Concerning the Paramis, the achieving mind has a great deal of Energy and a great deal of Determination. These particular Paramis are good qualities, however, they need to be balanced. Sometimes the analogy I like to use about this particular mind state is a wild horse. It has a lot of Energy and a lot of Determination, and we have to train it somehow, to put this Energy and Determination to good use. In order to train this wild horse, is it very useful to cut its legs off? It's not really, is it. So we understand the beneficial characteristics of the achieving mind, the Energy and the Determination, but we try to balance it with the other Paramis, that help to calm it down a bit, that is the Parami of Patience, the Parami of Compassion and the Parami of Wisdom.
Now in order to develop more Patience, it is helpful to reflect more on cause and effect and the impersonal nature of things. Then we see that although we may put a lot of Energy and Determination into something, we have to be patient and wait for the fruits to arise in their own time. As far as Compassion goes, we have to look and see if the achievement mind is motivated by a certain rejection of ourselves. Because sometimes we go out to achieve something because we do not like ourselves. It is important to see whether this is motivating the strong Energy. If so, try to put a little bit more effort into appreciating our good qualities, having more Compassion for the person we are now, and realizing that if we encourage our good qualities, then we will grow and develop. This is transforming the achieving Energy into Compassion.
Also it helps to learn how to reflect on the Dukkha in the world. So that the strong Energy and Determination based on the willpower of the ego is transformed more into the Compassion for all beings, that has more courage, strength and Determination, and doesn't get upset so easily when things don't happen so quickly. This is very helpful.
Sometimes people get the idea that we don't want you to have any idealism, but that is not so. If you didn't have any idealism, probably none of you would be here. If we look at the example of the Buddha, he was probably the ultimate idealist, the ultimate perfectionist, but he was also a realist. So it is the balance of these qualities. If we throw away all this Energy that comes from idealism, we may just get complacent. So we learn how to bend and use this Energy and transform it into something deeper and more lasting, the Compassionate intention. In this way, we learn to appreciate ourselves and what we are trying to do.