1 00:00:01,702 --> 00:00:04,906 Okay, so this is a question that's fairly practical. 2 00:00:05,106 --> 00:00:16,540 What did the Buddha and what do you or other teachers recommend in order to generate greater motivation to practice when one's dedication and enthusiasm is waning? 3 00:00:18,942 --> 00:00:24,489 I think the biggest thing that the Buddha recommended... No, I don't even know if it's the Buddha. 4 00:00:24,849 --> 00:00:31,337 The biggest thing that I can think of, and it's actually from the commentaries, is to associate yourself with... 5 00:00:32,060 --> 00:00:35,024 people who have the qualities that you lack. 6 00:00:35,044 --> 00:00:48,702 This is based very much on the Buddha's famous sutta where he tells Ananda that living with association with good people is the entirety of the holy life, the entirety of the spiritual life. 7 00:00:49,583 --> 00:00:52,006 Ananda says he figures it's about half. 8 00:00:52,026 --> 00:00:54,089 And the Buddha says, shame on you, don't say that. 9 00:00:54,249 --> 00:00:55,631 It's the entirety of it. 10 00:00:58,135 --> 00:00:58,455 So, 11 00:00:59,549 --> 00:01:21,169 association and that doesn't just mean talking with but even hanging around such people will lead you to cultivate the same sorts of states so what do I do with my students I mean you encourage them 12 00:01:21,959 --> 00:01:27,349 It often depends very much on what's getting in their way. 13 00:01:28,330 --> 00:01:29,192 It can be doubts. 14 00:01:29,392 --> 00:01:31,736 If doubts are getting in the way, then they need an explanation. 15 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:46,262 Sorry, if it's intellectual doubts, then they need an explanation or they need an answer, something that at least tells them, that shows them that their intellectual pursuits are useless and unbeneficial. 16 00:01:48,183 --> 00:02:08,156 If it's doubt about themselves or feelings of discouragement, doubt about their practice, like my practice is not going well or I'm useless, I'm not good at this, then they need some reassurance and they need an argument, a way of helping them to see things in another way. 17 00:02:08,196 --> 00:02:12,503 Discussion is very important. 18 00:02:13,951 --> 00:02:30,087 or often just a Dhamma talk giving them some kind of encouragement so if they feel discouraged in the sense like they aren't so interested in meditation then you have to give them a talk 19 00:02:31,147 --> 00:02:38,074 explaining about the things that they are interested in and showing that those things are perhaps not as meaningful as they thought they were. 20 00:02:38,114 --> 00:02:43,299 And it's talking about the importance of meditation. 21 00:02:43,359 --> 00:02:55,872 So Dhamma talks about the benefits of renouncing and giving up and the disadvantages of clinging. 22 00:02:57,168 --> 00:03:00,532 talks that are encouraging, discussion that is encouraging. 23 00:03:00,572 --> 00:03:07,841 The best thing of course is to meditate because meditation helps you want to meditate more. 24 00:03:08,502 --> 00:03:17,373 The more you meditate the more you become interested in it, the more benefit you see from it. 25 00:03:17,393 --> 00:03:17,874 Anybody else? 26 00:03:17,914 --> 00:03:20,377 What do you think motivates people? 27 00:03:20,577 --> 00:03:23,040 What do we do to motivate ourselves and motivate others? 28 00:03:29,669 --> 00:03:31,332 What do you do when you don't want to practice? 29 00:03:39,104 --> 00:03:49,680 I think when it comes to sloth and torpor rising in the mind, a couple of simple things that you can do to overcome those to give yourself a little bit more motivation. 30 00:03:49,740 --> 00:03:55,930 Go out into the cold air, some water on your face, 31 00:03:57,496 --> 00:04:27,182 changing positions during meditation or if you're not like sitting formally you can uh just put your awareness on the tiredness on the lazy feeling on the feeling of not wanting to meditate things like that yeah i don't know so much about you know if you're just tired because people can really want to meditate even though they're tired 32 00:04:27,820 --> 00:04:29,723 But it can be very discouraging. 33 00:04:30,524 --> 00:04:36,031 And I think it's more the discouragement that's being asked. 34 00:04:36,833 --> 00:04:38,194 How do you deal with being discouraged? 35 00:04:38,455 --> 00:04:40,998 The best thing is to have a teacher and to have a community. 36 00:04:41,319 --> 00:04:42,961 Because when you do, all of these things will come. 37 00:04:43,021 --> 00:04:46,446 You'll have talks, you'll have discussions. 38 00:04:48,829 --> 00:04:52,154 But one interesting thing about what you're talking about is tricks, right? 39 00:04:52,294 --> 00:04:54,477 Sometimes you have tricks to make yourself more motivated. 40 00:04:55,038 --> 00:04:57,321 Vaik actually here is commenting about... 41 00:04:57,368 --> 00:05:19,461 doing metta meditation which is yeah another good trick do something to give you encouragement think about the buddha we talked about this yesterday right something that's very encouraging is to think about the buddha the buddha said whenever you feel afraid you're off in the forest and suddenly you feel afraid say to yourself think about the buddha and the fear will go away immediately and it does 42 00:05:19,981 --> 00:05:29,863 quite impressive how thinking about the Buddha can make you fearless because you start realizing how fearless, remembering how fearless you are. 43 00:05:37,661 --> 00:05:42,351 Okay, if anybody wants to pick through the comments. 44 00:05:43,053 --> 00:05:44,115 Oh wait, stop this one.