The Journey of Self-Improvement and Patience : หน้า 91/164

Suzanne Jeffrey ample, of sitting for long periods of time in meditation. We must also be patient toward the imperfection of others. And we must practice this. Why? Because this helps us correct the faults in ourselves in order to improve ourselves. and how long must we do this? I have been with Luang Por Dhammajayo for thirty- nine years now and I realize that the most difficult thing to do is to improve faults or habits. But I never understood why it was so difficult to correct the behavior in myself. So I meditated and I found that I had a bad habit with patience. But it was hard for me to accept the fact that I had this bad habit because I was always looking outside of myself, rather than looking inside of myself. it is hard to find people to tell us about the bad habits in ourselves. But it is even more difficult to believe them when they tell us that we have that bad habit. So how do we correct our own bad habits? we have to find the strength within ourselves to correct it. Or, to put it in another way, we have to realize we have a bad habit, we have to find it, and then we have to correct it and that takes strength. How do we correct bad habits in our body and our mind? We might be able to do it in our mind, but then our physical body can’t take it! We need to always be thinking in terms of healthy body and healthy mind. of course another problem is that sometimes society won’t accept it. For example, people in prison. They do something wrong and serve their punishment, but then when they come out of prison, people simply do not accept them. And this is a fact of life. So we must be patient. Always. how long do you need to be patient? Until you attain Nibbana. (Nirvana) do you know that birds were human before they were birds? They used to be Upasika or Upasok! [And with this, he smiles a big smile.] But they needed to learn how to be patient over many lifetimes. How do we show our patience? do not say bad words to other people. Everyone is the same. Everyone has good and bad traits. The Buddha says ‘Speak nicely.’ In the beginning, we may need to use comparisons, and really explain what we are saying, but if the person we are talking to doesn’t get it - if that person does not understand what we are saying - then we have to be honest.