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Beginning Well

Good evening. I wanted to talk tonight about beginning well. Wherever you are in the world, it's clear that this pandemic that we're all living with is entering a new phase. There's an increased availability of vaccines and all the complications that come with different variants, but nonetheless, it's clear enough that things are starting to shift a bit and sometime later this year will be different.

As we move toward whatever post-pandemic life looks like, it is helpful to consider how to pick up new activities well. In this case, we actually have the luxury of time, of considering what it is and how it is that we might want to pick things up as we go forward. In some sense, we don't ever really have this time; it's just an illusion, because every moment experience is arriving and arising, and we're meeting it. There is always beginning. Every moment there's a continual process of beginning. But nonetheless, there are some times when we can imagine that we have a beginning that we can think about or move toward in some intentional way. So it is worthwhile, when we have this time, to begin things well.

When we begin well, experience unfolds more naturally. We are also in a better position to learn from experience as it comes and to make the necessary adjustments to stay on course. A lot of that depends on beginning well.

What does this mean? What do the Buddhist teachings say about beginnings? We hear a lot about endings—about cessation, letting go, and being free. This implies something dropping away. The end of suffering is the aim of the path. But what about beginnings?

The Buddha did talk about beginnings and how to do it well. The teachings mostly focus in three areas: our understanding, our intention, and our effort.

Right View

I think it's no surprise that we are instructed to pay attention to the mind as we begin things. That is considered a really important place to notice as we go forward. There's the well-known opening stanza of the Dhammapada that begins, "Mind is the forerunner of all things." It is clear that how we are in the mind is going to have a major impact on what happens as things go forward.

More specifically, there is a teaching in the Majjhima Nikāya^[1] that says quite directly, "Right view comes first." This is about our understanding. Let me unpack that a little bit. Right view doesn't mean that we passively apply a view that we receive from the teachings or from our teacher, simply saying, "Here's the belief I need to apply in order to begin." It's actually more subtle than that. Whatever view we're using coming in is going to provide the context or the orientation for what follows. What makes it right view is that we adopt an orientation or an understanding that is appropriate for the task at hand.

If the task is walking the Buddhist path to the end of suffering, to peace, and to liberation, then what we would choose is called right view—an appropriate view for doing that. Generally, this has two forms.

The first form is the understanding that actions have results and that we have some choice about that. We live in a world that has laws of cause and effect going on. They may be more complex than we can exactly see all the details of, and they may operate in different ways at different times, but generally speaking, actions will have consequences, and we have some choice. In particular, actions that come from a mind oriented toward harm will lead to our own suffering, our own dukkha^[2]. In contrast, actions that come from a mind oriented toward peace or non-harm will tend to bring happiness to us. This is a basic law of action and consequence.

Even if we have no idea about the long-term or large picture of what we're doing, we can at least in this moment choose to do actions from an orientation of non-harming, and that will be good. People can feel great relief at having this as a guide. You don't actually have to have it all figured out, because things are complex, especially in an interconnected world like ours. We can make some attempt to think about our views and orientation in the bigger picture, but what matters really is that right now we come from a place of non-harming. That will have good consequences for our happiness and those around us.

The second dimension of right view—which is not so different—is to see things specifically in terms of dukkha and its end, or stress and its release. We can notice in a situation what feels stressful, tense, or somehow unsatisfactory. We can attune to that and then move toward its release. If I enter a room and feel tension in my chest, I can notice that and take care of it in some way. I can notice if I am feeling afraid, and consider what I might do. Maybe just being mindful of the fear is sufficient.

Tuning toward dukkha and its end is a way of orienting toward the Four Noble Truths. What is challenging right now? How am I holding on, wanting something in order for a specific result to come about? How could I apply something I know from practice to ease or release some of that suffering? This orientation of dukkha and its release is very much in line with what we're doing on the path. It serves as a good guide for our actions as we undertake things.

