Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Venerable Lobsang Namgyel explores the obstacles to sustained spiritual practice in this 53-minute teaching on joyous effort, the fourth perfection. He begins by rejecting the false split between special practice days and ordinary life, then diagnoses three forms of laziness that keep practitioners stuck: procrastination (waiting for perfect conditions, enough money, retirement), attraction to meaningless activity (shopping, gossip, screens), and inadequacy (the “too” syndrome—too busy, too deluded, too old). To counter these, he teaches how to cultivate merit through aspiration, steadiness, joy, and discarding. He walks through Śāntideva’s approach: aspiration rooted in understanding the karmic value of virtue; steadiness as the commitment to finish what you begin (realistic, small goals); joy as childlike immersion in the task itself; and discarding as temporary rest when needed, not failure. He emphasizes three forms of pride that build resilience: self-confidence in your own effort, confidence in your ability to defeat delusions using their antidotes, and the confidence that you do this work for all beings, not for praise. Practical examples include a fire disaster, shopping marathons, the three-hundred-five Buddha practice, and how to approach difficult workplace meetings with mantra and bodhicitta motivation. Aimed at practitioners on the graduated path seeking both psychological and spiritual transformation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 16 Joy2.mp3
UUID: 9b722d4c-cdc7-45e1-b986-6ba40245c2aa
Teacher: Ven Lobsang Namgyel
Collection: VenNamgyel Thought Transformation (Ven Lobsang Namgyel)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 53.6 minutes
Words: ~7,988
So then, thinking about the nature of joyous effort and and how it’s beneficial. I’m just looking to see if I if I missed any, interesting things. There was one that practicing Dharma on special days is not enough, because we tend to think, well, I’ll practice on the tenth and twenty fifth and the fifteenth and the thirtieth. We have these special days, four days a month, and oh well, what to do on the rest of the days? Don’t have time.
So this is like cooking a special meal at Christmas. So you have this really special meal at Christmas and for the rest of the year you eat salads. So why aren’t you eating special every day? Why aren’t you doing Dharma practices every day? So you need to think that this is something worthwhile for you.
And it’s not just worthwhile for you, it’s worthwhile for others. Then we need to remove hindrances. So, how do you remove the hindrances from doing practice? Any ideas, Chelaine? Eat chocolate.
The lamrim. You’ve heard that before, haven’t you? Yeah. So that’s When you’re really realizing what situation you are, especially in terms of impermanence and death Yes. In the fire and, you know, they didn’t wake up that morning thinking that they would be there.
They’d be in a fire. Yeah. It’s true. Children and everything. When you think of that, that’s, yeah, tremendous.
Special natural disasters. Mhmm. Isn’t it? Yeah. Because more and more now, we experience natural disasters and you think, well, I really hope it’s not gonna happen to me, but you could be in a situation where it does.
They were talking about there could be a fire in southern Australia, wasn’t it, not so long ago. They were saying it was so hot here that easily we could have a fire like Australia. And if we do, it’s going to be worse than Australia because of all the bushland. Luckily, we had rain now. It’s fortunate.
But, you know, imagine if a fire did come and then like just in that instant, maybe not even you die, but you lose your house, you could lose your job, you could lose everything that you’ve accumulated in your life. And then what about your Dharma practice, which is going with you? So death is like this, you know, situation where everything’s stripped from you. Your money’s gone. Your property’s gone.
Your relatives have gone. Everything’s gone. And the only thing you’re carrying with you is your actions. What have you done in this life? That goes.
Right? It goes with you. Nothing else goes with you. Money, nothing. So really important to think, what do you want to take with you?
So then to remove the hindrances, we’ve got, thinking about the laziness of procrastination. So it’s not enough to have intellectual knowledge. We need more than intellectual knowledge. So then you would need to put the Dharma into practice. So you might think, well, I’m going to wait until the children leave home.
I’ll wait until I retire. I’ll wait until I have enough money. Or you could be the sort of person that thinks, I like to do something very wholeheartedly. I like to really get into it. And at the moment, we’re really busy at work, so I can’t get into dharma now because we’re very busy at work, and so I’ll do it later.
This is all procrastination. Right? It’s the laziness of procrastination. So I’ll need to make enough money, later Dharma. There’s no realizations without meditation at the moment.
I have to look after my mother because she’s sick, so I can’t meditate, so therefore I’ll do it later. There’s always an excuse. So it’s looking at your life and looking at whether you’re making excuses to not start now. Right? The idea is to get you started.
Even if you’re only doing ten minutes a day, I don’t care. I would rather somebody do ten minutes a day than nothing at all because at least it’s ten minutes of positive action. So this is the laziness of procrastination, always putting it off. Then can’t wait for the right time, can’t wait for the right conditions. Now is perfect.
