The Necessity of Cultivating Good Habits

Question: When the fixed time for sitting meditation arrives, I want to get on the cushion. Does this mean I have become habituated to sitting meditation?

Answer: When you sit in meditation at a fixed time and place, over time it becomes a habit. Once the habit is formed, you no longer fear noisy disturbances from the surrounding environment, and the mind can be emptied. Habit is the inertia of the manas. The manas is rather attached; for things it does frequently, it acts according to routine without needing to deliberate. Habits have a bad side as well as a good side. If you make good use of habits and cultivate good ones, you will achieve twice the result with half the effort.

It is very worthwhile to spend a certain amount of time and energy cultivating some good habits. It is like manufacturing molds for mass production: at that stage, it costs great effort and time, but once the molds are made, producing the products afterward saves an enormous amount of time and cost. This is what is called achieving twice the result with half the effort—saving at least four times, or even countless times, the time and cost, which is extremely worthwhile. During the stage of cultivating habits, it is very arduous, with repeated successes and failures, advances and retreats, and it is not easy to persist. At such times, you need someone beside you to urge and supervise you; if you can partner with others and mutually encourage one another, things become easier. So what good habits need to be cultivated?