Welcome to the faithful laity. Today we learn Dhamma that is called, ‘Talent vs Persistence’. As we are aware, people are born with many things that are not equal. Some people are born into wealthy families. Some into middle class families, or some of poor status. Some people are born and they have everything ready for them. They have both parents and have relatives, they have them all. But some people, shortly after birth they are abandoned by their father, or abandoned by their mother. Or their parents may not be the way they would like. For most people who are born, for them to have everything is difficult. But there are in some families, those born and have everything perfect.

Whichever way we look at it, we should see that we cannot choose this matter of merit and goodness. If we were able to choose, everyone would want to be born as the son of a rich and wealthy person, who has everything complete in their family, and imbued with having mindfulness and wisdom too. But is this something we can wish for? These things go according to kamma. In Buddhism, this is said to be a matter of kamma. Kamma is the one that brings us to be born, about where and how we are going to be born. To be born among human beings, its kamma that brings us. To be born among animals, its kamma that brings one. Or being born in a good life and existence, it’s all about kamma. So in this aspect we must accept that what we are born into in this life is the result of our kamma that we have created already.

But whatever the case, we already have been born. Some people are born and have it good since childhood, but some people speak slowly and have to practise speaking a lot. Some people need to use a lot of effort. A child may be born who is very hyperactive, with a short attention span, and they are never still. Whatever they do is quick, and their parents have to constantly take care of them, be devoted, wholehearted, and constantly train and teach this type of child. They have to try to make them sit still, guide them to chant, guide them to do meditation, and take them to the monastery. They try to train them from a young age, gradually shaping them little by little. A child like this has quick thoughts and quick knowledge, but they do nothing like other children. If we don’t pay attention to them, if we don’t train them from a young age, they will lose a lot of opportunities. But when parents are caring for these children, they see that children like this have a very high IQ. They are very talented, and they will gain success. But if they have no training, no guidance, they are not put on the right path, then they would completely lose their chance.

So talent could be called an old merit, which has been done in the past. The merit that has been done in past lives, this is merit, this is talent. But persistent effort must be made in this lifetime, and this must be imbued with Dhamma.

What is this Dhamma I am talking about? We must have inner power, right? So we have to build this power. Build faith and confidence. When we believe in something, we build our confidence in that thing, and we need to put in effort following that belief, which must also be in line with morality and virtue as well. We also must have the utmost perseverance. Even if there is just faith, it is already great. It’s called a spiritual power or faculty. One has that faculty as chief. One is not being lazy. If we are business owners, we will not be lazy. We will try to do the work, try to focus on the job and responsibilities as best as we can. We are not careless. But if we are careless, and we lack morality and virtue, then it may not work out. Even if we have perseverance, it is still wrong. It’s incorrect persistence. But if we have good determination and we have strong interest in what we are doing, then there is virtue, determination, striving, and being mindful with the performance of the work. Our concentration is firm and our wisdom knows what we are doing thoroughly. Then these qualities will be the power of our mind which pushes us towards success. This is persistence. There is the effort to have chanda, satisfaction with what one is doing.

So let’s try to think about this. These four bases of success are the Dhamma that the Lord Buddha has taught. These are the virtues that will lead to success. Let’s see if the people in the world who have gained success have these virtues? Do they have satisfaction with what they are doing? When they have a need to do something, they whole-heartedly strive for it. They aspire to do even better work. They have perseverance, they are firm and strong. What does perseverance come with? Can one have perseverance without patience? You must have patience, must be strong-willed as well, so not just ordinary patience. Not giving up on that work, being stubborn to accomplish that work. They are able to die in order to be successful. The mind is focused on the work and does not let it go. They see what is wrong and what is right. They don’t let their mind wander. They try to reflect and investigate in order to adjust and improve. In the end, they will be successful in that job and responsibility. This is talent, and there must be persistence as well. Acquiring various skills and having the art in doing work. They are also special in society too. But in all of this, there must be morality and virtue. They must have knowledge together with virtue as well. If there is no virtue and there is no knowledge, then what will this be like? Then they may do some right, but do some wrong too. They may do something immoral, and it can damage their work, as well as damage their life a lot. A person who is grown up and mature, must have goodness and morality, which supports that person’s mind.

So then what about effort and persistence? Perseverance and persistence, having viriya–effort, it must go hand in hand with patience and forbearance always. It’s a feeling of not being discouraged by problems. Because every person must have problems, everything must have obstacles. But in order for us to overcome all the obstacles, we need to have faith to hold our spirits well. 

