It’s oneself that is the most difficult to train
“It’s oneself that is the most difficult to train.”
Ordinary human beings have the ability to train others, whether it’s training animals like elephants, horses, cattle, or monkeys. Humans can train all of them.
Even training people isn’t that difficult. Training as soldiers, training as police, we train others, or others train us. We’ve all been through all of that.
But what’s truly difficult, really challenging, is self-training. This means training the mind, training it to stay steadfast in goodness, training it not to waver towards evil, training it not to fall under the power of desires. This is what’s truly and profoundly challenging.
Because the nature of our minds is that it tends to flow down like water, it easily delights in lowly things. Even a slight provocation from desires can lead it astray, flowing along with those desires.
We must constantly restrain it, not allowing it to descend into the lowly. We should use the moral principles and teachings of the Supreme Lord Buddha to uplift it. Otherwise, it will flow down into bad emotions.
When we diligently train and educate our own minds with moral principles, consistently practice virtuous actions, and can control our minds from leaning towards the power of desires, we can be called someone who has trained themselves. And we will attain the radiant guidance in life, which is highly blessed.
