reject the things that will not be for your benefit. And it turns out the things that are for your genuine benefit are also for the benefit of others.

So this is a goodness that spreads around. It starts inside, but it spreads out. When you’re generous, when you’re virtuous, when you meditate, the happiness that comes doesn’t come only to you. It comes to the people around you as well. This is one of the ways in which the Buddha’s teachings are special. He teaches a happiness that doesn’t have any boundaries.