The third obstacle: Bad Habits

(Translated from the original Dharma Espresso Talk given by Venerable Heng Chang in Vietnamese)

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Good morning, everyone. This is today’s Dharma Espresso, and may the warm sunrise welcome you to a peaceful day.

Dear friends, we are talking about the third obstacle that prevents us from returning to the Buddha’s home.

First of all, I’d like to talk about the methodology of contemplation that enables us to understand these obstacles. So, what is this methodology?

1. A habitual pattern of behavior or an ingrained tendency formed by repeated actions is the CAUSE. These are unconscious habits within us that lead to KARMA.

2. KARMIC OBSTRUCTIONS then prevent us from returning to the Buddha’s home.

Cause: habitual tendencies.

Effect: karma.

Karma then creates obstacles.

For example, if the cause is greed, then the resulting karma is stealing.

These habitual tendencies—bad habits, behaviors stemming from insecurity feelings, greedy patterns, etc.—block us and prevent us from returning to the Buddha's home.

There is cause and there is effect. Cause and effect keep the wheel turning outward, taking us further away. We just keep moving outward and cannot return to the Buddha’s home.

Therefore, now, if we want to reverse that outward-turning wheel, we must understand that stopping it is very difficult, because it keeps spinning endlessly.

So what must we do? We must change the wheel, and change the path we are on.

To do that, the method the Buddha taught is Precepts – Concentration – Wisdom.

Precepts: create an environment that keeps us from running off in the wrong direction.

Concentration: change the wheel.

Wisdom: steer that wheel along a different path.

Once we understand the methodology of Precepts – Concentration – Wisdom, we should also understand that there are two aspects of practice.

• Practice when our eyes are closed

• Practice when our eyes are opened

In life, there are always two aspects: eyes closed and eyes open.

• Eyes closed means turning inward, looking into ourselves.

• Eyes open means turning outward, interacting with sentient beings, engaging in daily life, connecting with those around us.

Therefore, the correct methodology is that we must practice both when our eyes are closed and when they are open.

• Transcending Wordliness (eyes closed) refers to when we meditate with eyes closed.

• Engaging in the world (eyes opened) refers to when we live and engage with others.

Only by practicing in both dimensions, with eyes closed and eyes open, that we can transform the wheel that turns habitual tendencies into karma, and karma into karmic obstacles.

Looking at this methodology, you’ll now see that even when it comes to just habitual tendencies or habits, it’s often very difficult to form new, more pleasant, or better habits.

Why is that?

Because we cannot let go of the old habits. Some of these old habits are deeply ingrained in us, and they make change very difficult.

For example, a person goes to a casino for the first time to play cards with some friends at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The first time going, there’s nothing particularly special—during the first 15 minutes, nothing exciting happens. Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost. Then a friend brought him over to another table to keep playing, and he put in another $50. Unexpectedly, he won.

Caught up in the thrill of winning, he stayed and played for another 3 hours. He won a little more—but then, slowly... he started to lose. But even after losing, he didn’t want to leave. He thought, “I’ll win again.” “Ah, so let’s keep playing.”

The brain is fascinating. It kicks in, we get hooked, and it releases dopamine, making us believe we’re going to win. And we want to keep playing. Strange, isn’t it? Even when losing, we keep playing!

And gradually, we form a new habit without realizing it—a habit of "liking to gamble."

That night, while friends go out for dinner or head to bed, they think he’s gone to sleep too. But no: “Aha, I’ll just go down and play a little bit. Not cards this time—just put some money in a slot machine for 5 minutes, just for fun, then go back to bed.”

But once he was down there, it’s never just 5 minutes. He ended up playing for an hour and a half without even realizing it—because there’s no clock in the room. And seeing people coming and going, all the activities, he got swept up into the game for an hour and a half without even knowing.

When he finally returned to his room, how could he sleep anymore? And just like that, he started to form a new habit... something he likes.

What does he like? He likes playing, he likes winning, he likes gaining money. That feeling is so strange—it takes over your mind, and you can’t think about anything else.

The next morning, right after breakfast, he was the first one dragging the friends out to play again. From roulette to cards, to slot machines, for the whole day. And he had no idea how much money he’d already lost. He deliberately avoid thinking about whether he  lost money or not. “Oh well, who cares?”

It turns out that he has picked up a new habit, a habit of addiction.

He entered into addiction without even realizing it. And a new habit has silently taken root.

On the third day, he kept playing—and at that point, he was truly addicted, truly falling into that new habit.