Don’t need to wait until it’s cooler. You could wait for the right weather. Then you think, oh, it’s too hot. You know? So I’m sitting there and bathed in sweat.
It’s too hot. Then it gets too cold. And then in between when it’s just right, you’re on the beach. When are you gonna do it? You know?
Not when it’s too hot, not when it’s too cold, and not when you’re on the beach. So we don’t need to be waiting for the right conditions. We need to think now is the right time. Now are the right conditions. I’m just gonna get on with it.
Because you might think there’s noise. You know, like here, we get the trains running past. Wherever I live, there’s somebody upstairs who plays music, or there’s a train that goes past. The buses go past whatever. It doesn’t matter.
You know there’s a sound. You know there’s an appearance of sound. You let go of it. This is part of the practice. Just keep letting go of it.
Don’t wait for the absolutely silent perfect place. They’re very few and far between. I lived in the Himalayas at eight thousand feet, and I used to have the monkeys on the roof, you know, boing, boing, boing, boing. And then they’d go away, and then I think, oh, at last peace and quiet. And then the crows would come, and that was worse.
And they’d have a conference right above me, you know, like, look at him down there, thinks he can meditate. And they’re all day. So you you think, I’m up in the Himalayas, You know? No water, no toilet, nothing. And what have you got?
Birds, you know, who are just quack, quack, quack, quack, monkeys. So if you’re waiting for the perfect conditions or you’re going to get the perfect conditions, when I get to the Himalayas, the cave, you’ll probably find a cave where the water’s dripping, you know, and you’ll hear drip, drip, and you think, this is driving me mad. I can’t stand it any longer. So don’t keep waiting. Don’t wait for retreat.
Don’t wait for an established routine later. Don’t wait for anything. You just say, I’m going to start now. The second laziness is the laziness of attraction to meaningless activity. Laziness of attraction to meaningless activity.
And this would include, the television, the radio, anything that you do a lot of, but is not a virtuous action. In the usual Lamrim way, it describes hunting and fishing. So I don’t think many of you are hunters and fishers, but you can well put down computers. So you can spend hours on computers going from site to site to site to site, isn’t it? They seem to really draw you in.
So you can put computers. You could put TV. You could put window shopping. Some people can spend hours just going around town looking in the shops. I used to have a friend in America, and all day Sunday was shopping.
And this was my first time in America. And I remember him taking me from shopping center to shopping center to shopping center. And I said, well, what are we looking for? Well, nothing really. Well, what are we doing?
You know, I was never a shopper, but this seemed excessive, you know. What are we doing? And he said, Just looking to see what the bargains were. And so we’d find bargains, you know. And then I’d say, Well, are you gonna buy that?
And he’d say, no, I don’t think so. And so it was always looking, looking, looking, looking. We never bought anything. And we spent the whole day, ten o’clock in the morning, and we finished at eight o’clock at night. For me, it was a nightmare, you know?
So some people spend their life like that. The whole Sunday or the whole Saturday could be like that. For some people it’s gossip. So you can spend a lot of time on the phone gossiping, and sometimes the gossip becomes very negative, talking about the neighbor or, you know, something that it gets a bit nasty. So think about these meaningless activities.
Just try to reduce them. There’s a difference between using the activity to relax you so that you do your meditation and just the activity without any purpose. So for instance, you get home, you’re a bit stressed out and you think, Well, I’m going to watch TV for half an hour, or read the paper for half an hour, I’m going to relax, and then I’ll do my meditation, and you do, then it’s not this laziness. We’re talking about when it just goes on and on and on, and there is no positive action afterwards, and there’s no positive motivation to the action. Okay?
So if you’re watching TV with a positive motivation, then it’s okay. But if you’re just wasting time, you get into the habit of wasting time. Okay. Then, the laziness of inadequacy. Now, people, you find yourselves in here.
The laziness of inadequacy. I can’t do it. So this is, the two. You can write this down, the two syndrome, t double o, two. And then I made a list of a few words, but you can make your own.
Old, busy, long, like too long. That puja, two hours, you know? It’s like, oh. Or that teaching, he never stops talking. I mean, maybe he gives Pavlova, but still, you know, it’s too long.
So you could think too long, too deluded, I’m too deluded, right? So I can’t do it because I’m too deluded. Too agitated, can’t meditate because I’m too agitated. The world is too fast. So then you think, well, the world’s too fast.
