Transforming stubborn resistance in our mind is a very important skill to cultivate because we all have to do things throughout our lives that we do not like doing them. I remember once when the Sravasti Abbey community was working together to clean up the garbage left by various workers at the Gotami House. People were laughing and having a good time even though going through garbage is not something one would ordinarily think of as fun. If someone had asked for volunteers, many probably would have gone the other way and left it for others to do. But the experience showed me that if we can overcome our resistance, we can enjoy doing things that we previously thought we would not. Stubbornly saying, “I don’t want to do it,” hampers our spiritual progress because we miss an opportunity to work with our mind and change it for the better.

When we are mad at someone or are experiencing craving, we need to devote effort to working with our unpleasant state of mind, rather than thinking, “Transforming my mind is so hard and these people are idiots anyway, so I’m just going to do something else that I enjoy.” If we take this lousy attitude into our Dharma practice, we clearly are not going to get very far because whenever something comes up that we do not like to do, we will exit right, exit left, or go underground to escape the situation. We also leave other people holding the bag, which is not in line with our aspiration to be of benefit to all sentient beings. Community life is helpful because it affords many opportunities for us to rise to the occasion and practise transforming our minds by pulling ourselves out of very stubborn, resistant mind states.

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