THE MIND THAT REJOICES IN VIRTUE
THE PERFECTION of perseverance, or joyous perseverance, is also called the perfection of enthusiasm or energy. In Sanskrit it is virya and in Tibetan it is tsöndrü. Like the other perfections, it is a vital quality we need to develop. In A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Shantideva said,
One who practices patience in the above way should develop fortitude.
For awakening depends on fortitude;
because, without fortitude there is no merit,
as there is no movement without wind.
What is fortitude?
It is persevering effort in the cultivation of virtue.55
At present, we attempt to find happiness in mundane pleasure, and because of that we are always disappointed. Moreover, in our attempt, we create nonvirtue. Here Shantideva showed us that happiness is the complete opposite of this, that happiness lies in creating virtue. When we see this, we will naturally want to do virtuous things and we will find joy in doing them. When that happens we will have boundless energy to do more virtuous things. This is enthusiastic or joyous perseverance.
We Need Correct Practice as Well as Perseverance
Working for mundane happiness requires great, sustained effort. People such as butchers work long hours at very difficult physical labor, tirelessly accumulating negative karma by killing beings for money. Similarly, people stay out in terrible conditions — in heat, cold, and rain — fishing all day long, just so they can kill living beings for fun. Soldiers train under extreme conditions in order to be skilled at killing the enemy. People risk their lives to gain a good reputation or beat a competitor in business. Everywhere we look, people are working so hard creating nonvirtue to ensure a rebirth in the lower realms.
Perseverance must be correct perseverance; it must be persevering in doing positive actions, accumulating merit. From our side, we must develop perseverance but also ensure that we don’t cheat the holy Dharma by practicing incorrectly. With a correct understanding and correct application of the Dharma as the foundation, by persevering in the right practice we will certainly succeed. It is entirely in our hands.
We should work even more strenuously than the butchers, the fishers, or the soldiers, but for a positive reason: to destroy our delusions. If perseverance in a Dharma sense is rejoicing in virtue, we should joyfully endure whatever hardships we encounter in order to develop our mind. When others get angry with us or criticize us, when we are treated badly, we should be able to happily bear the hardships, because this is how we best train in the path to enlightenment.
In Heart-Instructions of The Book of Kadam, Yongzin Yeshé Gyaltsen attributed Lama Atisha56 as saying,
Just as any crops can grow when the soil is fertile,
In a good heart all higher qualities arise as wished for;
Whatever you do must be enforced by the awakening mind;
So stated Atisha to the spiritual mentor Dromtönpa.
One whose mind is stable and diligent has no obstacles;
One who is versed in what is allowed and what is proscribed goes to liberation.
Thus, learning, discipline, and kindness must complement each other;
this is most important, said the most excellent lord.57
Atisha started with the example of the field. If it is well plowed and well cultivated, then whatever is planted there will grow well. In the same way, if we have a good heart, then all our wishes will be attained; everything we wish for will happen. With perseverance there will be no obstacles to any happiness, especially to ultimate happiness, the freedom from the oceans of samsaric suffering, and peerless happiness, the state of the omniscient mind. I myself am lazy, but those who have perseverance have no obstacles. Whatever they want to achieve can be achieved.
There is a Tibetan saying that a turtle goes very, very slowly but reaches its goal, whereas a flea jumps all over the place but never gets anywhere. Somebody who is active for a short time — that is, someone who has a little perseverance but not enough — will not succeed. I think this saying is very useful.
Continuity is so important. We shouldn’t practice for a short while but then, due to lack of perseverance, give up because the mind has become weaker. Then maybe, after having stopped for a long time, we meet somebody or hear a talk and become inspired again, causing us to try again for a few days or a few months. It should not be like that. Even though the Dharma practice we do might be very small, it is most important to persevere with it.
We need concentration to develop on the path to enlightenment, and we need perseverance to overcome the obstacles to attaining perfect concentration. Without perseverance, even if we try to concentrate, we are trapped in the disturbed mind, distracted by either sinking or scattering thoughts, like being caught between the fangs of a vicious animal. Shantideva said,
Having developed fortitude in this way,
the bodhisattva should establish his mind in concentration,
for a person whose is distracted
is trapped in the jaws of the afflictions.58
We need perseverance, and we need to know what should be practiced and what should be abandoned. Learning, discipline, and kindness are so important. When we know the Dharma, we can develop the wisdom to discriminate right from wrong in this life. Then we can abandon what is wrong and practice what is right and, because of that, reach the blissful state of peace.
THE THREE TYPES OF PERSEVERANCE
There are three types of perseverance:
1. Armor-like perseverance
2. The perseverance of gathering virtue
3. The perseverance of working for the welfare of others
1. Armor-Like Perseverance
Seeing how all our happiness and suffering come from the mind, we must guard the mind at all times. In Opening the Door of Dharma, Lodrö Gyaltsen said,
What is the use of any conduct apart from the conduct of protecting the mind?59
This is very good to remember in our daily life. Even though we may do hundreds of other things, if we leave out this most important practice we cannot stop our problems and achieve happiness, especially ultimate happiness.
In A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Shantideva said,
He who would keep the precepts
should watch the mind diligently;
a person who does not watch the unstable mind
cannot keep the precepts.