This is not Buddha’s time. You know, when he was alive, he was just walking from place to place. Now we’re rushing from place to place, so it doesn’t apply to me because everything’s changed. Or if you think about monks and nuns, you might think, well, they can do these practices because they’re in monasteries and nunneries, but I can’t because I’m too busy. How can I just sit down and do some meditation?
So this way of saying too. It’s too much. It’s too long. It’s too this. It’s too this.
It’s too this. So therefore, I can’t do it. And this is the laziness of inadequacy, that my situation and I are inadequate in order to do it. Right? So before we were talking about the self esteem and pride, and the the it’s where it comes into it, isn’t it?
That you think, how can I do that? Or how can I study that? I’m not good enough. I’m not intelligent enough. I’m not calm enough.
I’m not peaceful enough. So if we’re waiting for exactly the right mind to do the Dharma practices, then we wouldn’t need the Dharma. The Dharma is to bring about these good states of mind. Right? So you need to get started on the Dharma in order to produce the type of minds that will be able to do it.
So to overcome this laziness, you need strong positive views and to eliminate all limiting misconceptions. You need to eliminate your limiting misconceptions. So how you can think is that Śākyamūni Buddha was once deluded. He was a sentient being, just like us. He did lots of practices, and then he became enlightened.
And then you think about all other enlightened beings, also the same as me. They were deluded, just like me, and they did the practices and they became enlightened. And then you can maybe read stories, you know, about Milarepa and Naropa and Tilopa and Naropa and these sort of inspiring stories. There’s one book called The Eighty Four Mahasiddhas, which gives their life stories. Read stories that really inspire you, that you feel, you know, energized and, Yes, I can do it, rather than feeling, you know, you read something and you think, Oh, I didn’t understand any of that.
If you’re very egotistical, it’s good to read something you don’t understand. Right? Because it brings you down. But if you’ve got low self esteem, you need to understand what you’re reading. You need to understand what you’re hearing.
And if you’re not understanding it, then, I would really recommend talking to say, Venerable Gyalton about a class that would suit you. Because sometimes beginners sort of end up in advanced classes and don’t quite know they’re in an advanced class and wonder why they don’t understand anything. So like I said, the Lamrim is structured in such a way, you need an understanding of the lower scopes to get to the higher scopes. So, thinking of the world and what you can do in a very strong positive way. And if you have limiting misconceptions that you find in your meditation, you need to counteract them, knowing that you have delusions, you can overcome your delusions, you can purify your karma, and that you can definitely become enlightened.
So you need to think in that way. Then you need to cultivate merit in order to nourish your joyous effort, and merit is positive karma. You need to do positive actions, and that will nourish your joyous effort. And then we have four more, but I’ll just talk very quickly. We have, aspiration, steadiness, joy, and discarding.
So this is how to cultivate the merit. Aspiration, steadiness, joy, and discarding. So the first one, aspiration, I’ll tell you what Śāntideva said. The Mighty One himself has said that aspiration is the root of every facet of virtue. Its root is constant acquaintance with the ripening effects of actions.
So the aspiration to engage in the practice of virtue is developed by contemplating again and again the great advantages of doing so and the disadvantages of not. So you need to understand the karmic value of the virtue that you’re performing. You need to feel that it is worthwhile. I’m trying to think of a a situation in our lives. It’s probably something like, if you could work for ten dollars a day or you could work for a thousand dollars a day, same work, which would you choose?
Who would choose the ten dollars? And those of you who put up your hands can leave. We’d choose the thousand dollars a day, right? So the difference between being skillful with what you’re doing and being unskillful when you are skillful, you are getting the thousand dollars a day. You are getting the merit.
Because you are motivating, you are doing the action in the best possible way, and you are dedicating. You know about that. So when you conjoin your actions with bodhicitta, you can say, absolutely, the merit from this is going to be inconceivable, because bodhicitta is in relation to countless sentient beings. So the merit accumulated is countless. Lama Zopa says inconceivable, unbelievable.
Something like unbelievable. So he said unbelievable merit. You know? You can’t believe it. It’s so great.
You just couldn’t even conceive of it. Right? And Lama Zopa, when he talks about it, gives you this very strong feeling. It’s really worth doing because you’re doing it for all sentient beings. If you were doing it only for one, you get the merit of only one.
One merit. If you’re doing it for countless sentient beings, the merit is countless. The difference is the motivation. So the difference is, do you get ten dollars or a thousand dollars? Just change your motivation.
You okay, Laura? Okay. You’re just thinking about that, aren’t you? So, then we go on to steadiness because time’s going. Steadiness is finishing whatever task you begin.
It’s very important to think about the tasks that you’re going to take on. For instance, I am going to meditate for ten minutes every day. And don’t make that decision if you can’t keep it, Because you make the decision, you give up, and then you think, I’m a failure. You know, immediately comes this, you know, the laziness of putting yourself down inadequacy. I’m a failure.
