Good morning.
Well, I got angry again. Hasn't even been a month since I was in this seat. It's not me in this seat, but and this was at work again. This is some important life safety drawings and confusion came up about who's supposed to be who's responsible for updating them.
And as the anger arose, I was aware of it and I was able to track that. And words of compassion and understanding were not available to me for a moment. I recognized how much energy it takes to be continuously vigilant about what's going on and how much more energy it takes to actually do something about it.
So our topic for today is another of the paramitas that is the paramita of energy the paramita of joyful effort. I'll break it down into three sections. We'll talk about effort and then we'll talk about perfection and then we'll talk about joyful. So starting with effort and noting that this perfect effort is not something that we generate, something we create. It's something that arises naturally in the world. And if we're in touch with everything and not stuck in the separate self, then that joyful effort is is there. But before perfection, we can we can arouse a little bit of energy into our practice.
This effort requires tremendous energy. No individual could have the energy required for joyful effort for the world. And of course, Zen is all about breaking down that notion of individual.
Dale Wright translates Arya Sura's statement from his work on joyful effort as energy is made available through sources beyond the open boundaries of the individual self. Oh yeah, that was just what I was thinking about. So this energy available out there need not be mystical. You know the sort of energy you could tap into with a crystal or something
but is something that once the separate self is penetrated we act as a sangha and we know that as a sangha we have tremendous energy tremendous joyful effort I mean look at this for example we as human beings together and of course approaching our day-to-day, we have to start with what's in front of us, with the drawing that hasn't been updated, with the the lunch that hasn't been made, with the statement that has been said. I'm going to take an aside for just a moment and try to just quickly acknowledge that as I was jotting down some thoughts for the talk, I was recognizing how limited our language is and in the context of our practice where we're either leaning into or leaning away from everything that comes up for us. All the language that we have, we have connotations that go with it. And so some of the words that I'm looking at throughout the talk have different meanings in different connotations in different places. And we really want to be looking just at what's fruitful versus what is hindering. What supports intimacy and boundlessness versus what increases suffering. Sometimes there's two terms. One of them is an antidote to the other. For example, loving kindness is an antidote to aversion. And so we have this feeling of good. You know, loving kindness is good and aversion bad. Sometimes we're shooting for the middle way between two things. There's hierarchy and there's non- hierarchy. And sometimes we put a hierarchy when there's not actually one there.
And even when there's a hierarchy, for example, when we're looking at our interpretation of the precepts, we talk about looking at from the levels of the literal level and the relative level and the absolute level. But then we say, well, but they're not really hierarchal. And we we have to have a foot in both locations. And and that is the actualization that Dogen is talking about is our our foot in both level. Our perspective from both sides act you know the Fukanzazengi actualizing the fundamental point to actualize something is to make it actual. So the way that we make enlightenment actual is through our practice.
So energy and I'm kind of equating you know energy and effort and activity are all interrelated.
A Shanti Deva statement on this energy effort activity where we're trying to get to mounted on the horse of Bodhichitta which puts to light all mournful weariness. What lucid person could be in despair proceeding this way from joy to joy.
Shanti Deva was a Buddhist monk at Naropa University around the year 700 CE who is credited with a work called the Bodhicaryavatara, the way of the bodhisattva. And that note that we just said about the horse of Bodhichitta. That rather than generating this energy ourselves, we're just going to sit on Bodhichitta and let Bodhichitta do it. And Bodhichitta is that desire for the welfare of all beings that work for the welfare of all beings. Which starts with a seed, which starts with a hey, would you like all beings to be happy? You know that first seed doesn't tell you you have to do anything. It's just would Yeah, sure. I'd like all beings to be happy. That'd be nice. We can start working toward it. And Shanti Deva goes on to say our guide that being Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. Our guide instructs us to begin by giving vegetable greens or other little things. So it was suggest we just start with a make an offering of the the top that we cut off the carrot. Make that as an offering heartfelt by giving vegetable greens that later step by step the habit once acquired we may be able to donate our very flesh. For when we truly feel our bodies are no different from the given herbs. What hardship can there be in giving up, relinquishing our very flesh?
