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Taming the
Body
To train the body is relatively easy because
physical actions are easy to see and to recognise. Our body is
the first thing that involves us in the world, because it has
a form, it has some sort of solidity. We do many things with
our bodies and we all have many weird habits. Someone may go
through different levels of emotional turmoil, but the first
sign of the neurosis will be, for instance, slamming doors, or
dropping plates in the kitchen. Such actions are very easy to
notice. We should try not to react so strongly and so quickly
at the first emotional impulse. Our mind is the boss, the body
follows it's instructions, therefore we should be mindful,
check our actions and try to overcome such habits.
Walking heavily and being noisy can
disturb others. Hurting them is not what we really want.
Learning to move slowly and gently can take some time, but it
is possible and we should try to achieve this out of respect
for others. Ordinary people will argue that this is
taking their freedom away from them because they should be
allowed to 'express their feelings' freely. This is what I
call a shallow world. Expressing every feeling of yours in a
wrong way doesn't do anybody any good. You should be aware
that the moment you express something, it affects others.
Remember causes and effects!
To tame ourselves is the only way we can
change and improve the world. This means we should
always remember never to hurt any being through our physical
form, never to do any wrong physical action. Taming the
activities of the body is very easy. Sometimes people think
it's difficult, but it's not. Human beings train animals
by teaching them, beating them, giving or denying them food or
even giving them electric shocks! Lions are not meant to jump
like they do in the circus. If we are able to tame
animals, then how come we can't train our own body? It is more
crucial to train ourselves than to train animals, because
human beings are the cause of the world's problems, not
animals
Taming the Speech
We need to tame the simple physical form,
but the most lethal weapon I've seen used by people is speech!
This is actually worse than machine guns. People use their
speech to twist everything around. It's used almost every day
by everybody to separate friends, to send wrong information,
to hurt other people. Trying to build up a good friendship can
take so many years and just a few words can ruin it in
seconds. Words can hurt so much. They can sometimes be very
harmful. Being human beings means we have enough
intelligence to know that giving unnecessary pain and
suffering to others is not the right way. Just as we don't
like to be abused, other people don't like to be abused
either.
I often look at the world and wonder why
things are getting so bad. According to Buddha's teachings, we
have lost respect for honest, true people. We ignore those who
are honest and truthful, whereas liars, cheats and people who
have a big mouth, are in high positions everywhere. So the
world is changed in the wrong way. We are therefore also
partly responsible for what is going on, because we don't have
the wisdom to appreciate and value people who are wise,
learned, honest and truthful. In traditional cultures, a
truthful person's speech has value. A truthful person doesn't
need to say very much, but people will respect his or her
words. They know they'd better listen to so and so
because he or she really speaks the truth. On the other hand,
untruthful persons can talk all day and night but people won't
value their words, because they know they're lying all the
time and their speech has lost its meaning and its
value.
In this modem world, we just turn
everything upside down through our lack of wisdom. We know
that the politicians make a lot of promises, and that they
will not be able to deliver, but still we vote for them
because we have a 'good feeling' for them, or because they
talk so well.
For me, training our speech means
learning to speak the truth, always being careful not to use
speech to cause chaos or to bring more suffering into the
world. If we can always remember this, then the gift of speech
is really meaningful.
Taming the Mind
Taming the
mind is more difficult than training the body or speech. Mind
has such a big potential! It's the mind that gives you
pleasure, happiness and joy, as well as pain, sorrow and
unhappiness, - everything! If you really look into where your
emotions start, where they come from, you will see they all
have to do with your state of mind. For instance, when you
feel mentally very stable, physically very well, if people
abuse you or give you a hard time, at that specific moment,
you will feel it's no problem, you can accept it, it doesn't
hurt you, it's no big deal. But if you are physically
and mentally not so well, then you become so negative that
people don't even need to say anything wrong, you will get
upset even if they say the right things to you. This shows
that what matters is not what we say or do, but our state of
mind.
To tame one's mind is the most difficult
thing, but also the most essential. We can never be truly
happy or peaceful without taming the mind. Therefore we should
not feel afraid or overwhelmed by the task, but simply resolve
to begin and stick with it. This is why we meditate.
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