Remind ourselves that patience is a quality for those who have a calm mind and beautiful heart. They aren’t someone who is rash, pestering, giving frustrations, and they don’t give opportunity for mistakes to come in. Because the lack of patience will give an opportunity for mistakes to be made easily. So if we are already training to have perseverance, then you have to start with the idea that you have to train yourself often. To keep on doing, keep on thinking, keep writing, keep presenting ideas. Don’t be lazy. And don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Be brave in taking responsibility for your own failures. Do not be discouraged by hard work and heavy work. Think that if you do a lot, then you will know more and become more skilled. Don’t complain that you don’t have time, because time is equal. Everyone has the same amount of time. So we need to find time, find the opportunity to do it.

We must try to train and practise. Dhamma practice and meditation is just the same. So the students who are studying, do not blame it on not having enough time. You want to play, you want to indulge in entertainment, and so you lose your studies and education. You must be diligent in the first place. If we do our work, we should be determined to it. We analyze and explore our work so it is done well. It’s called investigating, considering, revising in what you think and do, and this is done with a heart that likes to do this, with a heart of faith and determination. So the successful performers at the national level, continental level, or global level, they all have perseverance, dedication, practicing, training, so that the results of their performance is the best.

Whether it’s an athlete, an actor, a scientist, an astronomer, in all the sciences, or a doctor, a nurse, and other disciplines, it all takes training and practice. It’s not that it just happened and turned out that way, that they were born and they had everything ready. That is for one who is a Bodhisattva who has built a lot of parami, spiritual perfections, already. It is already full. They don’t need to train much in this lifetime, because they have practised this knowledge for countless lifetimes already. It’s millions and millions of years, saying this millions of times, of how much they have practised it already. But those who have not trained in it, they may come with some innate talents, but if they have no persistence and just let it go, then they will lose their opportunity. They indulge and get lost in various things, and then ultimately success will not happen.

Therefore, this perseverance must have tenacity and resoluteness, without comparing to others. But we must try to succeed. We keep practising to become proficient, and one thing we should find is someone who can guide us. People may have the same talent, but they may be lacking in the people they associate with, the people who help us. The teachers and colleagues, or organisations who gather together to train in it. They have knowledge and ability, and this will speed up our knowledge and ability to come up. They can make us be aware of our strong points and bring out talents that we may have. It can help us to be successful. And this talent is not something that comes up automatically. It’s not that a switch is turned on, and excellence is born in this world. But it’s necessary to keep training and practising hard, constantly, and intensely too. This is not on a normal level. Even though one has talent inside, but because of a lack of training and practising in the present, in this life, not seeking to increase and not developing, then the talent stops there. So it is the combination of talent and persistence. This is important in what makes human beings be successful.

So we can see that to be a doctor or a skilled scientist, if one lacks education and lacks training in this life, then one won’t be able to study successfully. Every subject requires patience, forbearance, and overcoming difficulties. Sometimes it can be seen that those who will achieve this kind of success, they cry over and over again. Their training and practice was brutal. They could cry for years, because of how brutal it was.

It was serious training from their teacher, or the agency or organization, that we go to practise and train in. It’s not easy at all. If they are serious about training us, then we may be able to achieve success without difficulty. But at any rate, firstly, we should recite the mantra, “Patience, patience, patience, endure, endure.” This is the Dhamma of lay people, right? Starting with khanti, patience and endurance, forcing and disciplining the mind. Getting rid of any bad moods or feelings, giving it up out of our hearts. We make our hearts empty, we make our hearts have metta, kindness and compassion. We share with each other, through kindness and compassion. This will lead to success in our lives.

So let’s be determined. We don’t know how much talent everyone has. But when we have come close to a great teacher, we have come close to the Dhamma of the Lord Buddha, we come close to teachers who teach different subjects, then if we have effort, persistence, and determination, we will be very successful in our various subjects and occupations. But if we don’t do it, we aren’t persistent, we are born here and we don’t train and practise, then we can’t be good athletes. We can’t sing well. We can’t be good actors. We can’t be good doctors. We can’t be good in any profession. So it is up to us to seek it out. We must have a blessing in our heart, which is to have Dhamma. There is determination and dedication in what we are doing. We must like and be satisfied with it, we strive for it. We are always using reflection, investigation and reasoning. And the mind is composed of kindness and compassion. It has morality and virtue. May you all gain success in your studies, in your work, and in the practice of Dhamma. May you grow in blessings.