I’m no good. And then you say, No, I must do it. And then you do it again for another day or two, and then you stop, and then you go, Oh, I’m really a failure. So you really must take on something that you can continue. So what I said with patience and anger was that you say, I won’t be angry for today rather than the rest of your life.
So if anger is the problem, impatience is the problem, irritability is the problem, you say, I’ll give it up for today. Not, I’ll give it up for the rest of my life, because it’s too big. The promise is too big. We can’t keep it. You know?
If you smoke cigarettes and you you’ve given up three times already, it’s no use saying, I’m absolutely gonna give up now, and then within two or three days, you’re smoking again. So you say, okay, I’m going to cut down a little bit less, a little bit less, but don’t promise something you can’t keep. Don’t take on anything you can’t keep. And this is particularly with virtuous practices, but also with work, with home, with anything. You know, there’s people who knock down walls and say, I’m going to build a bigger lounge dining room, and then the wall stays knocked down like that for the next five or ten years because they never fix it, or they rip the electricity out and go to fix it, but never do it.
So don’t be one of those people who sort of knock down the walls and then don’t actually finish the job, or start the garden and don’t finish it. Take on something that you can finish, and then it gives you the encouragement to do more. Okay? So if the project is too big, enlightenment. Break it down into smaller components.
Break it down into something that you feel you can achieve. And then you’ll get the joy feeling I’m achieving it rather than feeling I’m a disaster. I’m not able to do this. So very important that whatever task you take on, you’re able to achieve. So again, Śāntideva says, first prepare by analyzing well to see whether to begin or not.
If unable, it is best not to begin. But once started, then never withdraw. Now you know where his holiness gets his, I’m not giving up. Until Tibet is free, I don’t give up Because he thought about it. He thought, no matter how long it’s going to take, I’m going to achieve it.
And so whether it’s this lifetime or future lifetimes, it doesn’t matter because I’m going to continue. Alright? So it’s very important to have that sort of feeling. I will continue until I achieve it. And the key to building self confidence in your ability to attain enlightenment is to tackle the stages of the path one step at a time.
So as I said, we have this graduated path. Start at something that’s easy and simple for you. So the first is precious human rebirth, impermanence death. This is the beginning of the Lamrim. This is easy to understand, but not easy to have realizations of.
We can understand the words, but we don’t have a realization of it. It hasn’t changed our heart. So we can start working on it to change our heart. Because when we totally look at the world in a different way, as being impermanent, as being precious, and death is coming, we will behave in a different way. But just intellectual knowledge doesn’t change it much.
We need to get it into the heart. Okay? So don’t give up. Then, if you wish to develop the capability to finish what you start, you need three forms of pride. I think you’ll enjoy this.
Three forms of pride. Pride you can have. So again, Śāntideva said, actions, delusions, capability. So these three apply self confidence. I alone shall do it.
This is Śāntideva. I alone shall do it is the self confidence of action. So the first of the three forms of pride, you can call it self confidence or pride. So the self confidence of action. Self confidence of action.
This is a belief that you do not need to rely on the help and support of anybody to succeed in your spiritual journey. You’re confident in the knowledge that you can accomplish it by yourself. So this is where Lama Zopa Rinpoche gets his, I will do it by myself alone. Because if you’re thinking you’re going to get compliments, if you’re going to get praise, if people are going to notice, you might be very disappointed. Thank you so much for becoming a Bodhisattva.
You know, thank you so much for being whatever it is. If you set yourself up by thinking, I’m doing doing it so that they notice, it’s not a good motivation. Right? And particularly, if you’re going to become enlightened, you need to do it thinking I’m alone. Nobody is supporting me at all, because that way you keep going.
But if you’re looking for others to support you and they don’t, you give up. So it’s really good to think I’m doing it alone. And this gives you a self confidence rather than a confidence built on others. Right? What they’re saying to me gives me confidence.
What you’re believing gives you confidence. Then the second one is self confidence of delusions. Sounds a bit strange. Self confidence of delusions. So this is defeating the delusions.
It’s not increasing them. We know how to do that. You know? But it’s whenever the delusions appear, we’re going defeat them because we know what the antidotes are, and we know we can defeat them. And then this gives you more energy to ensure that you’re not overcome by delusions.
Because by practicing the antidotes against the delusions, and in a small way you’re winning, it gives you the confidence to win over the bigger delusions. Bless you, my child. Isn’t it? So don’t start with the big one. The enemy that, you know, makes your hair prickle and you go bright red and you can’t stand them and you lie awake thinking about them all night.