And Shanti Deva is pretty hardcore and and speaks very literally of giving up the flesh, which you know, we look at the literal level and and we also look at what does that mean for me? Giving up my flesh is giving my life to the benefit of other beings. And while Shanti Deva is hardcore and we can add a little bit more self-compassion maybe when reading there is the statements in there that he recognizes as well when weary I should leave my work and having rested take it up again. When a project has been properly completed then turn my mind to what must follow.
So as we've been saying in our paramita talks observing and something that in this chapter and the paramita of joyful effort both the other two primary resources that we've been using Norman Fischer's book and and Dale Wright's book they all they both speak at length about taking care of ourselves Being in the right place, being rested, exercising, being properly nourished for the benefit of others.
And of course, there's meditation.
When my mind is weak, even a minor difficulty is oppressive. When one is made passive by defeatism, without doubt, difficulties take effect.
Getting back to what I was looking at at the beginning that okay, just by practicing paying attention, sometimes it's available to notice what's going on, to notice what's coming up in my mind.
Yeah. At all times and in any situation, how can I make mindfulness my constant habit? Thinking thus, I will desire to meet with teachers and fulfill the proper tasks. So, we identify that mindfulness is our goal. We practice meditation. And boy, it's sure easier when we do it together. With teachers, we sit together.
I'm going to intersperse some discussion today with the talk. So there'll be three opportunities for discussion at least to get some input and for the first two we'll leave the recording going. So, I'm going to ask to get the the mic out and we'll get some input from people at this point having looked at effort and ask if we can get three or four examples that you have witnessed of joyful effort. What joyful effort have you witnessed?
I'll take the easy one. Just visualizing people in this room painting and attaching trim and laying floors and just, you know, we got tired sometimes, I think, but there was just so much joy. Like, I think it wouldn't if we had just gotten the thing done but been miserable, it wouldn't feel right. And it just feels so good in here. So I definitely a lot of effort and a lot of joy. And I also noticed like thinking back over that process, it's easy for the mind to overemphasized a couple of times there was stickiness or grouchiness, but it's actually like you know a very small percentage. It was pretty much pure joy most of the time. So we're sitting in it. Yeah. Thank you. Even shoveling blocks of concrete right in this room. Yeah. What else? Where is joyful effort showing up. Chris?
I've had the privilege of being sewing teacher for many years and it's it's a really, really lovely wonderful endeavor to sew Buddhist robes together. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes there was a lot of frustration. But how often people have come afterwards and say, "I really enjoyed it so much. I almost want to sew another one." Key word almost.
One more.
I have a there, that's better. I have a very deep appreciation of my wife and my sister who are always there for me and I get so much pleasure just being with them
including she's here with me my wife is here with me now,
I guess that's it. And that's plenty. Thank you.
Let's look at perfection a bit. And looking at perfections, this applies to all the paramitas.
Once upon a time Sangharaja went to visit the Buddha. This is from the Sangharaja Sutra. The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama and Sangharaja asked what is the cause Mr. Gautama? What is the reason why sometimes even hymns that are long rehearsed don't spring to mind? In other words, I have been trying to learn the Daihishin Dharani for three years. How come I stop?
And the Buddha responds, rimen, there is a time when your heart is overcome and mired in aversion and you don't truly understand the escape from aversion that has arisen. At that time, you don't truly know or see what is good. So, well, we have a hard time with things because we've got so much going on our minds. And one of the hindrances is aversion. Suppose that there was a bowl of water that was heated with fire, boiling and bubbling, even a person with clear eyes checking their own reflection wouldn't know it. In the same way, when your heart is overcome and mired in aversion, you don't truly know what is good.
