Habits & Effort.

Give Up Your Habits. It Requires Effort & Willingness. PART THREE

Jun 20, 2025

HABIT. Non-stop attachment to a favorite and ridiculous behavior, attitude & belief. Our tendency to hang on to a habit comes from an arrogant, stupid, pointless. frivolous clinging to an idea in the mind. Ideas are fleeting and are a part of the constantly changing world.

BUT… an idea becomes an identity which we believe, cherish and claim as “ME. MY. MINE.”

WHAT MAKES IT POINTLESS? The inevitable truth of death!

Life is short. It quickly passes by while we cling to our delusions of who and what we are.

Habits and Effort.

If you have a sense of how it is here, you may want to see it more clearly. This requires effort. The conditions of your family, culture and all of the threats of impermanence need work. They are like the tide waves washing in and out along the sand. They are continuously changing.

With each sweep of a wave the sand line changes, nothing is lost but the beach seems to disappear in spots and bulges out in other places.

Habits are like the tides, the movement in and out of habit removes and bulges stuff in the mind. Some of the habits may interfere with your vision and like sand in the eye the habitual deposits constrict your attention until you wash the sand away.

If your intention is penetrating, it is strong enough for you to recognize the constancy of change in every grain of sand.

Vows support your intention. Your aim or intention is a direction and not a result or goal. Direction is the way you go. And if you are directed towards the enticements of self-interest then that is the direction you go.

If, on the other hand, your direction is to relinquish self-interest, then that is the direction you go.

Direction determines results.

Your vows show and support your intention.

A map, a compass, a periscope are examples of how vows work. You open the map and find your location. You stop and look at the compass and see the direction and you raise the periscope to see the objects in the mind that are not clearly visible when submerged in habits.

You need all three: a map, a compass & a periscope.

A map shows you where you are and how to live your life.
A compass reminds you of your destiny.
A periscope shows the obstacles that inhibit your intention and vows.

Vows are promises you make. Vows like everything else are appear and continuously change. This characteristic is often forgotten.

The nature of a vow requires that it match “the Way” otherwise the vow is a mere delusion which causes trouble. Vows require effort in order to sustain the vow and to emerge and go with the shifts in the sea of your life.

Vows go hand in hand with ability and influence. When we recognize and realize our capability to act with body, speech & mind, we actualize our vows.

Resolutions. We, each one of us, use our ability to decide and influence us whether to act or not. To do or not. To keep or not. To say or not.
Attention & focus. This is another ability. We decide to spend time and find a place and study our mind with attention and focus. We decide to focus. We decide to concentrate and attend.

Selfless. We give without reward, without credit, without a pat on the back or an exclamation such as Little Jack Horner:

Little Jack Horner 

Sat in a corner, 

Eating a Christmas pie. 

He put in his thumb, 

And pulled out a plum, 

And said, "What a good boy am I!"

We have to ask ourselves are we always looking for applause? Looking for merit and credit for how “good am I?” This is NOT the Way.

We study ourselves in light of of our efforts and habits. We must work to drop these habits with our sincere effort.

Your effort, attention and intention determine the steering of the shifts in life. Habit and impulse, however, influence your vow-taking. Lifetime vow-taking is a commitment that needs more attention and effort than most. If it does not get your attention, the vow does not hold.

Vows made at a young age often do not hold and are based on convention, culture and conditions. We need clear understanding. The vow may be a worthy one but your comprehension of it may not be clear.

A vow is like a boat on the water, it is built to ride the waves of your life. There are times when storms come and waves break into the boat and you are required to repair it, renew it or trade it in.

All boats need attention to stay sea worthy, it is the same with vows. The boat that gets no attention is at-risk of taking in water. When a vow gets no attention it is at risk of being broken.