Welcome to all of you with interest in the Dhamma. This Friday, we learn about Dhamma practice as normal. As we may know of already, the root that makes our mind be lowered and distressed are the qualities of greed, hatred, delusion, lobha, dosa, moha. Just this. The mind that is bright is the mind that has no greed, no hatred, no delusion–Alobha, adosa, amoha.

So our training of the mind which we do everyday is for the getting rid of selfishness and ego, and we may have been doing this since childhood. Children mostly don’t know about greed, hatred and delusion. But they may have been training their mind since young, like when their parents have been teaching them to build goodness since young. They may take their child to build goodness by giving alms food to the monks, and the child feels at ease offering this alms-food. And when the child has done acts of self-sacrifice, helping out others in small ways, they have inner happiness. So here we can see this is something natural. But it is also natural sometimes to have anger and holding onto that anger, but it arises, persists and then ceases. We can see that the mind of a child is a mind that is clear, a mind that is pure. Sometimes they have a bit of anger, they have greed or delusion, but it arises briefly, then it disappears. Their eyes are clear, there is a feeling of them being pure. But when they grow up, they receive external sense-impressions and there is a sense of self and ego coming up. The sense of me being different to them arises more and more. Being in society there is comparing with others. There arises the sense of self and suffering arises. The greed, anger, and delusion constantly increase, increase and increase. 

This makes one feel that the mind is all over the place and muddled. The more that anger comes up, it holds and seizes one’s mind and they can’t put it down, they can’t drop it. So the Buddha said there is no grip like dosa, hatred. It’s something that holds firmly. This hatred grips our heart firm. So, it’s not just only with a particular individual, but it’s with every mind that arises. We have had anger before, we have been bound up with anger, and tied up with wanting revenge. Everyone has had this before, and this applies to any circumstances. Whether best friends, or a husband and wife who love each other, they must have moods which lead to conflicts and disputes. They have anger and bad moods like this constantly.

So what did the Buddha tell us to do? We have to have anger, but we try to bring up mindfulness. One Arahant monk has taught what is the thing we should bring with us? We should bring with us the quality of mindfulness and the quality of wisdom. You have it right with you. Wherever you go, you must have mindfulness with you as well. If you don’t have mindfulness, you don’t take it with you but instead carry something else, then that’s dangerous. Can you see that if you leave the house, and you forget something apart from your phone then it’s not a big deal, but if you forget the phone, then that’s not good. Because in the present day world, everything is on the phone, so you need to have your phone with you.

But the owner of the phone should also be careful, because it can be a dangerous weapon. Like there was a husband and wife arguing in the car. The wife got really angry and took her phone and threw it at the husband, without any intention to harm at all. But it hit the husband’s head and damaged his skull and in just a short time, the husband lost his life.

So where did this come from? It was because dosa, anger arose and it wasn’t kept in check. They weren’t careful. They didn’t restrain it, and so it arose like this. So this anger and ill-will has been around even since the Buddha’s time, and I have one story to share with you. In one past era, the Buddha was born in that life as the king of the Chaddanta elephants in the vast Himapan forest. In that existence, he had a number of elephant queens, and here he took a lotus to give to his queens. One of the queen elephants got that lotus and it had ants on it. The ants died in the queen elephant’s trunk and she had great pain, and so she was very upset at why the lotuses that the other elephants got were good and why hers had ants. So she held onto the grudge against the king elephant. She was very angry and wanted revenge, so she got some good honey and offered it to a Paccekabuddha, and made the determination that may she be born as a princess of a great king of a city, so that she could come back and get revenge for her grudge against the king Chaddanta elephant.

In the end, the result of that offering made her really be born as the princess of a great king. She was the daughter of the king and she asked her royal father to hire a skilled hunter to catch and get the tusks of the king Chaddanta elephant. So how to get these tusks? He would have to take the life of the king Chaddanta elephant. The hunter went into the Himmapan forest and was able to kill the king Chaddanta elephant and bring out the tusks. So then in this present life, she was reborn as a bhikkhuni and she could recollect her past life, that she had been a queen elephant and got in great pain because of the king Chaddanta elephant giving her a lotus with a lot of ants, so she sought revenge. As she was upset like that, she did not attain to becoming an Arahant. Then the Buddha saw that this bhikkhuni’s parami, spiritual qualities, were full and taught her about the past life Jataka about the king Chaddanta elephant, that yes, in that past life, she did receive that great pain from the Buddha but he had no intention to do that. But that she had held onto that grudge and revenge, and was born in the next life as a princess of a king, and had got a hunter to cut his tusks by killing him. His life was taken. She heard this and recollected that particular past life and saw that it was true, and she was dispassionate and sick of her dosa, her anger and vengeance of hers. So she relinquished it and gave it up. Contemplating into it, she attained Arahantship.

