All the effort must be made by you;
Buddha only shows the way.
Buddha only shows the way.
RIGHT EFFORT
RIGHT EFFORT, SIMPLY STATED, is not dissipating
your energy on the meaningless. Although all Buddhists (and I)
believe in reincarnation, which they usually call “rebirth,” we do
not believe in wasting our energy in frivolous pursuits and
mindless activity.
Once, a young acquaintance of mine complained
bitterly how her live-in partner would spend endless hours at the
computer playing games. They really had no relationship to speak of
and did nothing together but split the rent and feed the cats.
There was no glue to connect them physically or spiritually. Their
relationship was shallow, and no amount of fussing with it was
going to be beneficial.
Right Effort is thought of as Right Discipline or
Right Diligence. There are four practices associated with Right
Effort:
1. Preventing unwholesome seeds to arise in
us. This is when we become so mentally aware that we can
prevent unwholesome seeds in us to arise. They no longer have any
place to live in our consciousness. This means we use our effort
wisely, and we do not give our attention to that which is
nonbeneficial, meaningless or the nonsense of life. We are actively
engaging in the basic spiritual law: “What we focus on expands.” We
are wise enough to guide our focus away from anything that would be
unwholesome and no longer water seeds of ignorance, realizing that
when we do, we are creating an ocean of suffering.
Think of your consciousness as a vast field into
which many seeds have been sown. Good and wholesome seeds are
already present in your field from the beginning of time.
Unwholesome seeds have been scattered by two factors—your past and
your present attachments. With every thought you think, with every
breath you take, with every feeling you have, you are watering
these seeds. You must learn to be mindful of what seeds you are
watering. Ask: Are these the seeds that I want to grow? Do I want
more feelings of hurt in my life? If no, then you have the power to
stop watering seeds of hurt. Ask: Do I want more supportive
friendships in my life? If yes, then be sure to water those seeds
of loving and supportive friendship.
2. Helping unwholesome seeds that have arisen
to return to store consciousness. We work with any of these
seeds that are in our lives and stop watering them by withdrawing
all our attention through our thoughts about them. We release the
unwholesome seeds to the Holy Spirit, to Buddha or to bodhisattvas
and consciously choose not to nurture them. This takes an enormous
amount of effort and diligence. We must learn to say, “I will not
give this my energy, my time or any of my attention.” When done
successfully, we can certainly call it “noble effort.”
3. Finding ways to water wholesome seeds in
our store consciousness. These are the seeds that have not yet
borne fruit but that have been there since the beginning of time.
We do this by knowing these good seeds are within us. We focus on
what we do want, and it expands. We consciously water these seeds
that are loaded with potential, and in time they begin to sprout
and bloom. Even when you don’t see the sprouting of the seeds, when
they are still “underground,” it is important to continue to
nurture and water them, just as you would a garden after planting
seeds that produce beautiful flowers or succulent vegetables. When
the tiny green growth of a tomato plant begins to sprout, you would
not stomp on it, exclaiming, “This isn’t what I expected! That’s
not a tomato!” Rather, you would know it was an early stage that
was absolutely necessary for the full expression of the fruit of
the tomato to come forth. So, too, we must continue to water those
seeds of our spiritual potential until they are sufficiently
matured to rise into full expression.
4. Water wholesome seeds that have already
arisen, so that they may continue to develop further. In this
Right Effort practice we focus on the manifest good, whereas in
step 3 we were focusing on the potential good. Here we witness the
sprout or even the full bloom, and we continue its nourishment
through our thoughts, conversations, meditations, prayers and
attention. We are clear in our focus. We hold the manifest good in
our hearts and prayers. Our efforts are very good, and our
diligence can be called “noble.” These seeds are ready to bloom
into even fuller expression.
Wholesome seeds are seeds of love, peace, joy,
loving-kindness, compassion, happiness, generosity, etc. These we
must consciously water.
Right Effort is asking: Where are you putting your
energy? Then you put it only in areas you want to grow. Remember,
what we focus on expands.What we give our mental and emotional
attention to we attract more of in life. Right Effort says expand
only the good.
Where are you putting your attention in life? Put
it only on that which you want more of in your life.
I cannot begin to count the number of people I have
known who want to realize higher states of mind but do not want to
do the work. They have wanted me or other spiritual teachers of
theirs to do the work for them, and it just doesn’t occur that way.
