The Practice of perfect attention is a means of learning to know oneself, to know the world in which one lives, and consequently to acquire right understanding.
He who does not practise attention is the plaything of the multiple influences with which he comes into contact, he is like a drifting cork which is at the mercy of the waves.
Tempters are quite powerless against those who refuse to respond. Any weakness lies in a man’s own mind, and if he has given in to others’ promptings, the real source of his troubles, his failures and miseries, is his own weakness; he is responsible for his every action.
The Buddha proclaimed that every low desire, every longing for ignoble things, every unworthy feeling that we conquer and trample down, and every difficulty we meet heroically and victoriously with righteousness according to the rules of morality, becomes another rung on the ladder by which we can climb towards a nobler, higher life.
Right through the teachings of the Buddha, stress is laid on such attributes as self-reliance, resolution, energy, work, effort. Buddhism makes a man or woman stand on his or her own feet and be master or mistress of fate.
We should pay attention and be careful about what we do, careful to do only good things. If we are careful in this way we shall not have to worry about the result, it will be good. If you sow a mango seed, a ,mango tree will come up, not a chilli plant, which in turn will produce only chillies; therefore if we are careful to live this life rightly, we need not worry about our future, it will come rightly, everything will be right.
For the Bodhisatta, adhitthana, determination, means resolute determination, for this will-power forces all obstructions out of his path, and no matter what may come to him in the form of grief or disaster he never turns his eyes from his goal. He could easily be persuaded to do good, but no so could he be tempted to do anything contrary to his noble principles. He will be as soft as a flower or as a rock, as occasion demands.
The Buddha shows the way to attain self-enlightenment, He again and again reminded his followers that they will have to rely on themselves, rely on their own efforts, and that there is no one anywhere either in heaven or on earth to help them or save them from the results of their own misdeeds. The true Buddhist, therefore, feels compelled to rely on himself and on his own efforts, and this tendency to trust his own power strengthens his own confidence and sense of responsibility.
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