So we can see that in some lives, even with that much parami, one can still make mistakes. But however it is, this bhikkhuni has attained to being an Arahant. But we who are still here, have to be careful. This is an example for us that if we have anger arise, have greed arise, have delusion arise, then we have to keep it in check, restraint it, and have mindfulness. You have to take it with you.

The arahant monk said that the most important thing you have to take with you is mindfulness. Not your phone. You can forget that. But you can’t forget mindfulness. And everyone does have this mindfulness. The monks who come to ordain, it’s not that when they ordain, then their anger disappears, their greed and delusion disappears. It’s not like that.  They ordain and it’s a convention. The day before they were the child of a householder, or they were just a householder, and then they ordain today and take up the convention of being a monk. But they are not yet a real monk. It’s not that one ordains, then instantly the greed is gone, the anger is gone, the delusion is gone. It’s not like that. They are still the same as a householder as they were before, it’s not any different. But they are different in that they have the uniform that they receive from the merit and parami of the Buddha, and they will then build goodness. They try to let go of greed, try to let go of anger, try to let go of delusion. And if one can’t do this, then train to have khanti, patience, forbearance. This is having mindfulness to the level of forbearance, to the level of suppressing the mind when you have moods and emotions come up. And when you have this already, then try to develop your mind to have metta, loving-kindness.

And in this world these days, just for a small thing, people can kill, fight, and harm each other. There’s a lot of this in present-day society. So the important thing is that if one of the persons has a cool mind, then even if the other person has a hot mind, it wont get serious. But if both are hot-headed, then it’s hard, it’s difficult.

Even with monks living together, they may have problems like this as well. I’ll share with you a story of when monks go tudong, wandering, together. They head out in groups of three or five monks. But when they come back to the monastery, how many monks come back? When they go walk tudong, they meet problems, they meet obstacles. One wants to stay and practise in a certain place, “I want to stay here”, but another wants to go on. One monk walks fast, the other monk walks slow, but they are travelling together. They go together for awhile, and then their patience and forbearance decreases and decreases. And the monks start separating. From what? Because of their own reasons. Each person has their own reasons. They have a sense of self, I, me and them. Then problems arise. Five monks went, but when they come back to the monastery, there are two or three monks left. “Ay, where is the other monk? Why isn’t the other monk coming back?” Then the others know there had to have been differing views and opinions. They didn’t get along. There were selfish views arising. So it’s like this. It’s normal. All the lay people and all the monks are like this. So we must try to train. Try to practise every day by bringing mindfulness with you. Like the arahant monk said, that the thing you need to bring with you is mindfulness. Mindfulness, mindfulness, mindfulness. You have to bring it with you. And the thing that you need to carry with you is wisdom. Contemplate things. Or at the least be patient first. Bear it first. Forbear and be patient first.

So here we understand it as being the case for everyone. Like for dosa, anger, we all have this. So we must try to train and practise Dhamma, because if we can practise, then samadhi–concentration arises, rapture and inner joy arises. Then we are able to deal with the emotion or feelings coming up. But if we can’t do anything about it, then bear with it, be patient. Suppress and contain our minds. Keep trying at it, and later our mind will be cooler, bit by bit. We will know how to restrain and keep the mind in check, because we know that if we follow our moods and emotions, then danger can arise. Like we have seen in the jataka stories, of those who didn’t endure it, they may then have done something wrong and made a mistake. They could take the life of another. But when they became aware of what they had done, it was too late. They have harmed already, and they had done the wrong thing. So we have to be careful and be intent to set our minds on training and practising well. Do this continually. So you should train in this since being young children, students. If you don’t train in it, then later when you grow up, it will be a part of your character. So children should train to have a cool mind. Be cool headed. Have a mind that is considerate and generous. Have a mind that has metta. Then our mind gets better. So may all the Dhamma practitioners try to train your mind like this. May you grow in Dhamma.