Practicing the Eightfold Path and Balanced Intention
Most of us who lead active life, have plenty of pleasant and unpleasant contact with the Samsara. It seems daunting to always keep in mind the vows of Renunciation, Goodwill and Harmlessness. According to some Buddhist texts, we can have as many as 64000 thoughts in a day. Majority of these cause us suffering ranging from subtle to gross.
The approach that has worked for people is to take small steps. If one can have one out of the 64000 thoughts and the resulting action guided by Balanced Intentions of Renunciation, Goodwill and Harmlessness, she needs to pat herself on the back and analyze the resulting happiness. It is important to reward oneself and create a positive reinforcement loop. Slowly the number increases and one day it is 100% and the person have achieved Nirvana and Enlightenment.
Problem comes when we are presented with difficult situation and we find it hard to act with Balanced Intentions. I recommend to follow Shantideva's advice on how to guard our practice in beginning stages. According to him, when we are beginning we need to protect our practice as we guard a sapling by building a fence around it.
In other words, the advice is to stay from situations that demand too much from our practice of Renunciation, Goodwill and Harmlessness in the beginning stages.
