How do I keep motivation?

 This topic is very prudent. With busy working lives and so much on offer in terms of online entertainment, it is extremely easy to postpone any chanting. To many people, even 10 minutes per day is a challenge - the excuses of too busy start flooding the mind. Most people spend more than 10 minutes on their phone looking at rubbish, however.

I recently read a book by James Clear, titled "Atomic Habits." I thought many of the common sense, practical suggestions in this book could be applied to daily chanting. 

Habits (in this case daily chanting) become automatic if you can:

a/ make it obvious - set up your environment to trigger cues to remind you. 

b/ make it attractive - if you can achieve your goal of 10 minutes every day for 6 months - give yourself a reward. Of course, chanting should be reward enough, but if a nice bottle of red wine helps then why not!

c/ make it easy - start with just 2 minutes of chanting every day until the habit is formed and then increase by one minute per week until you can reach 10 minutes. For me personally, I find 20 minutes in the morning and another 20 minutes in the evening is perfect. Make a calendar and record on it every day so you have a visual.

d/ make it satisfying - chant with a purpose in mind. Chanting for deceased family or somebody who is sick gives a feeling of happiness in service of others. Forging the habit means when it is not done you have a feeling of being somehow incomplete - bit like not brushing your teeth before bed, you have to do it otherwise it grates away.

e/ take away temptation - don't look at your phone or even touch your phone until you have done your 10 minutes. Do it at exactly the same time every day.

The book says when dopamine rises so too does motivation. How can we turn chanting into a dopamine hit? The book also labour's the point that the practice of actually doing and not just planning helps build repetition. Repetition is the key to building the habit. If we can standardise and ritualise our habit as much as possible then it is done with automaticity and is no longer a chore. For many religious practitioners, doing their religious duties can feel like a chore or something they have to do, we want to get rid if this because the mind will always want to the least amount of "work."

James Clear mentions the formation of habits are a modern solution to ancient desires. I relate this to when chanting our mind naturally wanders and all sorts of things enter our mind. This happens constantly with me and maintaining focus is difficult. 

Some tricks the book comes up with are simple, such as, making sure the number of times the action is performed is more important than the length of time. Better to chant for 10 minutes every day than once a week for one hour. Never miss twice, get back on track as soon as possible - if you miss a chanting session promise to make it up twice as long the next time. 

The greatest threat is boredom, but the earnest keeps going. The author demonstrated how professional athletes are above the average athlete not only in ability but also because they keep going when the average person gives up. Letting our desires and expectations get in the way is the recipe for an easy disappointment. 

I am the sort of person who has always given up easily if I was not naturally good at it. And if I was good at it, then I would give up anyway because I convinced myself that it did not need to further my skill. I have been chanting for 25 years; it is one the of the few things in life I have created a positive habit for and have not given up - the benefits are big. After reading this book I realised that Buddhists for a very long time have been able to create a mental fortitude most other people have not. Through daily practice whether it be meditation or mantra, the Buddhist has formed a habit which has transformed their mind. They think clearly and have their emotions in check. For me personally, I have benefited from becoming much more patient with others and myself, taking the peak and troughs out of emotion to being more middle-of-the-road and measured in my thinking.

A final quote in the book from Nietzsche, which I really like is: "He who has a why to live for, can bear almost any how." This quote might speak to you differently, but for me it says, don't think about chanting, just do it. 

Namumyohorengekyo