So in this sutra, the Buddha hits each of the five hindrances, desire, aversion, sloth, restfulness, and doubt, and compares them to trying to see reflection in a bowl of water. Your reflection of your face, which is always there, but it's covered up. He likens desire with dye being in the water that you can't see the reflection because the water is cloudy with dye. We talked about aversion is like boiling water. Sloth or sleepiness is like having algae growing in the water. Restlessness is like having a wind coming by and rippling up the water so they can't see the surface. And doubt is like having muddy water.
So each of those items, perfection isn't adding something to the water, right? Perfection isn't making our face. Our face is there already. The perfection is trying to penetrate those hindrances.
Bodhi Dharma had a similar teaching which was the practice of seeing enlightenment is the sun and recognizing that the clouds are what's blocking us from seeing the sun. The sun is still there even in Bellingham.
I appreciated Bob Rose giving his talk putting the little figurines if you were here for that on the on the podium. Our avatar bodhisattvas and he was I believe he had Avalokiteshvara or Guanyin and jizo bodhisattvas. So this paramita the paramita of effort could be associated with the bodhisattva Samantabhadra Bodhisattva of great activity and and what does that mean to have an embodiment?
What is an embodiment of great activity or what is an embodiment of compassion? The perfection is there in the world and we can address it as a caring being which and I'll say again need not be mystical
because that caring is made up of beings that perfection of caring in the world is the composite of the energy that all of us have. Now it doesn't need to be mystical but once we start breaking down the separation between form and emptiness and emptiness is form we see every everything is mystical.
The avatar is us. The perfections are us. Our original face once we penetrate the cloudiness of the water.
Our practice makes Samantabhadra actual and that's our practice not my practice. Penetrate that my.
Another thought on the perfection of effort from Norman Fischer actually two thoughts from Norman. One is just his observation that sometimes we engage in that effort out of laziness. Right? I was talking at the beginning about how the words can get confusing and how is effort laziness? Well, sometimes we'll just put so much energy into doing something to avoid sitting and paying attention, right? To avoid really looking closely at what we have here.
Another thought from Norman. Joyful effort can be an antidote to common commonplace problems. It arises based on the storehouse of faith we have cultivated through our practice. Faith that as human beings we are all inherently precious and worthwhile. We recognize that the thought that we are not precious. That our lives are not important is a darkly conditioned thought. Though it may not be preventable, it need not be validated.
Though it may not be preventable, it need not need not be validated. It must be confronted with patience.
For years when I started my practice, I found myself screaming at my thoughts. Mentally screaming at my thoughts. The thought of desire would arise. Desire like patience and compassion.
I've learned a little bit more to recognize it and let it go. And sometimes we don't let it go. And that's when thinking happens. And then we recognize that we're thinking and then we realize that okay been thinking and so trying to avoid now screaming thinking okay thinking. So let's get some more input. The question now is what antidotes do you use to combat the five hindrances? Desire, aversion, sloth, restlessness, doubt, working past the five hindrances. That's where we're becoming intimate with the perfection. So how do you handle the hindrances when you recognize them?
I practice forgiveness.
I think this is on. Okay. I in a way I think recognizing is recognizing is the problem because if you're being slothful you don't recognize it because you just don't care to recognize it because you're just lying there and being slothful. Right. And and so I think the the challenge sometimes with hindrances and sort of all sorts of snares is that you have to recognize you're in the snare before you can deal with it. For sure. So to use this microphone, it needs to be aimed directly at your mouth and it needs to be about that close.
For me, it comes down to compassion. Even when you're in those slothful moments, to have compassion for it and to make that discernment on, you know, do I need to fight my way out of this or is it okay to be slothful at the moment? Is it okay to have this and to really recognize it and to be with it for what it is? And to take away that level of I have to fight this. I have to be perfect. I have to do it this way. That's just adding to. And I think what for me it's that compassion and that allowance. What's wrong with a bowl of water with algae? You might not want to drink it, but what's wrong with that? You know, isn't that our own perception of creating something in and of itself?