Don’t start with them and think, now I’ve got to transform this by tomorrow, and they’re going to be my best friend. You know? It’s unreasonable. But take your thought that the world is permanent. Your situation is permanent.
Just take that and start to think about, is it permanent? Is it impermanent? Is it this? Is it that? This is a very nice one to start with, just impermanence, because we can see it in the environment.
We can see it in people’s minds, how they change emotions, how they change their way of thinking. So go more deeply impermanence, and then whenever a negative thought arises, use impermanence to counteract the negative thought. It is impermanent. It came. It’ll go.
This difficult situation I’m in appeared and will disappear. Okay? So impermanence can really help you, and it’s an easy antidote to apply. And then the third one is the self confidence of capability. The self confidence of capability.
This is recognizing that when beings are under the delusion the influence of delusion, they cannot achieve even their own aims. So then you develop the determination to engage in positive actions, virtuous actions for them. So this is very important. We recognize when we’re far enough along the path that actually others are deluded. They really want to do something positive, but because of delusions, they just don’t know how to do it.
And so you don’t say, Well, that’s their responsibility. You take it on as your responsibility and you do as much as you can for them. So this is the self confidence of capability, thinking I’m not just doing it for myself, I’m doing it for others. Believed in yourself, you wouldn’t need them to believe in you. This is this thing of standing alone because you really believe in your capability to do it, to stand alone.
And so even that person said, you know, oh, Laura, you’re the worst in the world, it would just blow past your ear. It would be like water off a duck’s back, we used to say. But if you have a low self esteem and somebody says, you’re useless, you go back home and you lie in bed and you think that person said I’m useless, and maybe I am useless. And we sort of swallow it. It’s like taking poison and swallowing it.
We know it’s poison, but we take it and we swallow it. Or there’s another analogy. They shoot an arrow at you, which is the the, negative comment. You know, you can’t do that, or you’re no good, or you’re this, or you’re that. Some sort of negative comment, right?
And this is like shooting an arrow and the arrow falls at your feet. So this is the destructive criticism, which comes from anger and it falls at your feet. And you pick up the arrow and you go, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab. And I think I’ll just do a few more of those to make sure I really have stabbed myself. Right?
And that’s what we do. We pick up the arrow and we stab ourselves. And then we put it very safely at the side of the bed, or we put it in the safe. You know? Lock it away.
Take it out tomorrow, and pick it up again and go stab, stab, stab, just in case you weren’t bleeding yesterday. Let’s make sure you’re bleeding today. Why do we do it to our selves? You can understand why others do do it to you because they have delusions, just as you do. Now we’ll find out who are the saints in the room.
Who in this room does not have a delusion? Anger, pride, hatred, ignorance, attachment, desire, who doesn’t have it? I’m not saying simultaneously, altogether, you know, but one of them, right? We have good moments and then suddenly the delusion comes in, isn’t it? We all do.
Even, you know, you think you’re doing okay in your spiritual practice and a negative mind can suddenly come in like a storm from the east. And you think, well, where did that come from? You have no idea. It’s just the imprints of the delusion are there, and the conditions come about. And before you know it, you’re experiencing it.
And your best friend turns into your enemy. The person you love so much, you hate. People are in relationships where they say, I love you so much, and suddenly they’re saying, I hate you. You’re not getting the house, and you’re not keeping the children. You know?
And before it was, I love you so much. How did it suddenly become, I hate you so much? How does it suddenly switch? It’s the delusion arises. And if we could wait long enough for the delusion to pass, it would pass.
But one problem is we have motor mouths. You know? Motor mouths. So we have to say it. The Tibetans might have thought it.
We say it. Or the Indians might think it. We say it. You know? We’re so reactive.
Whenever anything comes into our mind, we have to say it straight away. We say, I must be honest. You know, you’re ugly. Or I must be honest, your bum’s sticking out in those jeans. I wouldn’t wear those jeans if I were you.
And you go, horrendous. You know, afterwards you think, Oh, horrendous. But I felt I had to be honest. It’s my friend, you know? She looked terrible, like a scarecrow dressed up or something.
And, you know, so you say these things, Oh, you look like a scarecrow. You look absolutely dreadful. Who did your hair and what have you done? And it can be destroying to people. And we don’t think of it as being destroying.
We think of it as being honest. But you know, what’s underneath? Is it love compassion? Is that why we’re communicating, trying to improve the situation? Or is there really anger under there?
Is there jealousy under there? Where’s this honesty coming from? And do we need to be honest? Is it going to improve their life? I think this is a really good thing about checking your ethics, isn’t it?