Wild elephants in rut do not cause
in this world the damage
that the elephant of an unrestrained mind
will cause in the avici hell and all the other hells.
However, if the elephant of the mind
is well tied with the rope of mindfulness,
all danger vanishes,
all good is within our reach.60
Unless we protect our mind, what is the use of doing all the other things we do in life? The mind is habituated to nonvirtue; when the mind is unprotected, it will naturally go in that direction. Then, twenty-four hours a day, our life will be under the control of the self-cherishing mind, doing negative actions caused by the three poisons. Every single action of body, speech, and mind becomes negative karma, being the cause of not only future samsara but also the most unbearable suffering of the three lower realms.
However, when the crazy elephant mind is firmly bound by the rope of mindfulness, all fears, all dangers are stopped, and all virtues come into our hands, meaning we can easily attain all the realizations of the path to enlightenment, all the way up to enlightenment.
In Friendly Letter, speaking to the king the letter is addressed to, Nagarjuna said,
O Fearless One, what need to tell you more,
for here’s the counsel that will truly help:
the vital point is to tame your mind, for mind’s
the root of the Dharma, so the Buddha said.61
This relates directly to the essential teaching of the Buddha:
Do not perform any nonvirtuous actions,
perform only virtuous actions,
subdue your mind thoroughly —
this is the teaching of the Buddha.62
Subduing our mind is the very essence of the Dharma. We can do many practices to help us develop our mind, but the essential practice is not harming others — living in morality. That means that in our everyday life we bind the mind with the practice of mindfulness, overcoming any nonvirtuous thoughts and only developing virtuous ones. Like taking medicine when our body is sick, when we are aware of any nonvirtuous thought arising in our mind, we take the medicine of Dharma to avert it, applying the appropriate antidote.
When we protect our mind, we are protected from external harm. Of this, Shantideva said,
Tigers, lions, elephants, bears,
poisonous snakes and all human enemies,
and in addition all the jailers of hell,
as well as dakinis and rakshasas,
all of them become restrained
by merely restraining the mind,
and by merely taming the mind
they all become tame.
For He Who Speaks the Truth has said
that all the dangers
and the countless sorrows of the world
arise from the mind.63
No negative karma can ripen when we guard our mind, and so no harm can come to us. By not letting our mind be controlled by delusions, we don’t create negative karma, and so, of course, we don’t have to experience the negative result.
For example, Devadatta, the Buddha’s cousin, was very jealous of the Buddha and always tried to compete with and harm him. One day, when the Buddha was begging for alms, Devadatta sent a crazy elephant to attack him. However, instead of harming him, the elephant became completely subdued when it came into the presence of the Buddha. There is a similar story about how the Italian saint Francis of Assisi subdued a wolf through his great compassion. I also heard that mosquitoes never bit His Holiness Zong Rinpoche.64
Tying the mind to virtue, protecting it from delusions, means we don’t create negative karma, so there are no dangers to our life. Also, because of bodhichitta, our mind is subdued. Tying our mind to virtue and away from disturbing thoughts is like tying up all dangerous beings: tigers, snakes, hell guardians, and all our enemies. Due to the power of bodhichitta we are even able to control the elements.
These verses are very important to remember whenever you feel depressed. There are many reasons for feeling down, such as being unable to go on retreat because of family obligations or finding it difficult to learn the Dharma. To stop depression or other negative minds, it would be very good to write down these quotations and maybe make cards of them. You can hang them on the walls in your home to encourage you and keep your mind happy.
Perseverance means keeping at it despite the hardships. Guru Shakyamuni Buddha collected merit for three countless great eons before he attained enlightenment, sacrificing himself for other sentient beings by giving away his limbs, his eyes, and even his entire body. For three countless great eons he practiced morality and lived in the pratimoksha and bodhisattva vows, purely practicing patience and perseverance, and undergoing great hardships in order to become enlightened and benefit sentient beings such as ourselves. As it says in the Guru Puja, the perfection of perseverance means willingly remaining for countless eons in the hottest hell for even one sentient being. This is how the Buddha practiced, without discouragement or depression, with great joy.
2. The Perseverance of Gathering Virtue
The second type of perseverance is the perseverance of gathering virtue, which means finding joy in practicing the Dharma. As is said in the Compendium of the Perfections:
If you have great perseverance completely free from discouragement,
there is nothing that you cannot accomplish or attain.65
When we have perseverance to practice the Dharma, our life, whether long or short, becomes highly meaningful. How quickly we attain enlightenment depends on how much perseverance we have, because perseverance is the quality that keeps us from the distractions of worldly affairs, from laziness and sleep. The Sagaramati-Requested Sutra says,
The lazy person has no generosity, and so forth up to wisdom.
The lazy person cannot benefit others. The lazy person is far from enlightenment.66
Unless we develop our perseverance, we will find it very difficult not to succumb to laziness, losing all the merit we have accumulated through falling into nonvirtue. When this happens, we won’t even be able to achieve temporal success, let alone fulfill our ultimate purpose.
