Library at Wat Library and meditators residence at Wat Chomtong Meditation Centre, Northern Thailand
When we are unhappy in life it is tempting and easy to look for external causes for our lack of satisfaction. However, if you are reading this, the chances are that you have already decided to take responsibility for your own spiritual wellness rather than relying exclusively on circumstance.
With that goal in mind, the question arises, how can we take responsibility for our own happiness? Just as we can take responsibility for our financial well-being by making wise material investments, so too can we make wise spiritual investments to take responsibility for our own emotional well-being. The Buddha explained to us that to make that investment, we need rouse the confidence to put our worldly pleasures aside for a time:
… Even I myself, before my Awakening, when I was still an unawakened Bodhisatta, thought: ‘Renunciation is good. Seclusion is good.’ But my heart didn’t leap up at renunciation, didn’t grow confident, steadfast, or firm, seeing it as peace. The thought occurred to me: ‘What is the cause, what is the reason, why my heart doesn’t leap up at renunciation, doesn’t grow confident, steadfast, or firm, seeing it as peace?’ Then the thought occurred to me: ‘I haven’t seen the drawback of sensual pleasures; I haven’t pursued [that theme]. I haven’t understood the reward of renunciation; I haven’t familiarized myself with it. That’s why my heart doesn’t leap up at renunciation, doesn’t grow confident, steadfast, or firm, seeing it as peace.’
Then the thought occurred to me: ‘If, having seen the drawback of sensual pleasures, I were to pursue that theme; and if, having understood the reward of renunciation, I were to familiarize myself with it, there’s the possibility that my heart would leap up at renunciation, grow confident, steadfast, & firm, seeing it as peace.’
So at a later time, having seen the drawback of sensual pleasures, I pursued that theme; having understood the reward of renunciation, I familiarized myself with it. My heart leaped up at renunciation, grew confident, steadfast, & firm, seeing it as peace…
When we learn to practice insight meditation in a retreat setting, we are temporarily removing all of our usual distractions so that we can begin to develop an inner comfort that is more enduring. This is a very valuable investment to make because it will serve as protection for us as we go about our lives in an uncertain world where anything can happen, positive or negative, at any moment.