If you say something, is it going to improve their life, their way of living, their way of seeing things? And often our honesty does not. So be really careful when you’re saying something, because one day you’re going to be on the receiving end of it. You put out enough, it comes back to you. And so if you’re experiencing it, where did it come from?
You said it before. In the past, you were the one who was saying it. Now it’s coming back onto you. You just don’t remember when you said it. It was another lifetime.
So don’t expect help from others. Be steadfast, and do it for others, and overcome the delusions as soon as they arise. Don’t allow them to completely overcome you. And then we have the power of aspiration, which generates joyous effort, and steadiness ensures that what’s being generated doesn’t decline. Right?
So the power of aspiration, we talked about first, generates joyous effort and steadiness and ensures that what’s being generated doesn’t decline. You’re going to keep going. And with the self confidence that comes from aspiration and steadiness, you should then engage in any task by approaching it with the mental factor of joy. Through being fully immersed in the enjoyment of the task, you won’t want to stop. So you need to have the feeling like a child that’s playing in a sandbox, isn’t it?
A sandbox where kids play. Sandpit. Sandpit. You need to have that feeling of being a kid that’s just discovered the sandpit or the train set or the doll or whatever it is. And you can remember when you were a child, you got so immersed in it that you didn’t want to finish.
Yeah? You didn’t wanna go inside. You didn’t want to eat. You didn’t want to sleep. You just got so immersed that this was it for you, and you were going to keep playing and playing and playing.
Right? So then you need that sort of joy that wants to keep going. So whatever activity you’re doing, you need to have that feeling about the activity. If it’s a dharma activity and you’re doing, say, water bowls, you don’t want to think, I’ve got to do the water bowls or the prostrations. Oh, prostrations.
Then where’s the positive action? You don’t have the joy to start with, right? So you don’t motivate with bodhicitta, and you think it’s all a bind, it’s all a hassle, and why didn’t I join a Buddhism that didn’t have all these sort of methods? You know, I could have gone in for Zen, and then all we’d have was gray and just sitting there hour after hour, as if that’s easier. And they come around with a piece of bamboo and whack you on the back, you know?
I mean, okay, our methods seem complicated, but also that doesn’t seem any easier if you’re not so into sitting hour after hour and being whacked on the back. So if you have found some interest, I think, in this system, in Tibetan Buddhism, at least try and have a joy in what you’re doing on a daily basis, whether it’s with the altar, whether it’s with sweeping the room, with, setting up the water bowls. If you’re doing practices, do them with pleasure. Don’t do them with a resentful mind. Otherwise, the result is not going to be, beneficial.
So Śāntideva, I’ve got another one. In order to complete the task, as an elephant tormented by the midday sun plunges into the lotus lake, so one should venture into it. So if you were the elephant and you were really hot, you would plunge into the lotus pool, and then you would be cooled, you would really enjoy yourself. So really venture into whatever you’re doing. The I’m not going to finish tonight, but I’ll just talk about discarding because Laura’s leaving tonight, and I wanted to know about discarding.
So the factor of discarding or putting the task aside, again, Śāntideva said, when strength declines, discard it for the sake of continuing again. When fully accomplished, abandon being content and aspire for the next and what will follow. There is a time for rest. Whoopi doo. You know?
Because we don’t hear much in the Lamrim about resting. It’s like three million five hundred thousand prostrations and so many mandala offerings and so many of this and so many of this, and meditating and studying, and then now work, career, family, da da da. And when do I get to rest? And you’ve just heard about all this joyous effort and how you never give up, you never stop. But what happens if you decline, if your health declines, and you just can’t continue?
So then within this joyous effort, there’s something called discarding. It means put it to one side. Not that you’ve given up, but that right at this time you can’t continue. So it’s a positive action. You’re going to say, well, I’m very sorry at the moment.
I can’t do it. But when I can, I’m going to go back to it, and I’m going to continue. So if, for instance, you decided you were going to do the thirty five Buddha practice every day to purify, and you start doing it, you say, I’m going to do it every single day. I must purify. And then you start doing it after two or three weeks, you get really sick.
And then you think, I just can’t. I can’t continue. So rather than thinking I’m a failure, I give up completely, you think, okay, I’ll put it to one side, and then when I’m feeling better, I’m going to pick it up. I’m going to continue. So this is very positive.
It’s not negative. So it’s the power of rest. Sometimes we do need to rest. We need to have a break. You know, I remember once when I was in Sera Monastery with Lama Osel and Lama Zopa, and Lama Zopa said, So where are you going now?
And I said, Well, I’m going on holiday. I think he nearly fell off the chair. He said, Holiday? It’s a word he’s never heard of. And I said, I need a holiday.