Thank you, Mari.
Thank you for saying that, Mari. For me, the challenge is often holding a sloth in one hand. Cute critter, right? And on the other hand, being engaged and doing what I need to do and holding both without falling into one extreme or the other.
I think I'll say this in layman's term. Fake it until you make it.
It's hard, right? It shows in your face. It shows in your action. But until you make it like true from your heart, it's authentic.
Thank you.
All right, let's look at joyful for a bit. Oh, anybody on Zoom? Colin, Scott, Raizelah, anything to say? Okay, next time.
So here are some words from Shanti Deva in the chapter on joyful effort. We're going to look at joy. Here are some words from Shanti Deva of inspiration or joyful effort.
Death will swoop on you so swiftly. What will you do when there is no more time? This I have not done, and this I'm only starting, and this I'm only halfway through. Then is the sudden coming of the Lord of Death, and oh, the thought, alas, I am finished.
Are you feeling joyful yet?
But we all know that if joy is dependent on finishing this and this and this that we're not going to get there. That we need to find that joy today.
The outcome is not the joy. The joy is has to be in the effort. It's the only way that we're going to have the joy is if it is in the effort.
Shanti Deva Dave also says whatever tasks the bodhisattvas do let them devote themselves without reserve with joyfulness that never knows satisfaction
Actually it's translated as joyfulness that never knows Satiety but I never heard of the word Satiety I think the intent is to distinguish Again, getting back at words and our intentions, satisfaction
feels like pointing at that ongoing suffering because we're never getting what we want. So maybe by using that other form of the word, we're looking at the way that it is fruitful to never get what we want or to recognize that we're getting what we want and we're loving it and we're loving it and we're loving it without filling up without having that satisfaction. Actually, that just occurs to me that that's kind of the
kind of the suffering that the Buddha taught is ingrained in the things we like is when we stop getting them, right? When we're satisfied, well, that's when the the pleasure stops
to the culmination of this is beautiful where we're going. Just as flax and threads waft to and fro, impelled by every breath of wind, so all I do will be achieved controlled by the movements of a joyful heart. It's going to take some thinking.
And it's going to take some joyful heart. And it's going to take some sweat.
Once upon a time, I found myself taking care of two teenage boys for a while, and they asked me if we could go to some event that was a few months off. And I said, "Maybe." So I didn't know. So I said, "Maybe." And the younger one got all excited and he goes, "Maybe means yes."
And then the older one slapped him on the shoulder. It's like, "No, you idiot. Maybe means no.
Does maybe mean yes." So there's I'm looking at three types of doubt and and there's one type of doubt is when we just we don't know or we think we know but we know we don't. That's everyday doubt. And then there's dark doubt. The doubt that is one of the hindrances.
The doubt that gets us stuck. The doubt that drags us down.
The doubt that says this isn't right, this isn't fruitful.
And that can be beneficial too. But then I also want to look at the third doubt which is the doubt of beginner's mind and the doubt of not always. So the doubt of recognizing penetrating and thoroughly accepting that we don't know that we are seeing what we see purely from this perspective and that's all we're ever going to have. We're always going to be looking at the reflection in the bowl with the algae growing and or the reflection in the mirror to see our face.
And that
doubt, taking doubt
as a tool for benefit is closely coupled with faith.
where
we have to move forward on this in this practice with faith that what we're doing is going to help. Faith is not ignorance. Faith is realization of not knowing and embracing not knowing.
And that gets back to that question of placing one above another. And in the case of faith and doubt and being able to use those, they are codependent in a good way, codependently arising. that recognition of not knowing and engagement with it where doubt enables faith and faith enables doubt and makes them acceptable. And I find that like protons and electrons, doubt and faith dance to form matter. And that matter we can use to build the structures of our lives and the lives that is more than just making money and eating and that's it.