3. The Perseverance of Working for the Welfare of Others
Bodhisattvas work solely for the welfare of others and find incredible joy in doing so. This is the third kind of perseverance. No matter how long it takes and no matter how little progress we seem to make in helping others, we should never become discouraged. The Guru Puja says,
Even if I must remain for an ocean of eons in the fiery hells of Avici
for the sake of even just one sentient being,
I seek your blessings to complete the perfection of enthusiasm,
that out of compassion untiringly strives for supreme enlightenment.67
This verse shows us what the perfection of perseverance is, that for the sake of even one single sentient being we are able to work without discouragement or disillusionment, inexhaustibly, even if we have to endure the suffering of the lowest of the eight hot hells68 for an ocean of eons for that sentient being. This is the hottest of the hot hells, where the body is completely one with the intense fire, and the only way a being is recognizable as sentient is by the screams; we suffer this for an uncountable number of eons, said to be more than there are drops of water in the Pacific Ocean. We need this kind of resolve.
In the Adornment of the Mahayana Sutras, Maitreya Buddha said,
In order to generate a virtuous thought
in the mind of one sentient being,
a brave-hearted bodhisattva is happy even if they have to bear hardships
without discouragement for a hundred eons.69
We have made each sentient being endure unimaginable suffering when they were our parent, not just as a human but as every type of being. They were obliged to create negative karma that caused them to be born in the lower realms and experience the most terrible suffering for eons. For us to bear hardships for a hundred eons is nothing compared with that. When we see this, for that one sentient being we gladly bear pain, sickness, hunger, thirst, heat, cold, and so forth, in order to help that being overcome their suffering and lead them into happiness.
Liberation is so attractive to us because it means the complete cessation of all samsaric suffering and its causes. It means we never have to worry about pain and problems, about getting cancer or being poor. How happy we would be if we could actually achieve this. And yet the bodhisattvas pray for just the opposite. To be able to experience such problems for the sake of all sentient beings is incredible bliss for them. This can only happen with bodhichitta — when a bodhisattva takes on the sole responsibility to free all sentient beings from all suffering. Whatever suffering the bodhisattva has to endure is nothing; they experience it joyfully.
HOW TO DEVELOP PERSEVERANCE
Great strength of will is needed even for worldly ends. Dictators have incredible determination and focus as they plot to invade and conquer other countries. Even if it takes them their entire lives, they realize their desire to destroy the other countries’ defenses and take them over, using every resource they have. Hitler, for example, was a person of great determination. Look at the great destruction he caused to the countries in Europe. He could not have done this if he thought it was all too big for him to accomplish.
If strong, sustained energy is necessary for worldly pursuits, then there is no question it is needed for practicing the Dharma. We need the determination that we will work tirelessly, no matter how long it takes. If we do have such a resolve, we won’t have to wait a hundred thousand eons. There are various methods that will free us from samsara very quickly, in three lifetimes or even in one. It depends on us putting sustained and strong energy into destroying our delusions, which is why the perfection of perseverance is so important.
Developing perseverance means overcoming the various forms of laziness, which are generally listed as three:
1. The laziness of procrastination
2. The laziness of being attached to worldly affairs
3. The laziness of discouragement and low self-worth
Of this Shantideva said,
What are the adversaries of fortitude?
They are: indolence, a fondness for evil, despondency, and self-deprecation.70
In addition, there are qualities we need to develop, which the texts usually list as these:
• aspiration
• unwavering resolve
• joy
• correct application
1. Overcoming the Laziness of Procrastination
When I was studying for my US passport, I had to learn about American history, about how the US freed itself from British control and about how people fought for the end of slavery. I’m afraid I made a complete mess of it, getting Pearl Harbor confused with the Civil War and not knowing what the Stars and Stripes was. One person who struck me as amazing was Martin Luther King Jr., who worked so hard for the rights of black people in the US. But as difficult were the fights to end slavery, for equal rights, and for women’s liberation, none of them are anywhere near as difficult or as urgent as the fight to be free from the dictatorship of the self-cherishing mind.
Under the yoke of the dictator — our self-cherishing — and controlled by his generals — the three poisons — we are fighting for our freedom. We must escape, and so we must use every means at our disposal. Because at present we have this perfect human rebirth, it is vital we don’t waste a moment of it; we must use every moment to develop bodhichitta. And yet we find it so hard to even pick up a Dharma book!
Under the dictatorship of the self-cherishing mind, we have made ourselves slaves to its derivatives: ignorance, attachment, and anger, and the other disturbing emotions. From beginningless lives we have been under their control, completely misunderstanding what freedom is. We have mistakenly thought they were a means for gaining freedom, and so we have followed them and enslaved ourselves to them. We cry out, “I want to be myself!” and yet we follow our self-cherishing as it leads us from one problem to the next. Our worries and fears are unending. As soon as one ends, the next begins. It’s the same thing again and again, like always opening a new box and finding the same things inside: relationship problems, work problems, and on and on. We think we are giving ourselves freedom by following the ego, but actually we are just working for our delusions — we are slaves to their dictates. Whatever our delusions want, we give in to them. With this totally wrong understanding, we force ourselves to suffer in samsara, just as we have from beginningless time. We have no energy for anything other than working for our delusions. We might be very active but this is laziness.