For an everyday example, if I am beginning a work project with somebody, how do I orient? I could orient toward cultivating kindness, active listening, and a healthy relationship with this person. Or I could practice mindfulness, not drifting off into my own thoughts but staying on task and being clear about what's happening in the conversation. Those are both forms of appropriate view. Those are very different than orienting toward, "I've got to convince this person to do it my way, get my point across, and make sure that I stay in control as this is starting." That's going to have a major impact on how things unfold.

This works on the cushion, too. If we sit down and orient toward bringing some ease to the body, some ease to the mind, and a sense of what we're doing, that will have a different effect than if we don't do those things to orient at the beginning of our sit. These simple acts can have very important results for how the meditation proceeds. In general, we're asking, "How can this be wholesome or supportive of the path as I go forward? How can I reduce dukkha through this beginning?" All of this amounts to right view: our understanding and our orientation as we begin a task.

Right Intention

Right view feeds into the next step, which is right intention. That is the crucial point of how we engage skillfully with beginnings. Classically, there are three wholesome intentions that we orient around, each set up to counteract an unwholesome tendency we might have in the mind.

The first intention is typically called renunciation. People don't always connect with that word, so we could also call it letting go, or even being at ease. It counteracts the unskillful pursuit of sense pleasure—wanting to grasp at the pleasant part, wanting to get things that are good and useful for me. The intention of being generous or renouncing the need for those things has the effect of coming in with an open hand, an open heart, and an open mind.

The second and third wise intentions are stated as clear counteractions: non-ill will and non-cruelty. We come in with a mind that isn't oriented in a negative, aversive, or oppositional way. Phrased in the positive, they could be named as goodwill and compassion. These three set the tone of our engagement, and the tone that we set in life matters so much.

I'm thinking of another time I was beginning a work project. I was sending an email to a colleague, and I noticed that I kept wanting to include a slightly derogatory comment about their experience, like, "I know you don't have so much experience with this." I noticed there was a slight feeling of tension, and I realized that I was trying to question my colleague's level of experience in order to elevate my own and show that I was going to contribute very well to this project.

Luckily, I caught this as an intention of ill will. Instead, I changed what I wanted to write to something that was more inclusive and connecting at the beginning of this project, rather than highlighting their lack of experience or my experience—which was a little bit delusional to think that way. I'm certain that set a much better tone than if I hadn't made that change. It would have changed the relationship right at the beginning.

We can also set the tone in advance of a situation we're going into, and then just trust that it will carry us in. For example, if we're about to go into a meeting or a social encounter, as we're walking toward the door we can set an intention of goodwill or mindfulness. Just orient the mind that way. You don't have to constantly think about it and be distracted by it during the encounter. You just set it, walk in, and trust that it will carry through in some way.

A friend of mine went to practice in Asia on an intensive retreat. Even in that setting, the abbot of the monastery used to ask the practitioners that when they woke up, before they got out of bed to start their day, they spend a few minutes doing loving-kindness practice. The way he said it was, "This will set the tone for everything else you do." The rest of the day they were doing mindfulness practice, vipassanā^[3], and concentration—more traditional wisdom practices. But he wanted them to do loving-kindness at the very beginning to set the tone for the rest of the day. You might try this also. See what you can remember to do in the morning before you get out of bed just to meet the day well.

In general, we're aiming to act, speak, and think from a place of non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion. The three right intentions I just named clearly cover the first two: renunciation covers non-greed, while non-ill will and non-cruelty cover non-hatred. Sometimes people ask where non-delusion is. It turns out that is covered by right view. Having the correct view that we're moving toward the end of suffering, that our actions have consequences, and that we have a choice—knowing those things is non-delusion.

This threefold purity of volition is the fundamental way to begin, to proceed, and to end. The Buddha says very clearly in another sutta that volition, or cetanā^[4], lies at the heart of action, of kamma^[5]. That strongly influences the results that we experience.

Right Effort

All of that is the preparation in the mind. There is also the actual, active beginning. What else do we need to begin well? The third area I named has to do with our energy as we actually engage with a task.

