This is the fourth of the six perfections. It builds on the first three: Generosity, Observing the Precepts, and Patience. Generosity gets us going. It is the desire that others be free of suffering, whether or not we have the wisdom to free them from suffering. Generosity turns us from our common preoccupation with our personal suffering to at least notice the suffering of others. It leads us to the realization that our suffering, and our happiness, is not separate from the suffering and happiness in the world around us.
By observing the precepts, we build a foundation for this seemingly overwhelming task of benefiting all other beings. We take on what is relatively easy to control, namely our own thoughts, words and actions. We become more aware of the unconscious habits we live by, and how difficult it is to drop the habits that are no longer useful. This helps us understand both that it is possible for us to change, and how hard it is to change. We also begin to see how much we are like all those suffering beings we want to help, and realize that it is no easier for them to change than it is for us.
Patience gives us another perspective on change. We start to see time as a limitless resource. We are no longer confined in the bounded desperation of the present moment. We also learn that our own capacities, however limited they may seem, have the potential to grow beyond anything we can imagine, even if the time needed for that change is longer than we can imagine. What we still lack is the energy that keeps us moving. We are not just passive objects being propelled into enlightenment. We necessarily are part of the progress. We take the steps on the path ourselves.
This brings us to Endurance. This word gets the idea across, but to me it sounds too cold. “Endurance” could be taken to mean merely clenching one’s teeth and continuing in the face of adversity. While that can be part of it, we could also think of Endurance as persistence: getting right back on the horse after falling off. The idea of persistence at least gives a picture of putting our energy into something rather than being swept along lifelessly.
My favorite description of this perfection is one taught by some of my Tibetan Buddhist friends: “Enthusiastic Perseverance.” This way of looking at Endurance incorporates Patience. It is a picture of not just resisting something that discourages you from making progress. It is actively going after what you know you can do, even if you aren’t sure how to do it. It means not doubting your capacity to learn and, with time, to overcome whatever gets in your way. Even if there’s something you can’t do now, with practice you will be able to do it. Even if you find weaknesses or limits, you can overcome them, or even better, use them to your advantage.
We may even consider that this kind of Enthusiasm is what it takes for us to hear what the Buddha teaches. In Chapter Two of the Lotus Sutra, Shariputra asks the Buddha twice to give his highest teaching. Twice the Buddha refuses. The third time, when Shariputra asks with enthusiasm, the Buddha consents to preach. If we listen to this Wonderful Dharma the same way we listen to a television or other background noise we are barely conscious of, we will not hear it. The Dharma is not just entertainment, meant to fill up time in our lives. It is telling us what our lives mean, and how to live them. To hear that, we have to listen to the Buddha’s words carefully, as we would listen to a doctor who is telling us how to cure a terrible illness. To do that, we must ask with enthusiasm for the teaching.
Another way to make sense of this Perfection of Enthusiasm is by looking at its opposite: Laziness. This is another idea I stole from my Tibetan friends. They say the Buddha taught three different kinds of Laziness. The first is what we are most familiar with. It’s the not wanting to get out of bed, not wanting to put your bare feet on the cold floor, not wanting to deal with all the unpleasantness and dissatisfaction in the world. We all know this one. It’s usually felt more in the body than the mind, but the mind can generate it very easily. It can be hard to tell the difference between when we honestly need a rest and when we want to make another cup of coffee and read just one more meaningless article in the newspaper.
The other two types of laziness are more subtle: even harder to notice. One of them doesn’t look like laziness at all. It looks like perpetual busyness. I see it in myself when there is so much to do and there is no time to take care of the things I think are really important. That pilgrimage would be really wonderful but I only have so much vacation available. It would be great to spend 10 minutes doing my practice in the morning, but I have to fix breakfast and clean the house. In psychology this is known as “Displacement Activity.” We get so fixated on the demands that are right in front of us, that we forget long-term goals. We may even believe that someday all those daily demands will go away and time will just open up for us to do what we really want. So far in my life, this has not happened.
The last kind of laziness is the most insidious of all because it involves a belief that hides beneath the veneer of our awareness. This kind of laziness relies on the assumption not only that we cannot now do what we want to do, but that we could never do what we want to do. I could never write a book. I could never build a temple. I could never become as enlightened as the Buddha. If I don’t think the trip is possible, I won’t even start it. Or if I start it and get discouraged along the way, like the travelers in the story of the Magic City, I might give up halfway and miss out on the treasure at the end of the journey.