As Shantideva said,
Indolence develops when, out of inertia,
or due to a taste for pleasure, or due to mental torpor,
or because one craves for the comforts of a soft pillow,
one is not sensitive to the sufferings of transmigration.71
At present we find it hard to find the time to meditate or study any Dharma. To even chant a mantra seems a chore. On the other hand, we have great energy for watching television or going to parties, or just staying in bed. When we understand how attachment to worldly pleasures, to the eight worldly dharmas,72 is trapping us, we can learn how real happiness lies in virtue. Then, when we have joy in virtue, we can turn our life around from nonvirtue to virtue.
Later in the chapter Shantideva said,
You have obtained this human condition,
which is like a raft — cross then the river of suffering.
You fool, this is no time for sleep,
you will not find this craft easily again.73
The “raft” means this perfect human rebirth, the raft we use to cross the suffering of samsara and attain enlightenment. Because of its rarity and preciousness, and because it can be lost at any moment, while we have it we must not waste a moment; we must not sleep. That doesn’t mean we don’t sleep at all. By “sleep” Shantideva means letting our vigilance waver, lapsing back into nonvirtuous actions, and wasting this precious chance we now have.
Of course, if we are attached to our bed then maybe Shantideva does mean sleep in that way. Maybe in that case we should follow the example of the monks and nuns in the big Tibetan monasteries and nunneries who often get up at three or four o’clock in the morning and do their prayers before a full day of study, pujas, and debate that very often doesn’t finish until very late at night. They survive on a few hours’ sleep each day because their minds are so energized with virtue, unlike we worldly people who need half the day to recover from the nonvirtuous activities that take up the other half.
Each second of this perfect human rebirth is more precious than skies filled with wish-granting jewels. Using this perfect human rebirth, within one second we can attain the three great meanings: a better future rebirth, liberation, and enlightenment. It gives us the most precious jewel of bodhichitta, which means we can fulfill our full potential and become a buddha in order to best serve others. Even if we don’t have a dollar to our name, even if we are not sure where tonight’s meal will come from, we are richer than a person possessing billions of diamonds and mountains of gold or even skies of wish-granting jewels.74
We have this human body endowed with its eight freedoms and ten richnesses, and because of that we can use it as a boat to cross the ocean of samsara to the other side, to reach the end of suffering and its causes. We can use this boat to cease not just the gross defilements that block us from liberation from suffering but also the subtle defilements that block us from full enlightenment. Therefore, while we have this boat, we must use it.
In chapter 4 of A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, the chapter on conscientiousness, Shantideva showed us how rare obtaining such a human rebirth is — as rare as a blind turtle putting its neck through a golden ring floating on the ocean when it surfaces once every hundred years. Unless we take this precious opportunity now, the Lord of Death will come and our work will never be completed.
I remember the second pilgrimage I made to Tibet. Very near the birthplace of Lama Yeshe we came across a truck filled with thornbushes with a calf stuffed in one corner. It had big, terrified eyes, and we all knew it was on its way to the butcher. Knowing this was the calf’s fate, we stopped the driver and bought it.
When cows reach the slaughterhouse, as they are roughly pulled from the trucks by ropes through the rings in their noses and dragged to the slaughter yard, they pull back, instinctively fearing what will happen. The butcher then kills them with an axe or a big knife.
If they had human bodies, they could plead for their lives in billions of words; they could pay whatever bribe was demanded; they could do all sorts of things to escape. But they cannot communicate, and so, no matter how much fear they have, there is nothing they can do. They must wait to be slaughtered to become food for human beings.
They have all been human beings like us in numberless past lives but because they were unable to transform their minds by practicing the Dharma, they were forced to transmigrate into animal bodies and so suffer this result.
We have all sorts of karma, virtuous and nonvirtuous, on our mental continuum, collected since beginningless time. If we check to see how much of each kind of karma we accumulate in one day, can we truthfully say there is more virtuous than nonvirtuous? What actions, no matter how small, were done with the attachment clinging to this life? What actions were done with a bodhichitta motivation? Or with the right view or renunciation? What was the motivation for eating our breakfast? If it was attachment to this life, then each bite was nonvirtue, the cause of suffering; if it was renunciation, right view, or bodhichitta, then each bite was virtue, the cause of happiness. In the same way, when we check the motivation for going to work, for shopping, for sleeping — for all the many actions we do in one day — we can see if we are creating more virtuous or more nonvirtuous karma.
This is the choice we face every second of our life. Whatever we do can be virtuous or nonvirtuous, it can be Dharma or non-Dharma, it can be the cause for future happiness or future suffering. And so whatever we do can lead us to the fortunate upper realms or to the utter misery of the lower realms. This is why we must be so mindful of everything we do. If we are not careful with all our actions of body, speech, and mind, then the habitual nonvirtuous minds can take over, and we can do things that harm ourselves and others and plant the seeds for countless rebirths in the lower realms.
Reflecting on Impermanence Generates Perseverance
In one of the sutras it says that when a king dies, he leaves behind his palaces, his wealth, his wives, and his luxury; when a beggar dies, he leaves behind his walking stick. No matter how different their lifestyles were, they are both completely equal in death in what they can take with them — nothing. Like pulling a hair from butter, where not one atom of butter comes with the hair, at death our mind leaves our body and all our possessions and takes another body. The only thing we take with us is our accumulation of karmic imprints, both positive and negative.