As the Buddha said, “All the effort must be made by you.” No one
but you can have your breakthroughs, your “ahas.” You cannot hire
someone to do it for you. You must expend your time, effort and
money.
Once during a question-and-answer session with the
Dalai Lama, the question was asked, “What is the quickest, cheapest
and best way to learn these teachings?”
Most of us in attendance were stunned at the
question. The Dalai Lama put his sweet and gentle face in his hands
and began to weep softly. The poignancy of the moment led my friend
Linda and me to begin to fill with tears.
After several long moments, His Holiness once again
sat up straight, took out his handkerchief, patted his eyes and
wiped his glasses. When he finally spoke, you could have heard a
pin drop. His response was, “This is not the question of a
practitioner, for a practitioner would be willing to put all his
effort, time and money into the pursuit of his spiritual
path.”
Then he told the story from his boyhood when he was
not putting the proper amount of time and effort into his own
meditative practice and was complaining a bit to his teacher. The
teacher turned around, lifted his robe and exposed his bare bottom
that bore two large calluses. How did the calluses get on his
bottom? They got there from spending countless hours through the
years sitting in meditation. It was quite a gripping story. All
of the effort must be made by you.
So what is the quickest, cheapest and best way?
There is no quickest, cheapest and best way!
Most Westerners fear the word or the concept of
discipline. I have found it to be invaluable on the spiritual
path—to be embraced rather than feared. Right Effort is allowing
the truth to correct all errors in your mind. We cannot fail when
we seek to reach the truth within us. So we embrace the idea of
spiritual discipline, becoming like the wise disciples of the
Buddha or Jesus. We do not run from the demands of our spiritual
work. Rather we maturely embrace it and incorporate it into the
moment-by-moment living of our lives.
Remember that the Buddha said that all the effort
must be made by you. The power of diligence is yours alone. Right
Effort is always remembering purpose, goal, mission, self. When
Right Effort is engaged, how can our illusions satisfy us? Right
Effort is knowing that the only sacrifice is to give up what has no
reality. We can learn to be free of suffering, as the Four Noble
Truths promise, and Right Effort is vital to attaining that
end.
Living a life above the mundane, common human
condition does take effort. It takes effort to choose the
disciplined path. It takes effort to engage in one’s spiritual
practice daily, hourly. It takes effort to forgive. It takes effort
to meditate several hours—or even twenty minutes—each day. It takes
effort to not water the unwholesome seeds of grievances, lack,
ignorance, victimhood, criticism, judgment, defensiveness and
selfishness. And it takes effort to only water the wholesome seeds
of love, caring, compassion, generosity, happiness and
kindness.
Wise use of effort, diligence and care makes one
aware of the basic nature of mind. Watering the wholesome seeds
will always advance us on our spiritual path and lead us to living
the noble life and revealing to us the true nature of mind.
Right Effort constitutes our systematic progress
toward our goal of liberation. Before we extend any effort, it is
good to ask: Is this to my or another’s benefit? Is it a step
leading to liberation, or is it going to lead to heartache, loss
and suffering? Is it setting the course for nirvana or for
samsara?
This is a great cosmic weather vane to use to
decide if you are putting your energy toward leading to your
ultimate happiness or to your ultimate suffering. Many a
well-intended soul has gotten lost in samsara, that all-pervasive
yet sometimes alluring state of the illusion, the dream.
I actually like the concept of samsara (the endless
cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth) because it explains so
much. And often it is quite helpful in making sense (at times) of
just what the heck is going on. The advertisements of the world are
constantly attempting to sell us on the splendor of samsara. Oh,
how lovely this or that is, and how your life will be so much
happier with the jewel of the moment. But, alas, it, too, will pass
away. All the stuff of life could be called the samsara of life,
for it does not lead to true joy but only future suffering.
An example of samsara would be any of the myriad
addictions folks cling to and are consumed by. The addictive
substance initially holds out the promise of pleasure and
happiness, a promise that can never be kept for long.
All the allures of the world hold out a similar
promise, but they, too, come up short. The tragic part is that we
can sleepwalk through this life using all our effort, always
seeking the elusive pot of gold and never finding it. And all the
while the true treasure of gold lies within us, awaiting our
realization and attention.
Please put your Right Effort into that which will
lead to your watering the seeds of awakening and liberation and not
getting caught in samsara.