Feeling, thoughts, and habits are arguably the focus
of all the Buddhist concepts and applications. The stressed concepts of
'selective watering' and 'changing the peg' are not simple ideas but need to be
understood in an individual. In my personal life I have experienced the
opposite side of the Buddha's concept and what is attempted to prevent. As
spoken about in class and described in The
Buddha and His Teachings becoming too attached to an item, idea, person, or
habit is what wrongs us in the end leading to unhappiness. I became to
understand that life is a long meditation in the Buddhist lifestyle. The
stressed idea during meditation is to tentatively observe the environment but
at the same time treat it like a river and let it flow by without becoming
emotionally attached. I feel the main application of the Buddhist concepts
involving changing of a wrong habit is the ability to observe a thought or
feeling and realize if it is negative, and then use this analysis to bring out
the better personality in yourself.
The teachings of Buddhism in this class have been
incredibly fascinating. Leading up to the most stressful part of the semester,
finals week, it seemed to be a class destined for this semester. Our class
lectures paired with The Buddha and His Teachings
have brought a calmer aspect of lifestyle into perspective. For example,
the Buddhist concepts of 'selective water' are based on any individual's
personality. The Buddhist culture feels that the seeds of our personality that
prosper should be continuously fed. It is said that we should water the most
beautiful parts of out personality. But what does this truly mean? Watering the
seeds of our personality? As I have induced, the seeds of our personality that
need the most water are those that lead you to happiness and good fortune.
Happiness is not defined in Buddhism as the amount of money you make but your
lifestyle and development of Kamma and the ability to be happy. Spoken about by
the Buddha to Rahula he states, “Whatever action you desire to do with the
body, of that particular bodily action you should reflect: ‘Now, this action
that I desire to perform with the body – would this, my bodily action be
conducive to my own harm, or to the harm of others, or to that of both myself
and others?'(Hanh Ch8),. Your actions are based on your thoughts, which are all
based on how you live your life. Watering the seeds of your personality that
benefit you and loved ones is based on how you analysis your actions. It is
necessary to reflect, as the Buddha explains to Rahula, on one's personality
and emphasis the positive aspects of one's life. In addition, the changing of
one's personality is not exactly a change, but more of an emphasis of the
positive aspects versus the negative ones. Similar to the selective watering,
the idea of 'changing the peg' is a concept that involves using parts of your
personality that fit better and return you to a state of happiness. As I
understood the different parts of your personality are each individual 'peg'.
You as the individual must identify what works the best for you and in a
situation of jealousy or rage, replace that peg with one that brings happiness.
I feel this is best depicted by a conversation held in class about realizing
the positive things in your life even when in a miserable state of mind. When subject
to distress that leads to a state of anger or sadness, one should 'replace'
that peg with a happier idea in your life.
Applying the Buddhist views into my life to alter
bad habits or thoughts involves an understanding of the subject to the basis of
evaluation. It is stated, “Happy is seclusion to him who is contented, to him
who has heard the truth, and to him who sees." (Hanh 39), and this to me
is the idea of understanding what happiness comes from in your life. The selective
watering can only be applied if I fully understand what is the sources of
happiness in my life and watering it when the bad thoughts appear. An
application of the Buddha's teaching can be applied into my life for negative
feelings and changing them. A main source of negativity in my life is not accomplishing
my goals in school. Receiving a bad grade gives me a feeling of distraught and
self anger. As the semester winds down, I need to embrace the 'replacing a peg'
concept used by Buddhist vision. If I do not receive a grade that is what I
wanted it is necessary to realize that my life is not over and replace that
feeling with something of happiness. Applying the 'peg' about the love for my
healthy beautiful family can brighten any grade. Two other feelings that I will
fight to avoid in my life are anger and jealousy. Both of these can be applied
with the same concept of changing the peg of that mental state. Jealousy is not
a key to happiness and is something I may become entangled in when it comes to other
people's personal lives. Anger is a feeling that I find very hard to avoid in
specific situations. Being an athlete I find myself feeling this emotion to a
high degree on the field. I think if I can resort to replacing this feeling
with something more determined, like an 'I want to do better' ambitious
feeling, I will find myself much happier.
In my life, there are three thoughts that come across my mind and are 'wrong' in Buddhist view. This involves the subject of gossip, selfishness, and negativity. I feel the changing of thoughts that come through my head, should be treated like meditation. Meditation embraces that an idea is there and then it is allowed to pass. Building off this, my thoughts that involve gossip, selfishness, or negativity cannot be avoided but should be identifies as a thought that 'should not be watered'. Thus not provided extenuating actions. The final stage of these changes in my life involve the application to wrong habits. One main wrong habit that I feel needs to be changed is that I will get into a car with a driver who has had a few drinks. This is something that I feel does not bring happiness to my life, but simply promotes a bad habit every time. In my future encounters, I plan to analyze the situation in terms of happiness. Understanding what could happen is not a seed that needs to be water. This bad habit is something I have never analyzed but simply overlooked. I know I have pointed it out and must reflect on when it comes up again even protecting others that may get into the car. In reality, this wrong habit could lead to my life and the grief of my family ultimately not providing any happiness. It is thought of in the Buddha's teachings that understanding where your happiness comes from is what is key in watering the seeds of this happiness. Other habits that I feel can be treated in the same way, by identifying them with a reflective outlook, are my small verbal fights with my little sisters and with my parents. It seems every time I go home I end up in some sort of bicker with my sisters and parents. This is a bad habit that even I do not understand, it not with my oldest sister but my sister Grace who is ten years old. We just know how to push each other's buttons and will do it for hours going back and forth. Although we fight all the time about the most useless of things we still love each other but why do I do this, I am twenty years old. If I could minimize these bad habits, it would make my stay at home with my family much more pleasing. My problem with bickering with my little sister branches from understanding who I am arguing with and how these are my loved ones that mean everything to me. As I have become more interested in this semester and the Buddhist culture I feel I need to analyze the situations where we begin to argue and just let them pass. I need to figure out a way to water my seed of niceness when being around my little sister Grace, rather than bringing out mean characteristics in myself that do not promote happiness. My personality has its own developed bad habits involving feelings, thoughts, and actions, but it is my watering of the positive seeds in my personality that will bring about happiness and changing of the these bad
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