When we die with attachment, we are terrified of losing everything, suddenly seeing all these things we have clung to being taken from us. In this state, we leave this life and go to the next. There is a popular saying:
You cannot be sure which will come first,
Tomorrow or the next life,
Therefore, do not put effort into tomorrow’s plans
But instead it is worthwhile to attend to the next life.75
We leave everything behind when we die, even our body, this thing we cherish above all else. At present we treasure our friends, seeing them as sources of our happiness, but when we die they can do nothing to help us. They cannot share our suffering in the slightest. Furthermore, our attachment to them becomes a huge hindrance to our peaceful death. And so even if we have been with them all our life, at death they become capable of bringing us great harm.
Nothing is definite in samsara. As the Buddha said,
Everything together falls apart;
everything rising up collapses;
every meeting ends in parting;
every life ends in death.76
There is the story of the four people who craved four different things. There was the king who craved power, the trader who craved possessions, the person who craved friends, and the person who craved a long life. The king was unable to hold on to his power and became powerless and miserable; the trader lost every possession; the person who craved friends was completely separated from them; and the person who craved a long life died young. Whatever we cling to we are bound to lose.
When we see this, we realize that we should not postpone our Dharma practice. We might wake up one day thinking we will live for a long time — and we will be dead before that day finishes. Or perhaps we will still be alive tomorrow. Who knows? The only guarantee is that we will die. Without that certainty, will we have the strength to go against our habitual laziness?
The great yogi Milarepa is a wonderful example of perseverance. Through reflecting on impermanence and death he found the courage to withstand incredible hardships in order to practice the Dharma, including living in a cave with nothing but a cooking pot and nettles to eat. Later on, he was able to control the four elements, meaning nothing could affect his health, but in the beginning he had to overcome the sufferings of heat, cold, hunger, and great discomfort in order to meditate. He said,
I fled to the mountains because I feared death.
I have realized emptiness, the mind’s primordial state.
Were I to die now, I have no fear.77
Reflecting well on impermanence and death gives us the perseverance we need to withstand any hardship we encounter without fear. While we cling to samsara we fear so many things, but when we deeply understand the impermanence of all things, including our own life, we can overcome the cycle of death and rebirth. Rather than the sort of perseverance that makes us pursue what is meaningless, here, with the courage gained from the reflection on impermanence and death, we have the power and determination to overcome our delusions and only do what is meaningful in our life.
2. Overcoming the Laziness of Attachment to Samsaric Activities
The next sort of laziness we must overcome is the laziness of being attached to worldly affairs. Laziness, in this context, is not what we would usually associate with the word. We can enjoy chasing worldly pleasures and work hard in order to have what we want — we can be incredibly busy — but that is considered laziness because it distracts us from our Dharma practice. It is the love of nonvirtuous acts and the reluctance to do virtuous ones.
Perhaps at present getting up to meditate still requires an effort. Because our bed is comfortable and the weather is cold, we stay in bed until the last minute, rush breakfast, and hurry off to work. We feel we have no time to meditate, but that is a misconception; there is time to meditate if we make the time. Time is not inherently existent; it ceases and arises, and we can create the causes and conditions for more time to meditate if we really want to. At present, comfort and breakfast seem more important than meditating, but if we could understand the importance of our Dharma practice, there would be plenty of time.
While we still need to sleep, even if we are making the most of this perfect human rebirth, it is definitely possible to get by on less sleep in order to do more meditation. It might be difficult at present but, as Shantideva said, everything becomes easier with familiarization. We can get into the habit of rising a half hour or an hour earlier in order to meditate.
We have energy for whatever we have an interest in. We have no problem working hard at things such as planning our holiday, because they are important to us. Whether we have time for practice — to do meditation or recite prayers — is a question of interest, of how important we feel the Dharma is, how much we want to help other sentient beings, how much we understand about impermanence and death, the suffering of the lower realms, and so forth.
And yet now we delay and procrastinate because we think that practicing the Dharma might be too hard or require too much effort. Overcoming laziness, being reluctant to do something, is just a matter of understanding its importance. When we see the Dharma as even more important than worldly activities, we will have the energy and perseverance to speedily progress on the path.
3. Overcoming the Laziness of Discouragement
The last of the three sorts of laziness, the laziness of discouragement and low self-worth, can be overcome by understanding how practicing the Dharma is the infallible cure for all our problems. With physical illnesses such as cancer, although medicine might cure them, there is no guarantee they will never recur. The Dharma is the medicine that cures the delusions, and once we have eliminated all our delusions it is impossible to ever experience them again.
Seeing there is the chance to finally completely remove even the seed of delusions, no matter how long it takes, should give us great determination to practice as purely as we can and not be discouraged when difficulties arise. When we find it hard to protect our karma and not commit nonvirtuous actions, instead of becoming discouraged, we should think about how long we have been sick in samsara because of these countless delusions, and how, once we have destroyed them, they can never return. This will strengthen our will and make us even more determined to persevere in our Dharma practice.
