Due to the natural differences among people, we are all efficient to varying degrees in the tasks that we must undertake on a day-to-day basis. However, despite these differences, one thing is certain. A person who knows what she wants is always more efficient than one who is aimless.
Whenever we adopt a task we should ask ourselves before undertaking it, how does this task help me to reach my aim? If we cannot find an answer to that question, it is either because we don’t have a clearly defined aim or the task we are considering is not worth our time.
What kinds of aims and goals are there for us to consider? Through the Buddha’s teaching, we can see that, essentially, there are two kinds of goals. There are goals which lead to an end of craving and there are goals which perpetuate craving.
Clearly, the latter goals are not very useful because following that track, by definition, we end up in a never ending story. By contrast, if we pursue goals that lead to a cessation of craving, i.e., the aim of bring the mind into the present moment by mental noting, the story ends with happiness and satisfaction, i.e., we do not need to set any further goals.
With this reality in mind, the value of meditation practice would seem to be strikingly apparent. Typically, the realization that, first, we need to choose to be happy is the catalyst to move us from a state where negative conditions seem to predominate to one where we are happy more often.