Selective Watering and Changing the Peg

                Coexisting as a human population is necessary to maintain a dynamic, forward-thinking ecosystem that we all can thrive in. However, most of us throughout the day find things that people surrounding us can do things that are unintentionally rude, mean, arrogant, or just downright annoying. The fact of the matter is that everyone has these habits that tend to get on other people’s nerves. Sometimes, these bad habits can physically and psychologically destructive. In the book The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching written by Thich Nhat Hahn, concepts on how to remove these bad habits from our lives and to quash them forever are discussed at a great length, as it is important to remove these bad habits so that we don’t hurt ourselves or others.

                According to Thich Nhat Hahn, “In each of us, there are wholesome and unwholesome roots—seeds—in the depths of our consciousness.” (p51) Knowing that we all have wholesome and unwholesome aspects of ourselves is the first step in attempting to change a bad habit. Secondly, you must water the seeds of wholesomeness and ignore the seeds that are unwholesome. The “seeds” refer to any kind of behavior. Wholesome seeds include happiness, enjoyment, and all-around contentment with the life you are leading. Unwholesome seeds include anger, sadness, and suffering. The term “selective watering” in Buddhism refers to “recognize which are wholesome seeds and encourage those to be watered.” (p52) The term “changing the peg” also refers to wholesome and unwholesome ideas, thoughts, and behaviors: “If you have a mental formation arising that you consider to be unwholesome, one way to practice is to invite another mental formation to replace it.” (p207) These are two ways to change unwholesome thoughts, ideas, feelings, and practices.

                One way I go about changing a feeling is by getting to the root of the problem, take responsibility for how I’m feeling, and try to uplift myself by getting into a better mindset. If I am angry or frustrated, I often will try to recognize how I’m feeling, establish why I’m feeling a certain way, and then I make myself feel better by not thinking negatively. Thinking positively about a situation always helps. I often only think of the positive qualities of the negative things I’m dealing with or feeling. Allowing positive ideas to replace my negative ones has proved effective for me. This is an example of "changing the peg." Selective watering is used here because I ignore the negativity and embrace my wholesome roots. 

                Changing a thought is more difficult. Often, I find myself thinking negative thoughts about myself or lowering my standards to meet with my expectations of people or things. Changing how I think to be more positive is a hard thing to do, but once I finally do it I feel much better about myself. The trick to this is repeating what you want yourself to believe over and over again… eventually it becomes true, or at least you think it is. This is beneficial because it allows you to set higher goals and meet a higher standard than what you had before when you were thinking negatively. Thinking positively has helped me achieve great heights in the past and has helped me get to where I am today. This is an example of "changing the peg" and "selective watering." 

                One terrible habit I have is smoking. Smoking is a coping mechanism I use to get myself through a day and it has taken a serious physical toll on me. When I first quit smoking, I tried smoking cessation products and all my efforts were to no avail. I was not in the mindset to quit. Later on, I was in the mindset to quit and I “changed the peg.” Eventually, I thought I didn’t need cigarettes anymore and I was right. Though I began smoking again almost a year later, I feel as though I could quit again if I tried using the techniques of changing the peg and watering wholesome seeds. By possibly replacing cigarettes with gum, this is "changing the peg." Selective watering is difficult for smoking cessation as most people who have trouble quitting need to rid themselves of their physical addiction as well as their psychological one but it is entirely possible if you have the willpower to quit by their own volition.