Diligence: The Joyful Endeavor of the Buddhist Path – an excerpt
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Most of us don’t think much about our internal life and how to secure that, now or in the future. Just as today came, tomorrow will also come. Just as we do things to secure our conventional lives like shopping for food for the week or filling our car with enough gas to make a journey, we also want to inwardly prepare ourselves for the future. This does not contradict our enjoyment of the present moment; in fact, it makes the present moment more meaningful and enjoyable. We can enjoy the present more fully when we know that our present circumstances are also securing our future. It is like the farmer who sows seeds well for a future harvest. They expect an abundant crop while planting and are not disturbed that they can’t pick the fruit or reap the harvest as they are sowing seeds. We are presently a product of our past actions and intentions, and our current actions and intentions will likewise bear fruit in future circumstances. In securing our future, we reestablish and reinvest our current capital for a better and better outcome.
We thus want to learn to wake up looking forward to beginning our day with practice, like children who get up and can’t wait to go outside and play with their friends. Play is always on a child’s mind. Children go to sleep thinking about playing and wake up looking forward to playing. Children never get enough of playing. They find so much joy engaging in play. It is not so much about the specific activity, but the energy and the mindset of play that so captivate them. We want to be like this when it comes to our practice of the paramitas in our life.
As we get the taste of practice, we also get the taste of the deep joy that practice brings. The joy of our activities for the benefit of others then radiates from our heart and mind. This is true even if we are doing something small or seemingly mundane, like helping our neighbor carry boxes, picking our kids up from school, making a meal for our family, or filling our offering bowls and sitting down to meditate.
Just as an elephant plunges into a cool lake in summer with relief and delight, as we get the hang of Dharma practice and what it does for our life and mind, we dive into our practice mind with similar joy and relief—particularly our formal meditation practice. It feels so good to sit down and rest our mind and to generate loving kindness and compassion for all beings. It feels nourishing and delightful to wholesomely relate to our rising thoughts and emotions and to equalize and exchange ourselves with others. We come to feel that we can never get enough joy from our practice, especially our bodhichitta practice. Practice becomes like this—food for our soul, balm for our heart, and medicine for our painfully inflamed states of mind. We realize that there is so much joy in this, and we can simply be joyful in our practice. All of this begins with a decision and a conscious intention and interest to move in this direction.
[Verse] 64
People labor hard to gain contentment
Though success is very far from sure.
But how can they be happy if they do not do
Those deeds that are the source of joy to them?
In the conventional world, people work so hard for just a little glimpse of so-called happiness, trying to build a life, make a home together, create a family, and so on. It’s not that these things can’t bring us happiness; they can, to a certain degree and for a short while. At the same time, we also know that often things don’t work out. Much of the time this kind of conventional happiness remains just out of reach, even if we seemingly have all the elements in place. This can be tremendously confusing, especially for young people. We grow up seeing depictions of how life “should” be in ads or movies, on social media, and through the general cultural influences in our lives. In this world of illusion, we love to sell each other illusions. Unfortunately, most of us take the bait, and we try so hard, consciously and unconsciously, to measure up to often unrealistic images of “normal life.”
We often see, where there is a chance of securing happiness, that something suddenly comes in and destroys the happy situation. A couple builds a house, for instance, and just as it is about to be finished, they start to argue and bicker, and a small issue blows up into a huge situation. Instead of moving in, they end up getting divorced and selling the house they worked to build together. All their plans and hopes of that being a place to start a family and bring them happiness go out the door. When there is almost a chance of happiness, something comes in, seemingly out of the blue, and destroys it. I have observed this time and again, in others and in myself. We are just about to get to a place that we have been aiming for, and then something happens and dashes the plan.
It is not anyone’s fault. This is just the nature of samsara, the nature of grasping at ephemeral projections and images of so-called happiness, which generally disappoint us in the end. Samsara is based on trying to hold something together that, by nature, is bound to fall apart. All compounded things are impermanent and subject to change. There is nothing wrong with this; it is just the way things are. Samsara is perpetuated when, instead of accepting this and turning inward to work with our mind, we wish things weren’t the way they are and try to do everything we can to change or rearrange them. Wishing things were different from how they are is the crux of our suffering in samsara.
[Verse] 65
And since they never have enough of pleasure,
Honey on the razor’s edge,
How could they have enough of merit,
Fruits of which are happiness and peace?
Conventional happiness, or the happiness found in samsara—the happiness we seek from grasping and trying to capture what is by nature always changing—is like licking honey off a razor blade. The initial taste is sweet, but there is pain in the end. We easily start various pursuits, all aimed at success and happiness, but how many of these work out or are fulfilled? How many of these don’t end up in disappointment or a painful place? It is like a spending spree—buying things on our credit card is easy, but when the bill comes at the end of the month, it can be a big headache and heartache.
On the other hand, more meaningful pursuits like the Dharma can be harder to initiate and take hold of. But once we develop a habit with something like the practice of the six paramitas or the four immeasurables and the practice of virtue, not only do such things get easier as we apply ourselves and progress, but our joy increases with each engagement. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche often used to quote a famous saying: “Conventional pursuits are easy in the beginning, but get harder and harder as you proceed. Dharma is harder in the beginning, but gets easier and easier as you progress.”