Overcoming our delusions is not easy. Making a rocket and landing it on the moon is difficult, but controlling and overcoming our delusions is far more difficult. It is also far more beneficial and valuable. For one thing, we don’t need to purify our delusions to land a rocket on the moon — we can do that while we are full of delusions — whereas to even enter the Mahayana at the first path requires incredible purification.
Once we have completely purified all obscurations and accumulated all the merit and have become fully enlightened, we will have completed our Dharma practice. There is no higher goal than this. Therefore we should not have a small heart when we are practicing the Dharma — we should not be scared away by physical and mental difficulties that arise in our path.
Say, for instance, we are planning to climb Mount Everest. Despite knowing the extreme difficulty of the climb and the great dangers of the route to the top, our desire to reach the summit is so strong we have no doubt we can overcome all obstacles. And when we are on the trek, no matter what occurs — the snow, the wind, the avalanches, the physical hardships, the altitude sickness, and so forth — our determination to reach the top allows us to carry on where other people would have turned back. With this iron-clad determination we will certainly reach the peak. However, if we thought it was going to be a safe and easy trek, then with the first avalanche we would become completely discouraged and give up the whole expedition.
This is the same with our Dharma practice. We should not expect to overcome all our gross delusions after a few months’ meditation. If we expect quick results, we can become easily disillusioned. Having unrealistic expectations will bring problems, causing our development to be up and down, and maybe even causing us to abandon our practice altogether.
We need to be farsighted. Our goal has to stretch further than bubble gum being pulled from the mouth! Unless we have patience with ourselves and perseverance to continue when there are hardships, our mind will waver whenever we encounter a problem. Even the buddhas cannot count the number of delusions we have on our mindstream, so we shouldn’t be disillusioned when we don’t gain realizations in a few weeks. We must have the energy to persevere for a long time, working continuously to destroy our delusions, thinking that even if it takes a hundred thousand eons we will never be discouraged.
Overcoming Self-Contempt
When problems occur, we can easily become discouraged and feel that we are hopeless, that there is no way we can practice the Dharma. “I’m ignorant, I’m terrible, I can’t do anything.” “I have so much anger, I can never get rid of it.” “I’m supposed to be renouncing attachment, but I’m just getting more attached to things.” “Dharma is too difficult for me to understand. It takes too long and I have no patience.” This kind of thinking can be very damaging. The mind cannot be transformed instantaneously. That’s the American style, where everybody is so busy and everything gets done so quickly. Dharma is training the mind, and that takes time. However, that busy energy that people have in the West is extremely good if it can be used to practice the Dharma. Keeping busy in the Dharma is excellent.
When we are discouraged and feeling strong self-contempt, we should remember this advice: “When the discouraged mind arises, elevate the thought.” When we feel our spirit is low, right down on the ground, we should lift it up by thinking about what we have and realizing how extremely fortunate we are. When we look at our perfect human rebirth, with its eight freedoms and ten richnesses, we can see our huge potential. We are not worthless at all but can succeed in whatever we want to do. This technique is extremely useful when we are feeling discouraged about our Dharma practice, but we can even use it for worldly things such as when we feel we are failing in our business or in a relationship.
Of course it is difficult to change bad habits. Our entire life and for countless lives before we have been under the control of attachment. We cannot expect that to drastically change in a few weeks or months or even years. Even habits such as smoking are extremely difficult to break. We should therefore not feel discouraged when we fail to see any progress after some time. Such discouragement could make us give up — we might think that the Dharma doesn’t work and return to our old life and our old problems.
Although Milarepa attained enlightenment in one lifetime, he had developed his understanding of emptiness and his renunciation in previous lifetimes. Guru Shakyamuni Buddha also developed his merit over eons. To expect instant realizations is a fantasy. How can that happen? This is the expectation of a limited mind.
We can only purify our negativities and create merit little by little, drop by drop. When we see this, we can develop the determination to persevere no matter how hard it is. Then, whether we are up or down, we see the importance of perseverance. Shantideva said,
How could he be discouraged,
this sage who moves in this way from bliss to bliss?
I have obtained this chariot of the thought of awakening,
which leaves behind all weariness and fatigue.78
GATHERING THE FAVORABLE CONDITIONS
As well as overcoming the three forms of laziness, we need to gather the favorable conditions for generating perseverance.
Aspiration
Because in the past we did not understand karma and therefore created nonvirtue, we must now face suffering. If we had only practiced the Dharma in the past, then this would not have happened. Understanding this deeply gives us the aspiration to only practice the Dharma. Of this, Shantideva said,
I lacked in past lives the will to practice Dharma,
therefore now I have been born into such a miserable birth.
Seeing this, who would abandon
his determination to practice Dharma.
The Sage has said that zeal is the root of all virtue;
and the root of this zeal
is the constant contemplation
of the eventual fruit of the ripening of our actions.79
Our happiness depends on our attitude and our actions, on whether every action of body, speech, and mind is one of virtue or nonvirtue. With a bodhichitta motivation, every action will not only be the remedy to cut the root of suffering; it will also be the cause for happiness, to liberate ourselves from samsara and to attain full enlightenment. Living our life with this motivation is the best way to spend every moment — it’s the best preparation for death and the best preparation for all the coming future lives. Each time we transform our mind into renunciation, bodhichitta, and right view, we are preparing our mind. This is something we must persevere with. Shantideva said,
Therefore, I should exercise my will in meritorious activities,
having cultivated it zealously in this way.
