The sincere mind has no wandering thoughts (Click image for video)

Learn to have meditative concentration

by observing those who are

heedless. 

Unmindful of what they are doing, oblivious to the looming consequences, heedless people drift through life unable to focus on tasks, whether assigned or chosen. Worse, sensing the potential benefits of having a more spiritual quest, they either haven’t picked one or, having done so, haven’t learned how to attain it. Even worse, they chose an objective and know how to achieve it, but lack the will to do the necessary work.

And so, they pretty much continue drifting from task to task, half-hearted and unfocused.

Now consider a person—us—who focuses on his or her current task. Endeavoring to complete things the best we can and believing in the importance of our spiritual practice, we can now determine how best to accomplish the practice.

Now equipped with a generous heart, principled approach to life, patience, and diligence, we can settle down to our true work: attaining meditative concentration.

Do not spend time wondering about another’s karmic consequences (Click image for video)

Learn to be diligent 

by observing those who 

procrastinate. 

Working in fits and starts, enthusiasm waxing and waning like the moon on steroids, unpredictable in the best of circumstances and undependable in the worst.

With the best intentions those who procrastinate just don’t seem to follow anything through to completion and so, even with good ideas, they don’t accomplish much. Maybe they find it easier to put things off to another day. Perhaps they feel overwhelmed by the task before them and escape to some mind-numbing activity like watching TV.

They may be the sweetest people we know, but they’re not dependable. And, sadly, we can’t trust them when tasks await.

Our lesson from them? We need to focus on the task at hand and stick with it.

Wisely pacing ourself, so we don’t get overworked on the one hand or lose interest on the other, we’ll get daily satisfaction from having set and progressed toward accomplishing our goal.