Often, when we are having a hard time or things are not going as we planned or wished, we hold outer parties or circumstances responsible. Maybe outer conditions and circumstances do disappoint us at times. But we generally blame external factors 100 percent and then work to change or rearrange a million outer conditions, thinking that will fix things, make us feel better, or empower us. It might make us feel better for a short while, mainly due to the preoccupying distraction of changing our situation. But if we have not worked with our mind, our challenges and difficulties tend to follow us around no matter where we go or what we try to change on the outside. This is a lesson that life eventually teaches us.
When our mind is split, when we are not willing to face what we are experiencing, this makes challenges truly challenging. Our biggest pain is when a conflict of interest seizes our mind and heart and we internally wish that things were different from how they are. If our mind is not split, if we are able to accept whatever is arising for us karmically and then work from there to expand our heart, learn new things, adjust our perspective, or look at things from various angles, then we find that we can enjoy even the most challenging of circumstances. Perhaps this is not like enjoying a cocktail party, but we can take pleasure in the process and the presence of mind that enable us to navigate with compassion and tenderness.
We might be reading this wondering, How do I get from feeling pressured to practice as another thing to check off my to-do list to feeling joy and ease and actually looking forward to being on my meditation cushion with my mind? We know that we have a connection to Dharma, bodhichitta practice, and the four immeasurables, and we long for meaning in our lives—but formal practice has somehow become a chore.
One way to work with this is to actively walk ourselves through various scenarios. Let’s say we are doing a meditation session. We have sat down to do a half hour of meditation on the four immeasurables or shamatha practice. We are sitting there fine for a few minutes, starting to gather our mind and energy, and then all of a sudden we remember that we forgot to reply to a text message from someone. Our mind and body become restless, and we want to reach for our phone. Before reaching out or jumping up, give yourself a minute. Take that minute and stop trying to meditate or do any formal practice. Instead, openly ask, What do I want to do exactly? If I get up and write this text right now, what will that accomplish? What will that experience feel like precisely? Will I be truly satisfied if I accomplish this thing I want to do right now? And does it have to be done right now, in this half hour of time that I have set aside for myself to relate to my mind and life in a meaningful way?
Instead of mindlessly zooming off with our restless energy, which we know will make us feel uneasy later, undermining our self-confidence especially regarding what nourishes us the most, why not take a few minutes and let ourselves explore the answers to the above questions?
Think it through. Imagine doing whatever it is that you think you want to do and what it will bring you. Visualize it clearly, and go through the motions step-by-step, from beginning to end. Thinking things through in this detailed way can bring us back, inspire us, and reconnect us to our practice and ourselves.
Once we feel a bit of space or relief from the urgency to jump up and go, we can then reflect on what we accomplish through our practice. When we are able to practice, do our mind and body come to be at ease? Do we come to feel light and agile, and does experience become more luminous? Do we have glimpses of seeing our thoughts for what they are: transparent and fleeting? Reflect on the deeper joy and well-being that we feel after completing a good session of the four immeasurables or shamatha meditation. Thinking things through in this way grounds our mind, drawing on our inner resources and creativity to reestablish our connection to our own deeper state of being. A session of practice spent in such reflection can be much more meaningful, productive, and satisfying than just sitting there, staring out into space and waiting for the time to be up.
We all long to be grounded and connected to ourselves, not just running on fumes or lulled into inertia by the relentless waves of distracting preoccupations. This method of thinking things through with scenarios can be helpful whenever we feel scattered, distracted, or dull. This is how we can complete our session with ease and joy—a joy that increases as we proceed in this way.
Another thing to remember is that our distracted, scattered energy will change and shift no matter what. But if we give up on our goals too easily, yielding to that distracted energy and its momentum, the habit of giving up becomes more and more entrenched. Rather than using the opportunity of whatever arises to strengthen our practice mind, we instead become a slave to our distractions. This habit not only hurts our spiritual path, it can also spread into other areas of our life. Eventually, we can find it hard to keep our focus and see anything through.
This approach of the Diligence Chapter, relying on the four allies and two strengths, supports and encourages us to see our commitments through. When we encounter challenges to accomplishing our aspirations or goals, often we either throw up our hands or else bear down and grit our teeth in order to get through it. Neither approach is sustainable, nor is either very enjoyable. If we can honestly reflect and process what is arising for us, that is often enough to clear the air and ease our tension, allowing us to freely proceed. It is also a wonderful way to spend time with oneself.
So many of us are afraid of being alone, especially with our own mind. If we can be present with ourselves on our cushion and engage the three wisdoms of hearing, contemplation, and meditation, that time alone can be tremendously meaningful and enjoyable. We can continue that joy in the post-meditation with the six paramitas and learn to meet whatever arises with cheerfulness, even when it is challenging or painful.
[Verse] 66
The elephant, tormented by the noonday sun,
Will dive into the waters of a lake,
And likewise I must plunge into my work
That I might bring it to completion.
Like an elephant who, in the midst of the summer heat, blissfully plunges into the cooling waters of a lake, we want to dive into our practice or whatever task we have at hand. We want to learn to enjoy whatever we must do, giving ourselves wholeheartedly to our task or activity, like an elephant thoroughly enjoying a bath in a lake. Or we could think of a Labrador retriever swimming in the local reservoir on a hot summer day or a swan alighting on a body of water—each of these examples gives us an image of the pleasure we can feel upon diving wholeheartedly into our work or our practice.
From Diligence: The Joyful Endeavor of the Buddhist Path by Dzigar Kongtrul © 2024 by Mangala Shri Bhuti. Reprinted in arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc. Boulder, CO.
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