Taking Joy in the Practice

In classical Buddhism, there are 6 practices which are considered 'Transcendent", and which can take the practitioner to complete bliss. These are Giving, Ethics/Kindness, Patience or Non-violence, Effort, Meditation, and Wisdom. When it comes to developing our personal path of self, or world improvement, it is the fourth of these activities that we are most concerned with - Effort.

I don't know about you, but to me, "effort" always sounds like something which will be arduous, but because it's going to "build character" you should just suffer through it. Personally, I do sometimes find my practice to be a chore, and just have to muscle through it - "discipline" myself. Ultimately, though, we want to have a practice that brings us as much joy in the moment as it is generating for us in the future. Things are brought about by similar causes - like certain types of flowers from certain types of seeds - if we want a practice that brings us joy, we are going to have to learn to practice joyfully.

This should be contrasted with the opposite extreme - that we shouldn't have to do things that feel to hard. I have experimented with this one more than necessary, and can tell you from my own experience that it doesn't bring an especially pleasant result. In traditional wisdom, this attitude has its own name - "laziness". There is a point at which one just has to make him/herself get on the mat and do some yoga, or meditation, or work out. There is a time for forcing the issue - i think that perhaps this is why the ancient authors called it "effort".

So, how do we find the balance between feeling good (and I mean really good - blissful) in our practice, and also exerting the necessary effort to get the job done? On the simplest level, this is where the Teaching of the Buddha on making our practice like tuning a lute - 'not too loose, and not too tight' - can come in. We want to find that balance where our personal cultivation seems to sing, to resonate through our whole life. You can tell when you're doing too much - you get all stressed out just to make it to the gym, which was supposed to give you the exercise time to reduce your stress. You can also tell when you're doing to little - because a kind of dullness can creep into life - and the results you'd be getting if you were working at it just aren't showing up.

I have found, though, that these considerations are still just on the surface level. Because really, no matter how you schedule yourself - there's always something that can come up and get in the way and stress you out. In fact, the world seems to LOVE to test you to see if you are really serious about keeping up with what you've dedicated yourself to. The real method has to come from within. I think the reason that the ancient Masters equated "effort" with "joy" is because anything that we've truly grown to love will inspire us to do more and more of it. With meditation, this has grown very clear to me - the more I recognize the fruits of meditation practice, the more attractive it is for me to sit down and meditate. The same with my yoga practice - the feeling of clarity that comes from a fully open energetic body becomes almost addictive.

Where we often need to do some work, though, is prioritizing what is attractive to us. I know that for myself there are things like food, or leisure activities that can distract me from my practice, or even work at odds with it. In this case, I have to meditate on the results that I'm going to get. I have found for myself that more than a certain amount of food or entertainment actually makes my mind a little sluggish. Doing my yoga practice or meditation, on the other hand, almost always makes me feel clearer and more vibrant. For some reason though, that information does not always seem to be readily available - and for this very reason, many ancient schools recommended that students do a review meditation on a regular basis - going over the benefits of doing their meditation practice. In this way, they would have engraved a pattern into their minds that reminds them why their cultivation is a Joy, not a chore.

There is yet one level deeper that we can go. That's the level of our Karma. When we get down to starting to observe how karma operates, we recognize that it's not so much the things that we do on an apparent level that bring results, but seeds we've planted with our mind, energy, and actions that come up to ripen. Whether you feel happy in the moment or not doesn't really have much to do with the meditation or yoga practice itself. Why do you think that there are some people who can just create their daily practice and stick with it with total happiness and discipline, while others have to struggle for years? It is because these two people have different karmas. The interesting thing is, that if you're ready to go to this level - the way to have joy in your practice doesn't have a lot to do with HOW you practice at all. It has to do with the way you take care of others. The feeling of happiness comes from giving away happiness to others - and letting your mind make an impression of that which it spins out later into your own experience. This also applies to how you think of others and what you wish for them. So, there it is - the secret of happiness has been around for thousands of years - just be kind to others at every opportunity, take joy in their happiness, and sorrow in their sadness. Suddenly, you find yourself feeling happy for seemingly "no reason" because this happiness doesn't seem to have anything to do with what you are doing.

Then, all the things we do which we think are going to make us happy are not so attractive - all the things which can get addictive. Other things start making us even more joyful because they are clearing out our bodies and minds to hold more of this joyful energy we're generating. We become naturally attracted to the things which are going to make us the healthiest - and we become naturally attracted to continuing to spin the wheel by taking even better care of those around us.

Action steps:

1. Find out what is a truly feasible amount of "effort" that you can fit in your life for personal cultivation.

2. Discover your "therapeutic edge" - where you can feel the burn of pushing past your limits, but not hurt or discourage yourself.

3. Perform a review meditation for a few minutes each morning and evening on the benefits of your chosen path of cultivation.

4. Plant the true causes of happiness by finding someone to take care of, or to whom you can bring some small joy.

5. Watch your thoughts, notice if you often rejoice in the happiness of others, sorrow at the happiness of others, or feel neutral - attempt to cultivate joy. Also notice if you feel bad when another hurts, joyful when they hurt, or neutral - attempt to cultivate empathy for others' pain.