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| Thai Forest Tradition: OM |
Of course, needless to say, the world’s an absolute mess. But it's always been this way. When was it not like this? So yes, we do what we can do. And I would like to suggest that you have very clear goals in your life -- whether they’re career goals, worldly goals, or spiritual goals -- and having small, very modest, measurable goals throughout the year to give you that sense of confidence and uplift, not making goals too far ahead in the future. This is true both for worldly and spiritual goals.
Spiritual goals: How would that work out? My suggestion would be to take some mental defilement [of the heart], take some negative quality within you -- say, anger, jealousy, or something like that -- with the understanding that’s not who you are. It’s just a habit, just something we’ve accumulated and something that we can do something about.
Make this coming year a year when you put some consistent effort into reducing the amount of that negative quality like anger or jealousy.
And at the same time, choose a particular virtue -- whether it’s mindfulness, or kindness, generosity, patience, and so on -- and put some systematic, consistent effort into cultivating that.
This is the year of that virtue for you. And keep tabs on it. Notice if you are noticing some changes within you -- small, incremental changes, not big "wow" changes. These are realizable, practical, and will have wonderful effects on your general mental health and a sense of well-being.
And having projects for yourself and projects for others -- trying to do something good and kind for the people around you every day, something that at the end of the day you can feel proud of. And you can say, Yes, that was a good thing I did today!
We have to come to terms with the world we live in and not let our hearts/minds be carried away on a stream of anxiety and aversion and so on.
The opportunity to follow that stream is always there, but you don't have to follow it. We have a choice here. And the more that we follow the Buddha’s teachings, collectively referred to as the Dhamma, integrate them into our lives, the more capacity we have to create a better world for ourselves -- maybe not the world that you see on your screens, but your own world of you, and your family, and your friends, and community, and doing the best we can in an imperfect world.
The important thing is to come to terms with, “It's like this. Right now, it’s not any other way than this. But it’s changing.” And when we come to peace with the way things are -- right here, right now -- then we can move forward with wisdom and creativity. It’s not a passive acceptance of, “Oh, we can't do anything about this right now.”
It’s the recognition that when our minds/hearts are calm with an acceptance of how things are right now, then we can see, Yes, there is exactly something we can do something about, and here's how to do it.
So I wish you all the best, in your health, and your relationships, and your family, and your community. May you grow and prosper both in the worldly and the spiritual realms in this coming year!
- Editors, Wisdom Quarterly