The Buddha talks about the importance of generating wholesome energy, or viriya^[6], as we undertake a task. There is a standard phrase you'll find in the suttas: "One generates desire, makes an effort, arouses energy, applies one's mind, and strives." I know that sometimes sounds a little too energetic for those of us in the West who are result-oriented. We are often told not to strive quite so strongly. But that phrase is very common.

We might encapsulate all of that into the middle phrase, "arouses energy." The Pali phrase is viriyaṃ ārabhati^[7], which means to engage with or to undertake. We should be willing to put forth some effort for things to go well as we're beginning. We orient our mind, and then we bring forth this wholesome energy to get going, instead of being passive or lackluster. Later, when there's momentum, we're encouraged to back off and be a little bit more effortless. You might have heard the phrase "effortless effort." We did that in the meditation today: at the beginning we were a little bit more attentive, and then at the end we relaxed our effort and just allowed experience to unfold.

Wise effort means the right amount of effort—not too much and not too little. At the beginning when we're just starting things out, a fair amount of effort is often needed because we're trying to generate momentum, or change the direction of momentum we already had. You might think of beginnings as requiring a little bit more focused effort to get going in a good direction.

Beginnings on the Cushion

I have been orienting us around beginnings in daily life, particularly in the bigger picture of what's going to happen as society starts to open up and people come into contact with each other again. But actually, there is quite a bit about beginnings that happens on the cushion too.

There's a stage of insight practice where we become very attuned to beginnings. The mind gets really interested in beginnings. It's a fun time of practice because mindfulness gets really sharp as you catch the first moment of things. You see the breath come into being from a moment before when there wasn't one. You see the in-breath tail off, and then the out-breath begin. We see that first moment when air starts exiting instead of entering.

Maybe we see the first shift in a mood. We're feeling angry or irritated, but we don't get caught up in it. We're mindful, and then there comes a moment where the mind turns away from that and we feel something else come in—a sense of relief, joy, or peace. We see that first moment. We know, "Ah, there's the moment where the anger turned."

We might also see the first moment of a thought. We're sitting, and we're kind of between thoughts. Then we see a little spark, like the mind starting to form an idea. We see it arising out of the matrix of the mind, and we can see, "Oh, that's going to be a thought. In one more instant it's going to break the surface and I'm going to know what those words are." Every once in a while, one of those will come and we'll be mindful of it, and it will just dissipate before it ever forms into an image or a word. We wonder what that thought was going to be!

There is a lot of wisdom in this. Seeing and feeling beginnings means that we can also see and feel the very first moment of clinging. We were peaceful, calm, and mindful, and then the mind started to form an identity, attach to something, or hold on. We see that little grip. We can feel that the moment we begin to cling is the moment of the arising of suffering. We see the Second Noble Truth: that clinging and suffering are identical. We can only be sure of that if we see them begin and end together.

We can start to get wise about how we engage with beginnings, because stuff is coming every moment. If we grasp it, we're going to suffer. So we learn not to. We learn to let it arise as it is, to let it be itself as it comes into being, without grasping it as "mine," without putting it in a box and immediately labeling it, and without controlling it. We let it arise and have its life. Can we just trust that it can come into being as it is?

There is a lot of wisdom that comes from getting intimate with beginnings and with how we relate to beginnings on the cushion, and that will feed into how we do it in life. When surprising things come in—as happens all the time—can we meet it? When our partner speaks, we don't know what they're going to say next. Can we just let that be there? When we turn a corner and see something unexpected, can we open to that, or do we close off, get scared, or try to control it? We will see again and again how we're relating to life when we start to see on the cushion how we relate to beginnings coming into our mind and our body.

This is an important area of practice. As we learn to begin well and engage in ways that are open, connecting, and filled with goodwill, that will help us learn to end well—to let go, to let things cease, and not to cling. All of this feeds into our wisdom and our compassion.

I wish you well in exploring this very interesting area, and with whatever is beginning in your life. Beginning in this springtime (or autumn, if you're in the southern hemisphere), beginning with seeing more people whenever that occurs—you might consider how to meet that well. Many blessings for your practice. Take care.