Do you brush your teeth? Just nod your head if you do. I see all of you brush your teeth. Probably most of you maybe twice a day. Maybe after every meal, some of you are very keen. okay, why do you brush your teeth? You actually don't need your teeth. You can live quite well without teeth. You can always get more. Yes, you can always get more, you don't really need your own teeth.
You've learned as you were growing up that it is important to brush your teeth and therefore you brush your teeth - because you don't want the Dukkha. Getting rotten teeth, having cavities, having toothaches all of this is Dukkha. It's not because you needed teeth because you can get new ones, but it's because you don't want the Dukkha. This is how we develop more Determination, more Resolution, for the same reasons you are determined to brush your teeth everyday - we don't want the Dukkha. You probably don't like it if you miss brushing your teeth, like when you are flying on an airplane. We fly from Bangkok to Washington D.C., it's 26 hours. Sure, you know, handy to keep your toothbrush and toothpaste in your bag but there are lots of other things to carry and they don't always get in there, so you don't brush your teeth for a day and it is unpleasant. So it's nice to brush your teeth because you know the possible Dukkha of not doing so. This is exactly how to develop more Determination, more Resolution in your life.
I mentioned yesterday about a New Year's resolution. Why does anyone make a New Year's resolution? Because they don't like what they've been doing, they've seen Dukkha in something they had been doing, therefore they make a resolution to change their life so that they don't have the Dukkha. This is exactly how you can get more Determination, more Resolution in your life by reflecting on the Dukkha of what you are doing, then making the Determination to change that and then sticking to it by remembering constantly the Dukkha of going back to the other way. Bring that thought up every time you feel weak, every time.
We talk to many people who smoke tobacco, in particular. It's very hard for a lot of them to change. But if they reflect on the Dukkha of smoking over and over, raise more Compassion for themselves then they are going to want to quit. Then when someone says, "Do want a smoke?" and if they immediately think, "wait a minute, wait a minute, it's Dukkha, it's not happiness, it's Dukkha!" then they can say, "No". But if they forget the Dukkha and they think, "Oh, this is going to be happiness!" then they will not keep to the resolution.
So it's very much important that if you make a resolution base it on the fact that this is going to be a way for more happiness, changing from ways in the past where you had Dukkha.