The Dhamma road.

The Dhamma road is a bumpy road sometimes, and so we need two specific qualities to support us through the difficult times.
The first quality is that of patience. I know it’s the one that you don’t want to hear about, but that’s the one we have to cultivate.
To be patient is to let go of our ideas to get something very quickly, and to let go of the thought, ‘if I don’t get what I want here very quickly, I’ll go to some other kind of teaching!’ Patience is the quality of being with the mind and consequently, of being with life, as it manifests in each moment and not making demands that it should be different. Once we accept the moment as it is, we can respond.
The second quality we need to develop is that of determination. Because this road can be bumpy and because, as this is the road of truth, we may hear things that we don’t want to hear, we need to remind ourselves often as to why we are doing this.
We are not doing this just to feel good, although that certainly happens through sincere practice, our real motivation is to be free, so that we are no longer prisoner to the thoughts, moods, feelings and emotions that this mind presents as reality. Seeing through the delusion of mind as being who and what we are is liberation.
We must keep in mind the ultimate goal of our practice and not give up our effort when things become difficult.
To be free, to awaken, to be liberated are ways to speak about the goal of practice, but to reach this goal we must commit to our Dhamma life without the selfish desire to get something and we must be patient and determined to walk this path until its end.
Patience and determination are two of the ten perfections, and become gifts to our life and our practice.

  May all beings be happy.