One should cultivate it by adopting pride
as it is recommended in the Vajradhvaja.
First one should consider the circumstances,
and then decide whether to go ahead or not.
For it is better not to begin at all,
than to begin and then give up.
The habit will persist in future lives too,
and the suffering resulting from sin will increase.
Another worthy enterprise will be neglected, time and effort will be lost,
and you will have not accomplished the task you had begun.80
Once we have begun to transform our mind we must continue. If we become discouraged, we will return to old habits and this will increase in future lives, causing even more suffering. We must see how the source of all the happiness and success of our future lives depends on how much we are able to develop our mind by practicing Dharma now. Whether it is going to be easy or difficult, whether we will be able to have another human rebirth or not, depends on how we live each day, how much we can develop our mind now. We have this responsibility to our next life.
Unwavering Resolve
Along with aspiration, we need unwavering resolve or steadfastness in order to never falter in our efforts to transform our mind. Of this Shantideva said,
As one would pick up his sword with great fear,
if it was dropped in the midst of battle,
so, if one loses the sword of mindfulness,
one will pick it up at once fearing the hells.
As poison, once it enters the bloodstream
will spread throughout the body,
a vice that finds a weak spot
will spread through the mind.
One who has adopted the vows should be like the man
who was forced to carry a bowl filled to the rim with oil under threat of death if he spilled any.
As he was watched by sword-bearing guards,
he could think of nothing but that bowl, for fear of stumbling and dying.
Therefore, if one feels stupor and sloth approaching,
one should react swiftly against them,
as anyone would jump up
if a snake fell on his lap.81
Here is vital advice on how to practice awareness during our meditation session and in our daily life. Because our delusions can arise at any moment, overwhelming us and causing us to create nonvirtue, we must therefore always be on the lookout, constantly protecting our mind. If we ever become aware of a nonvirtuous thought arising, we should shake it off like we would shake off a snake we found in our lap when we woke from a deep sleep, not hesitating for one instant for fear of being bitten.
Each time there is some unwholesome thought or action, we should see its damage, regret having done it, and analyze why it happened, resolving never to do it again. Seeing the importance of Dharma practice, we should not allow anything to interfere with us developing our mind, either laziness or attachment to worldly things. We should not be caught in the comfort of this life.
Whereas worldly beings cherish comfort and happiness and have feelings for those who help them but not those who harm them, we should reverse those attitudes. Geshe Chen Ngawa advised Dharma practitioners to have these four attitudes:
• to cherish sentient beings more than buddhas
• to cherish suffering more than happiness
• to cherish enemies more than friends
• to cherish others more than ourselves
This is the unwavering resolve we should have, but it seems the opposite of Western psychology, which says we should concentrate on self-interest rather than thinking about others. Cherishing ourselves is healthy, whereas renouncing ourselves is unhealthy.
I remember a student in London a long time ago being very puzzled by this. He had read in important books on Western psychology that happiness comes from things we do, whereas problems come from what others do to us, and therefore we are right to blame other people, such as our parents, for our unhappiness. This view is missing an understanding of karma. When we understand karma we can see that everything comes from the mind and that we are responsible for our own happiness and suffering. Only by renouncing our self-cherishing can we be free from suffering, and that means renouncing our attachment and our view of the person who harms our self-cherishing as being our enemy. Another thing missing from that view is compassion — seeing the suffering of others as unbearable and wishing to do something about it. Basically, because karma was missing, compassion was missing.
When we only think of short-term happiness for ourselves, we are bound to only create the cause of suffering for ourselves. When we think of long-term happiness for others, we create the cause of happiness for both ourselves and others. I remember I suggested that after that student had attained his degree in philosophy, he should discard those Western psychology books and use his own wisdom.
Rejoicing
The practice of rejoicing in merit is a very important practice we should do as often as possible. Among the virtues, it is the best one to practice because it is the easiest. It is simply a mental action — one that accumulates merit as infinite as space. Rejoicing increases any merit we have created, like investing a hundred dollars and getting interest all the time until we have thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, then millions of dollars.
When we rejoice in the merit we created, we accumulate more merit than we did when we actually performed the action. When we rejoice in the merit of other sentient beings, if their level of mind is lower than ours we accumulate double the merit they do, whereas if their level of mind is higher than ours we accumulate half that merit. For instance, if we rejoice in the merit that a bodhisattva creates in one day, we accumulate half that merit, which would otherwise take us at least fifteen thousand years to accumulate.
Most of the time, we see happiness as experiencing sense pleasures, so we use this precious human rebirth to create causes of suffering. When somebody gives us a cup of tea or an ice cream or we make a dollar’s profit in our business, we feel so happy. When we fail to get such things, we feel miserable. Because we feel competitive with others, we are jealous and unhappy when they succeed and we don’t. This is how we lead our life.
