Continued Unrelenting Effort
Every once in a while it is nice to have a relaxing day with nothing to do, no schedule, no alarms, no meeting, just nothing but lounging around reading or watching movies or snacking and napping. For some people those moments never really arrive, it is as if they are a mirage on the shimmering horizon. For others, even when they arrive they aren’t what they imagined they were or they are completely missed.
In Buddhism there is no great taskmaster goading us ever onward day after day, though some perhaps practice with a compulsion that makes it seem as though there is. Our practice allows us to take all the breaks we wish, relax all we can or even completely quit for a while. There is no one standing behind us urging us on, keeping tally, or punishing us for not doing something. It just doesn’t work that way.
And yet in spite of such an easy schedule the actual work of changing ourselves never goes away, it’s always there. The task can get ever bigger if in our laziness we continue with old patterns of behavior and make poor choices, which of course we hope doesn’t happen. Sometimes we may wish that somehow magically all the work of changing our lives can be done with out any effort. Sometimes we may think we have finished our self-work, that we have achieved a certain level which we are satisfied with.
“At that time I thought that I had attained extinction. But now I know that the extinction I attained is not the true one.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter III)
The proof of the pudding in Buddhism is not so much a matter of our intellectual assessment of personal results as it is the observation of the results in our lives and the lives of those around us. It isn’t a matter of our coming to some conclusion that we have achieved some state in our Buddhist practice. The proof is in how our life is manifesting and whether our interactions with our environment and society are ones of positive results.
“Those Bodhisattvas will not have just begun to aspire for enlightenment. A long time before that they will have already planted the roots of virtue, performed the brahma practices under many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas, received the praises of the Buddhas, studied the wisdom of the Buddhas, obtained great supernatural powers, and understood all the teachings of the Buddhas. They will he upright, honest, and resolute in mind. The world of that Buddha will be filled with such Bodhisattvas.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter III)
Our work of study and practice can never in all honesty ever really be done. To become satisfied with our accomplishments is a delusion just as it is to feel guilty over our lack of accomplishments is also a delusion. Our Buddhist practice is not one of just self, it includes others as well. Our own accomplishments are nothing without equally benefiting our society.
“The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, expound the Dharma with expedients, that is, with various stories of previous lives, with various parables, with various similes, and with various discourses only for the purpose of causing all living beings to attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter III)
I hope you see that our labor, our effort to become enlightened is not an impossible burden to weigh us down. Because we make effort, even small effort, the load becomes lighter. The accumulation of efforts over days, weeks, and years, actually makes the work not only easier to manage but lighter as well. Do not become discouraged because you think you have not done much or can only do little, every effort no matter how seemingly insignificant is really a great effort compared to no effort. Let it be a labor of love for yourself and for others.