You know, I’ve worked hard in Delhi and looking after Lama. I need a holiday. And he said, I see. Where are you going? I said, Ladakh.
Okay. Have a good time. So I went six weeks to Ladakh. It was the worst time of my life. It was so boring.
I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know anybody. Everywhere was such a long walk. It was so hot. And I was thinking, I think he’s cursed me, you This holiday that was supposed to be so interesting and enjoyable turned into a nightmare, you know?
So sometimes the holiday isn’t what you think it’s gonna be. So when you’re evoking the power of rest, then what really is going to be a rest? You know, you might think, oh, I’ll go to the Fiji Islands, and then they got these little flies that bite you or something like that. And, you know, we went to a retreat center in Mexico and it was a great place, environmental eco place, but they had these tiny flies. And then the Gompa, where we were meditating, had open windows and we had the lights on at night and all the mosquitoes would come and these biting flies and you’d get bites just completely all over you and they wouldn’t heal.
They’d stay red for days and days, and they were really sore, very painful. So, you can have this sort of blissful paradise, and yet there’s something wrong about it. So I think when you’re evoking the power of rest, don’t go with the projections projections and the, you know, this is what it’s gonna be like, but be very practical and try and find a place that’s going to support you spiritually while you revive. You know, that’s what you’re looking at, spiritual revival. Because when your spirit is good, your body’s good, isn’t it?
When you’re spiritually good, your emotions are good, your body’s good, everything’s okay. But when you’re spiritually down and you feel, oh, you know, what’s it all about? Why bother? You actually need some sort of spiritual, support. So when you’re doing this discarding activity, it’s very positive, and it’s only with the thought, I’m going to wait until I can take it back up.
It’s not completely giving up. Alright? So I think we’ll stop there tonight. There’s a little bit more, but we can always finish on Thursday because you’re all coming back on Thursday. Any questions?
Yes, Alice? No. Maybe later. Yes. Oh, just the the Śāntideva dedication, is that in the Two forty six.
You mean? Two forty six. We’re going to use it now. So page two forty six. Are there any other questions?
Yes. You’re setting yourself up even before you’ve gone to the meeting. Know, yeah. You know, the nightmare people, the nightmare situation, and I just have to just see it through, you know, you’re having blood taken or something, isn’t it? Yeah, absolutely.
And so it’s, how can you switch it around? I think one thing is before you go to the meeting, to think about the benefits of the meeting. Are there benefits to the meeting? Like what’s the purpose of the meeting, right? So you think about what the meeting is for, and usually the benefit of a meeting is that you communicate with others.
But from our point of view, it’s about changing your mind about somebody that you’ve labeled in a certain way. So now instead of looking at the difficult person, you’re looking for the opportunity to see that person in another way, to see the qualities of the person. So you’re looking from that point of view. And if there is something difficult about them and they say, Criticize you, you know? So some criticism comes to you or something difficult comes towards you, then you think, well, one thing is I’ve created this situation in the past.
I’ve done this. And so now it’s like Wheel of Sharp Weapons. It comes back. I often say, it’s like these ninja stars. You know, ninja stars or boomerangs with razor blades?
Well, in the past life, we chucked them all out. You know? Criticism, criticism, criticism, criticism. And they go out and out and out and out, and you go to that meeting, and they just come back and chop you. So that’s where it comes from.
The criticism comes from you. I’m gonna get criticized. It’s just the worrying. Different state of mind, isn’t it? But yeah, looking towards something.
You look for the positive in it rather than looking for the negative. And it’s looking for the positive in the people. And if, and they’re actually disagreeing with you from what you’re saying. They’re seeing this situation in one way, you’re seeing it in another, right? So that’s actually the Wheel of Sharp Weapons coming back.
You’re divided from the group. Oh. It’s only the managers who are making, forcing these changes that the Oh, I see. So it’s the workers, the It’s just the workers who have to do the changes. Oh, right, right.
Well, that’s the usual thing, We’re on one side and they’re on the other side, right? So this is like being divided. And so you’ve got to try and find some way of communicating from your side to their side. Otherwise, if you make sides, it’s like, we’re over here, you’re over here, we’ve got no power, you have, and anyway, what am I bothering to be here for? So there’s not going to be any change coming about.
So you’ve actually got to go into it thinking it’s a very positive situation for communication. These people’s minds aren’t permanent. They’re not inherently bad. Change is possible. And what can I do skillfully in order to produce that change?
And so instead of sitting there thinking, Oh, How much longer? You can be waiting for the opportunity to say something that would skillfully show them another point of view. Right? So that’s one thing. And then another thing you can do, if you know about mantra, you can recite mantras.
