I have a friend who keeps a spreadsheet with up to the second financial status. Every checking account, every credit card, no long term or short term debt, every receipt from every purchase stored neatly, in chronological order. As soon as something changes, such as buying groceries, the moment he gets home he updates that spreadsheet.
I asked him about this, he's been doing this nearly his whole life, ever since grade school when the teacher taught them how to keep a journal of their activities. He picked up a good habit and just ran with it, never stopped, and expanded it to include keeping track of his finances as described above.
One other thing very unusual about my friend, he's exceptionally virtuous. Whatever you've read in the suttas about how devas are like, punctual, on time, courteous, gentle in speech, forgiving, honor and support parents and teachers, etc., he's the embodiment of that. Although he doesn't keep a spreadsheet for any other activities other than the finance related, I'll bet in his mind he mentally keeps track of his karmic balance sheet, always only doing good and storing it in the bank, and paying off any karmic debts as quickly as possible.
Many times over the decades, I thought to myself, if this friend would set up a spreadsheet and attack his weaknesses in his spiritual practice, anything that's preventing him from becoming an arahant in this life, he could do it.
I've had similar thoughts whenever I've met unusual people with such singular focus and maniacal devotion at achieving excellence in a certain sphere. Tiger Woods with golf, Warren Buffet and making money, Navy Seals pushing their mind and body to the limit and tempting death frequently, etc. If they had the same dedication to the craft of realizing Nirvana, they could do it quickly.
Do you know the definition of a dumbass?
The definition of a dumb ass is someone who repeatedly has the insight that I just described above, year after year, and then does not copy their blueprint to success and apply to attaining arahantship.
I am a dumb ass.
I haven't committed any heinous karma that would prevent arahantship, I keep the precepts, I have samadhi, the only thing preventing me from arahantship is my own dumb assery and tendency to be a lazy sack of shit.
So starting this year, I've opened up a spreadsheet, updating it every 2 or 3 hours, and started tracking my activities and performance, breaking it down into small pieces.
We all know the path to success, to Arahantship. It's described in detail in suttas like AN 3.16, and the ones describing what it means to fulfill appamada, marana-s-sati, etc.
The problem is, we just don't follow through with it. We just look at it, think, yeah, that would be nice if we could do that, and then go back to doing some other dumb complacent heedless things we prefer to do.
So copying my friend's blueprint to success, I'm using a spreadsheet. If you're tech averse, use paper and pencil journal. The key to what makes this work is you're forcing yourself to be accountable and examine how you're spending every minute of your life. It will be highly unpleasant and humbling. Our tendency, if not to lie to ourself and pretend we don't waste time, is to gloss over it and say, "yeah, that's not so great but it's minor and I don't do it that often..." Check the spreadsheet after a few days. It's a lot more often than you think, and it adds up.
My spreadsheet is still evolving and improving, but I'll share a template of it soon, maybe in a couple of weeks.
But I just wanted to get that idea out there, because I know I'm not the only underachiever.
Share your thoughts and ideas on how to make a permanent habit of sustainable self improvement.
What worked and didn't work for you?
Hi Frank, I remember one of yours points about Bhante Dhammanando's take on Vitakka-Vicara, here's him ridiculing "baloney from Jhana Lite supporters", https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?p=421829#p421829 and here's dmytro bringing out the inherent faulty arguments presented
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?p=489263#p489263. What do you think about this ? My opinion is the venerable doesn't have a serious meditation practice.
Can a nuclear scientist afford to over look any of the elements to achieve critical mass? Can we afford not being as meticulous in developing all that is required for the sturdy raft? Thanks for sharing, Frank!
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting idea. Some years ago, before I started practicing Dhamma, I developed anorexia (eating very very little and overexercising a lot) to a rather extreme extent, and had to be hospitalised for several months. It's been a long time now since I gave this up, and I have thought more times than I can count how ridiculous it is that I cannot put the same amount of absolute determination into practicing Dhamma as I previously put into being anorexic!! By the time I was hospitalised, I had (unintentionally) trained my mind to such an extent that any food that normally would taste 'good' (cake, pizza, chocolate, and so on) was disgusting for me and would make me want to vomit. (not that the actual taste changed, but that there was nothing whatsoever agreeable in it.) Why should it be so much more difficult to train the mind to be equanimous in regard to any sensory object? How come I am more ''loose'' in my practice of Dhamma than I was in such a stupid, wrong, pointless way of behaving? There are several kinds of ''techniques of anorexia'' I could adopt, for example mentally ''counting'' moments of akusala in the same way I would have counted calories. But I think there's something else that is the bigger problem. Whatever we do that is done for the sake of removing kilesa, for the sake of purity, is always going to be more difficult and harder to maintain than whatever is done with kilesa, for the sake of our own desires.
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