When we learn to appreciate our precious human existence, however, we learn that these things are unimportant. Our joy will come from creating virtue. We could miss out on a cup of tea or even lose all our money without any sense of unhappiness. Only creating virtue matters, and when we do, we have good reason to rejoice.
Correct Application
If our body and mind become tired through having exerted much energy or if there is a danger that tiredness will make us unable to continue in the future, it is necessary to take a short rest. On recovery, we can resume our practice of perseverance. As Shantideva said,
If one is not suited to the task,
the moment one realizes this one should abandon it.
And once a task has been completed,
one should give it up for the one that will follow.82
DEVELOPING THE POWER OF PERSEVERANCE
We need an extensive mind, one that sustains the determination to achieve what we wish, no matter what obstacle we encounter: illness, heat, cold, or whatever. We cannot succeed with a weak mind. Just as Milarepa bore great hardships to gain realizations, living an austere life and eating only nettles, we need continued, strong practice.
It is a great mistake to say a prayer such as the Foundation of All Good Qualities with palms together and eyes squeezed shut, wishing to generate this realization immediately and then, at the end of the prayer, feel disappointed we have not succeeded. Realizations will not happen until we have overcome obstacles; we must have the determination to face them and destroy them.
There are said to be three attitudes needed when meditating on the lamrim:
• generating a long view
• generating an extensive thought
• being relaxed
Always having a long view means always having the motivation to achieve enlightenment. Having an extensive thought means determining to progress through the graduated paths of the three capable beings in order to do that. Even though the body of our actual practice is bodhichitta, the graduated path of the higher capable being, we need to encompass the other two paths as well, never forgetting the preliminary meditations that will enable us to attain bodhichitta. We need the extensive thought that no matter how long it takes, we will persevere until we succeed.
The third attitude is having a relaxed mind. It’s important not to squeeze our mind — that is, to hold it tight for a few weeks and then, unable to sustain that, completely lose our meditation. After that, because nothing has happened, there is no energy to continue. Then we are completely relaxed, which is not the meaning of this third attitude! Rather than a short, too-intense time of meditation that is followed by collapse, with the mind slack and unable to focus at all, we should maintain a relaxed balance, neither too tight nor too loose. In that way we can sustain our practice.
It is unwise to rush to the mountains for an intense retreat after being inspired by teachings from the guru, only to burn out after a few days and develop complete aversion for the practice because of it. We have to be sensible and do the practice that is most appropriate for us at this moment.
Making the Mind Serviceable
In the Bodhisattva’s Jewel Garland, Atisha said,
Discard all lingering doubts
And strive with dedication in your practice.
Thoroughly relinquish sloth, mental dullness, and laziness,
And strive always with joyful perseverance.
With mindfulness, awareness, and heedfulness,
Constantly guard the gateways of your senses.
Again and again, three times both day and night,
Examine the flow of your thoughts.83
This is essential advice for developing our mind in bodhichitta. Having certainty in the worthiness of the Dharma, we should always exert ourselves, persevering no matter what problems we encounter. When we try to meditate, we need to overcome sleepiness, dullness, and laziness. Furthermore, we should always try to be joyful.
When we study any lamrim subject in enough depth we can see its value, and this gives us courage to continue. We can keep our mind in virtue every day by remembering that the sufferings of the lower realms are the results of negative karma such as the ten nonvirtues. Nagarjuna compared this to a rider keeping their horse on the right track by whipping its flanks. When the mind is still apt to wander into nonvirtue, we need to whip it back into the virtuous path by remembering the lower realms.
Then, seeing how the whole of samsara is suffering, we are inspired to do whatever we need in order to become free from it. For that, we happily take the various levels of vows: the pratimoksha vows, the bodhisattva vows, and the tantric vows. Then, seeing how all other sentient beings are suffering so much, strong compassion naturally arises and, with the wish to help them in whatever way we can, we do everything possible to attain bodhichitta and full enlightenment. This gives us the perseverance to never waver from our Dharma practice.
For this, we always practice awareness and conscientiousness in order to protect the doors of our senses. This is like the example from Shantideva above: somebody carrying a bowl full of mustard oil would be incredibly attentive if threatened with death should one drop be spilled. It is that important to keep our mind alert so that we don’t slip into nonvirtue. Our awareness of the consequences of creating negative karma — the unbearable suffering of the lower realms — is like the person holding the sword.
By maintaining our remembrance and awareness we can have conscientiousness. We will always keep our mind on the path with guru devotion, renunciation, bodhichitta, and right view, and if we have a tantric practice, we will keep it purely.
The perfect meditation needs two elements: remembrance and awareness. Awareness is being able to recognize when our mind is distracted, when it is not in the Dharma. Remembrance is holding the mind on that virtuous object, always remembering it. If our mind slips and we lose the object, not remembering it, and if we don’t have the awareness that we have slipped, we can waste many hours distracted with nonvirtuous objects.
We must always protect the doors of our senses from any object that might cause attachment, anger, or any other negative emotion to arise. This can only happen if we watch our mind day and night, practicing mindfulness, checking whether our mind is Dharma or non-Dharma, whether it is virtuous or nonvirtuous. This is a huge job and it needs great perseverance.