So at least you’ve recited lots of mantras. You offer it to them to remove their delusions. You’re there to remove their delusions. And hopefully in a future time, delusions will be removed. And so it wasn’t a waste of time.
You were actually there, able to do something positive for the situation, and you did it by yourself alone for them who are full of delusional minds. Yeah? So in that way, the the situation will become very positive because by being there, you’re actually affecting them. You know? So it depends on your motivation and the action during the time, whether the time in that med in that meeting is worthwhile or not.
If you’re there with bodhicitta, every moment is bodhicitta. You don’t say a word. You don’t do anything. Just bodhicitta. The whole time is bodhicitta.
But if you go with a negative attitude thinking, Oh, it’s so worrying. Why are we in this meeting? Then that’s what you get back. Boredom. Why am I here?
You know, if we want a joyous life, we have to go joyously to the things we don’t want to be joyous about. I have to go to that week, the wedding on the weekend, you know, or I have to go to that dinner that I promised to go to. We often get this sort of attitude about things that we promise to go to, you know, weeks in advance. You say, oh yeah, yeah, I’ll come to that wedding. When it’s the day, you know, that wedding, I have to dress up, I have to get a present.
Why don’t we have a sense of joy about it? About helping others, benefiting others. So if you go to a meeting thinking, I’m going to try and benefit. I’m going to try and help. It’s important from the worker’s point of view.
It is important, isn’t it? If you can change their minds from doing what you say is a stupid project into doing an intelligent project. If there’s some way you could change it, you should be there. Oh, I have to go ask if I was Yeah. But you should be anyway.
I don’t think anything’s gonna change, but I’m interested in the mantras idea because if nothing else, I believe. Om Mani Padme hum. That’d be the best one. Because there’s another one which is Tārā, she’s the Buddha of action. But I think what you need in that situation is compassion.
And Om Mani Padme Hum is the mantra of His Holiness and the Buddha of compassion, and it’s the jewel in the Lotus. And what’s in the Lotus is, emptiness and compassion. You know, it’s a wisdom and compassion. And then by reciting Om Mani Padme Hum, it keeps your mind on the mantra, stops your mind from, from straying and looking at them and thinking, look at the way they look and at the suits that they’re wearing and look at the way they’re talking, because your mind can get very negative on that track. But you stay open, you stay positive, you stay joyous because that’s who and what you are.
And you just keep reciting the mantra and thinking, Okay, you know, if there’s any way I can add something positive, I’m going to. If there’s nothing to be done, I’m just going to recite my mantra and keep my mouth shut. I say, zip your lip, you know? Just keep your lip zipped and just open the zip when it’s very necessary. Because as I said, we can say something negative.
It doesn’t help, you know? So you have to sort of put some praise, and in the praise is a slight slant on a different way of looking at it. Well, actually the point that you made is very good, Fred, but what I’d like to say is, and then you bring in a different point of view. Because if you say, Well, I completely disagree with what you just said, people shut down. They don’t listen.
Right? So you’ve gotta find a skillful way of making them listen. That’s what Bodhisattvas do. Right? They don’t sort of go for the jugular, you know?
Go for the jugular and then say, and let me tell you what to do. Let me tell you how to be. They’re not gonna listen. So you’ve got to be friends for them to listen. And friends is try and find some way of communicating.
This is a great challenge, isn’t it? So there’s your challenge. Let us know how you do. When’s the meeting? Oh, this one tomorrow or next week.
Let me know. I’ll be in, I’ll be interested, you know? And success is you doing it to any degree better than you would have done it before. That’s success. And then you think, wow, that was a bit better than I would have done before.
And so you feel joy about having done it in a different way. That increases that joy. It gets you started, you know, on the path of joy. Okay? Anything else?
Alright. We’ll dedicate. So two forty six. May all beings everywhere plagued by sufferings of body and mind obtain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits. May no living creature suffer, commit evil, or ever fall ill.
May no one be afraid or belittled with a mind weighed down by depression. May the blind see forms and the deaf hear sounds. May those whose bodies are worn with toil be restored on finding repose. May the naked find clothing, the hungry find food. May the thirsty find water and delicious drinks.
May the poor find wealth, those weak with sorrow find joy. May the forlorn find hope, constant happiness, and prosperity. May there be timely rains and bountiful harvests. May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers bear fruit. May all who are sick and ill quickly be freed from their ailments.
Whatever diseases there are in the world, may they never occur again. May the frightened cease to be afraid and those bound be freed. May the powerless find power and may people think of benefit each other for as long as space remains, for as long as sentient beings remain, until then, may I too remain to dispel the miseries