Okay, let me ask you, do you brush your teeth everyday?
[Questioner responds]: Almost, yeah.
Almost. Okay. So when you eat a lot of candies and things, it takes you away from the thought of brushing your teeth? Just an analogy. You know the importance of brushing your teeth, and every one of you here knows the importance of brushing your teeth.
You probably wash your body, or your face, or whatever on a regular basis. You comb your hair on a regular basis and so on whatever. Most of you take care of your body and you don't let that slip for a few months, do you? How many of your really understand the importance of your mind and compared to your body?
What's one of the biggest hygienic problems with the body? It's when you stink. That's all. When you stink, you lose friends, right? And that's why you wash your body, you wash your body so that you don't stink. You also wash your body because you don't want to get disease and whatever else. You're well aware of that.
Now, what happens when you don't take care of your mind and your heart? It's stinks, also. But it's a whole different type of stink. Those who don't take care of their mind and heart, are the angry people, the greedy people, etc.
Alright, I'm going to throw something out for you. I think I did this yesterday when we had twenty-two old students here; our one day retreat. So, I'm going to give you a little bit that I gave the old students.
Can you give me five minutes every day? Can you give your meditation practice five minutes every day? One of the biggest reasons why people start skipping their meditation practice is because they think that they have to do at least an hour every day, or at least half an hour every day. They think that if they don't do a half-hour of meditation, then there's no use in doing it at all. We don't teach that way. We advise that to keep a regular practice going, is very important. Regularity, to make it regular. Can you give five minutes every day and make it regular and not miss it?
Now, on days that you have more time, yes, go ahead, do more. Do half an hour if you have the time. Do fifteen minutes if you have the time. But, if you don't feel you have the time, can you do five minutes?
If you can do this, if you can be regular, then you won't get lost on those rollercoasters where you are gone for two months. This is because you are going to make this a part of yourself. This is going to be you. This is going to be you as much as brushing your teeth is you. It's going to become something that you don't want to miss. And then, hopefully, you can hold onto that, have more inner peace and calm, and not go off and get lost again, and wake up again and go, "Oh, where have I been?"
If you can do at least five minutes every day you're going to find a whole different experience happening. Not only in your practice but in your whole feeling towards yourself. What does it feel like when you've skipped it for a long time? It's like "ugh". Earlier we were talking about doubt, before and this is can be a cause of self-hatred in a big way; when you know you should have done something but you did not. And then that leads to regret, that leads to further self-hatred and everything else. But, if you can actually set that resolution of doing just five minutes every day, you're going to find out that it's not hard to do. If you can complete one year, you're going to have so much happiness, you won't believe it.
We've done this with old students who have not been able to keep their practice going. After about five years of them coming in and telling us again and again the same old story, we say "Okay, that's enough. We're not going to listen to this anymore." And I basically start, kicking, figuratively, kicking them in their bum. Figuratively, I give them a good kick right in the bum. I ask them the same question, "Can you do five minutes?" Invariably, they all say "Yes".
I've had old students come in they who've had trouble, for like ten years some of them, getting a regular practice going. I do this same request of five minutes. Then I see them 12 months later and, when they meet me, when they come in for the first interview [demonstrating old student's smiling expression] their smile is so wide. Their grin is so big. And they feel good about themselves, they feel really, really good about themselves, and then they never lose that. Year after year after year after that, there's no big problem with them. They know they can fall back to that five minutes a day and they always feel good, and they don't get so lost on those rollercoasters.
There's a challenge for many of you.