In theory then, it’s relatively easy to recognize that nothing good comes without perseverance. In reality, we do at times lose enthusiasm. How do we get our energy back? Working backwards through what we have learned about laziness, and what we know about patience, the first step should be obvious. We start by knowing that we can get our energy back. If we don’t think we can, then we won’t even try. This also shows us that no matter how drained we may feel, there is an energy within us. We just have to pay attention to what we are doing with it, then learn what we can do with it.
Being drained for awhile could be a good thing. It may be our body or mind telling us that we’ve been overdoing it. However, when the down time stretches into days or weeks, that’s a good indication that relaxation has become a habit, rather than a means for more progress.
One way to get our energy back is to notice what brings us joy. What attracts us in a way that washing dishes or going to the dentist does not? What are the things we enjoy doing rather than the things we do because they’re “good” for us? Here it is important to notice the difference between what gives us satisfaction and what gives us joy. Satisfaction comes from getting what we want. Satisfaction is what happens when you have a craving for ice cream and then you find it right there in your freezer waiting to be eaten. Joy is similar, and often mixed in with satisfaction, making it even more difficult to tell the two apart.
Joy comes from realizing how we can change. It can be in an “aha-moment” when the solution appears to something that had been a puzzle. It can come in each new word we pick up of a new language we are trying to master. It can come when someone recognizes in us something we are trying to improve, whether we’re trying to lose wait or gain calm.
Here is another way that joy is different from satisfaction: We can find joy in others’ joy. If I eat the ice cream, it means nobody else can get their satisfaction from what I have eaten. But when I share the joy in another’s accomplishment, that helps me realize what I can accomplish, and that my accomplishment can return the favor of their joy. There is no competition on the Bodhisattva path.
Another way to get our energy back is to notice how we are spending the energy we have. Are we applying it to impossible tasks? Trying, as the Buddha describes in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sutra, “to stop suffering by suffering”? One of the most common ways we have of losing our energy is by trying to change how other people think, rather than working with how we think. If we have doubts and fears of our own abilities, we believe we can change those by making other people give us certainty and courage.
We believe we can change how we dress, what we say, even what we do for people, and that will change what they think. We create an acceptable image of ourselves, then try to live up to that image. Or we coerce people by various forms of fear into saying things about us that we want to hear whether or not they are true. All this just to help change what we think about ourselves.
For one thing, we cannot know what others are really thinking. Most of the time we don’t even know what we are thinking. Most of what we do comes out of unconscious habit. Even when we do something intentionally, there are so many intentions at work there is no way to sort out which one is primary. This is why it is so important to learn about our own minds, and realize that they are fundamentally no different from others’ minds. The more we see that others are like us, the more dear they become, and the more determined we become to help them get what they really want.
All these attempts to change others’ minds are just other aspects of trying to manipulate the world outside us so that we can be happy. The six perfections are about our own practice. We are working to become more generous, not make others generous towards us. We are working to become conscious of what we do with our body, mind and speech, not control that of others. We are working to become more patient and enthusiastic rather than demanding patience and enthusiasm from others. We work to become more focused and wise, knowing we cannot focus anybody else, or give them wisdom.
As the Buddha taught, improving our practice will help others’ practice. As we become more generous, disciplined, patient, enthusiastic, focused and wise, others will improve also. But we are the ones taking the steps. Since we are more aware of what is in our own minds than anybody else can be, then we are responsible for dealing with what is in our minds, and not blaming others for what is in our minds.
Then again, we are not alone in our practice. We can get help from others, but only if we ask for it. Another way to kindle our enthusiasm and determination is so simple we often forget to do it. This is simply telling someone else about what we want to do. Now that my wife and I have moved to Tampa, I want to build a Nichiren Shu temple here in this city. I mentioned this to a dear friend of mine and he thanked me for telling him. He also reminded me to tell as many people as I can that this is something I want to do. It will be a lot of work and will involve many people working together. But unless others are aware of what we want to accomplish, it will not happen.
As Nichiren wrote in the Itai Doshin Ji, “All things are possible if people are united in one mind…Even if there are hundreds or thousands of people, if they are united in one, they are surely able to accomplish their aim.”
The perfection of Endurance, Persistence, Enthusiasm, however we come to think of it, this perfection unites us with the mind of the Buddha, and with each other. Generosity sets us on the Bodhisattva path. Precepts are the discipline that we build upon. Patience helps us grow our capacity. Endurance applies that capacity to our intent of benefiting all beings. What we still need is a way to concentrate that capacity, and the wisdom to see our practice in a larger context. These last two will come in future installments.
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