The Grain of the Wood

An important part of the Buddhist practice is discernment. That is, which qualities in the mind are skillful and which are unskillful. The skillful ones help make your knowledge clearer, make you see things more clearly -- things like mindulness, concentration and discernment, together with the qualities they depend on: virtue, morality and persistence. These are the good guys in the mind. These are the ones you have to nurture, the ones you have to work at. If you don't work at them, they won't come on their own.

The Buddhist practice is like polishing wood. The grain is already there in the wood, but unless you apply the oil, unless you polish it, it doesn't shimmer, it doesn't shine. If you want to see the beauty of the grain, you have to apply the oil, you have to work at it. You don't create the grain, but applying the oil is what brings out the grain already there.

So practicing the Buddha's path is like polishing away at the mind to see what's of real value there within the mind. That's what the mindfulness, the persistence, the ardency, and all the other terms the Buddha uses that suggest effort and exertion.

Exposing and beautifying the grain of your mind, and ultimately the grain of a skillful life, requires the daily effort of the Buddha's practice.