Then came day four, after the three-day Martin Luther King weekend was over, it was time to head home. He felt a strange emptiness, like something was missing. “Why... ugh, so frustrating—I lost money.”

His wife called and asked,“Hey, what’s going on? You looked so happy when you were playing. Why are you upset now?”. He replied,“Well, I’m upset because I lost money—took a big loss.”

But you know, deep inside his mind, he kept thinking: “I will win. Next time, I’ll know how to bet that card, pick that number on the roulette wheel. Ah, I should play that slot machine over there, not the one I used before...”. He truly believed that he would win next time.

That habit—only formed over the course of three days—had already started to take root. But the excitement, the desire, and the craving were intense. He couldn’t stop thinking about going back. If he has a chance—he would go again immediately.

Do you know, dear friends, why bad habits so easily take root in us?

Because they create excitement, they trigger the brain to release chemicals that make us feel intense pleasure and euphoria. And we become addicted without even realizing it. That’s how it happens.

On the other hand, why is it so hard to build good new habits?

Every day we practice the Dharma, and we think,“Oh my goodness, why doesn't this feel as pleasurable as gambling?”

It’s because we haven’t yet found a way to experience joy in the practice. It feels difficult because our legs hurt, our shoulders ache, our neck is stiff. After sitting, we can barely stand up. Sometimes, we feel downright exhausted.

Ah…!So it turns out, there are obstacles to forming spiritual habits, because they don’t bring immediate pleasure like worldly cravings do. Often, when we go to places like temples or monasteries, it’s because we want to find pleasure, to find joy.

So the habit of enduring hardship and difficulty struggles to take root.

Sometimes, when we listen to Dharma talks, it’s not because we want to find the ultimate truth. We prefer and enjoy talks on simple, easy-to-understand, joyful, and pleasant topics. But if the talk is too serious—talking about our faults, about greed, anger, and ignorance—it can feel tiring and give us headaches. We long for something more fun and lighthearted.

So, the very first challenge in developing spiritual growth is actually forming a new habit, and that immediately meets with a big obstacle: our own desire for pleasure!

Therefore, often times you need to rely on the people around you who are practicing alongside you, to help keep you disciplined.

In Precepts–Concentration–Wisdom, the Precepts are the discipline, the framework.

Practicing together with others makes it easier. When everyone is practicing, you grit your teeth and push through—you try your best to keep up.

After a while, it becomes a habit that sticks to you, and then you practice naturally.

It’s like waking up at 5 or 5:30 in the morning—Even if you don’t feel like practicing and are tired, when the time comes, you’re called to practice, so you just do it. After 3 or 4 years, it suddenly feels easier, and now if you don’t practice, it feels like something is missing. That practice creates a new habit.

But forming good habits is not easy.

Forming bad habits is easy—circumstances make it very easy to fall away.

To develop good habits, we need to join a group of diligent practitioners to help us start building that habit of diligence. Otherwise, sometimes it’s just too hard to do alone.

And sometimes, we have many reasons for not joining the group, not practicing together:

1. I’m too tired, I’m too old.

2. I still have many fun things outside that I’d hate to give up now.

3. Oh dear, that group—I don’t like that teacher, he’s this and that; I don’t like that woman, she’s like this and that; I don’t like that guy who talks too much and says nonsense...

You see, there are many obstacles.

It turns out that we don’t focus on the Dharma to establish new habits; instead, we focus on the faults and flaws of everything around us, which keeps us from starting our practice and we can find many excuses not to practice with a group.

Therefore, starting a new habitual tendency—a good habit like practicing Dharma—meets with many obstacles.

Ways to overcome these obstacles:

• First, practice in a group.

• Second, develop a culture of practice. For example, you might listen to Dharma Espresso daily online, and gradually it seeps in, and you begin to want to practice.

• Third, set a specific daily time for practice. If you say you’ll wake up at 5:30, then get up to practice.

• Fourth, see through distractions. Many times, just one word or one event makes us stop practicing immediately. We must be aware of anything that cuts off our good habits.

  
  

Human beings are ready to plunge into darkness and unwilling to return to the light. The dualistic mind, the ego, is very strong, and it’s not easy to return to the light. Hence, many times, we have to rely on fellow practitioners, on the practice group, on the scheduled time we set for practice. That way, it might be easier to walk the path of practice.

It all comes down to creating new habits.

There are thousands of ways to build habits, but spiritual habits require us to have interest, faith, something that motivates us.

Please reflect on this. Thank you all for listening, and once again, I wish you a peaceful day.