Keep Walking Your work is to discover your work And then with all your heart To give yourself to it. • BUDDHA A great violinist brings so much joy to the world through her playing, but to do that she must practice over and over; she must have great diligence. If she does so with joy in her own heart, then she has found her true cause, her true path. If she does this with a heavy heart, loaded down with expectations, then she cannot give her music unconditionally. Life is difficult if your heart’s not in it. But once you do find the thing you want to do, whether that is to be more patient or learn new skills so that you may help people in some way, what you have to do next is practice. You have to keep walking. Once you have developed your inspirational mind, you open yourself up to finding your purpose. And if you can make a vow, a promise, to yourself to follow your path, then you will create a beautiful foundation upon which to practice. If you are going in the direction that moves you, that gives you great happiness, then you will be happy to practice hard, because you will feel like yourself, immersed and in the stream of your life. This brings genuine satisfaction and contentment; it is a tremendous sense of relief to get completely involved with what you are meant to do. The reason why most of us have difficulty receiving the blessing of things such as health and wealth, without the help of somebody else—without praise, for example—is that we lack the confidence that comes with this sense of devotion, of complete involvement. We miss the importance of taking care of the foundation, the roots, and are distracted by always looking after the flowers, the fruit and the things at the top of the tree. But if we don’t take care of the roots, over time there will be less and less fruit to harvest. Discipline and Diligence In the modern world, many people are not really sure if discipline or diligence are such good things. They make people feel as though they have to act in a certain way, that they are being controlled in some way, penning themselves in, rather than living as freely as they choose. Since it is so difficult to practice discipline by ourselves without any help, Buddha and other divine beings like Jesus Christ were forced to say something—to give constitutions and tell you what you should and should not do. These are helpful, but sometimes feel like a kind of burden. You want to drink something, but cannot do so according to the teaching. Whatever you want to eat, it seems that it is not allowed. This is why it is so freeing to develop the aspiring mind, as you then begin to know spontaneously what discipline is, rather than having to be told. You will live with love and compassion straight from the heart, which is so much more enjoyable. We can embrace diligence by viewing it from a slightly different angle, one that reminds us that it is with discipline that the truly wonderful musicians practice so that they may give us such listening pleasure and relaxation. If we engage discipline within ourselves, then we are able to train our minds so that we can calm our wandering thoughts, even while surrounded by the busyness of modern living. Diligence is really a form of devotion, and devotion is a form of understanding. With diligence and devotion, we stick to our good commitments rather than saying we’ll start tomorrow, and if we have found our inspiration, then we will be fortunate enough to enjoy our hard work. I always say that intelligence means nothing without diligence. The great Indian master Asanga was practicing on Maitreya. It’s a long story, but to make it short, after practicing for three years, he hadn’t gained anything. As he came down from his retreat, he saw a man rubbing a big iron rod with a piece of cotton. Seeing how hard he was working, Asanga asked what the man was doing. “I want to make a needle out of this iron rod to sew my clothes.” Asanga realized that all the practice he had been doing for the past three years up on the mountain was nothing compared with what this man was doing, just for a needle! So Asanga returned to his retreat for three more years, but again failed to achieve anything. He felt very discouraged and almost decided he should just give up; he was never going to realize anything. Leaving his cave, he saw a man brushing the mountain with a feather and asked him why. “My house is down below and, because of this mountain, I get very little sunshine,” the man replied. “I’m trying to make the mountain smaller so that I may get a little more sun.” Asanga thought, if this man was prepared to do that for the sake of a little extra sunshine, the least he could do was return to his retreat and practice some more. Many years passed in this way. Every three years, Asanga saw something that confirmed the importance of diligence. After twelve years, he left his retreat and while on the road saw a dog in great pain. The lower part of its body was rotten, filled with insects and germs, but the upper part was still OK. Seeing the dog, he felt a great compassion and felt he should try to do something to help get rid of the insects and germs. But if he touched them with his hands they would die, so he closed his eyes and used his tongue to clean the dog, which was softer than his hands and so wouldn’t kill the insects. As he did this, the dog disappeared, and when he looked up Maitreya was sitting on the rock in front of him. Asanga cried, “Where have you been all this time? I practiced for twelve years and you never came.” Maitreya replied, “I was there many times, but you were not diligent enough. Each time you came out of the cave I was there to help you. The dog was also me. I appeared to ripen your compassion before you could then prove your diligence.” Then Asanga flew with Maitreya to his pure land where he received many teachings. When he later returned to earth, he wrote many books on what Maitreya taught him. We are still studying those books today. If you break your promise, if you give up, then don’t feel bad, but renew it as soon as possible without delaying even a night. Don’t feel disheartened or that you aren’t good enough somehow to carry on. It is easy to be too humble when it comes to practicing, but you can restore your discipline happily and quickly. Otherwise, negativities will tend to grow and soon accelerate. Whatever we decide we want to do, we really need to nourish that promise to ourselves. Just like a plant, it needs to be watered and fed and looked after nicely so it can grow. You need to take care of your promises, your sense of purpose, willingly and happily rather than under any kind of duress. If you are forcing yourself, then perhaps you need to look back at your inspiration and rediscover your motivation, as feeling that we have to do things just becomes a burden that weighs and slows us down, making us little good to anybody. We may get through life OK fulfilling our obligations, but it isn’t nice, and by opening up your heart and mind you will discover there is another way. The Cooling Balm of Discipline Discipline can bring us great comfort. If you feel out of control in a situation and literally hotheaded, then discipline acts like a cooling balm, like a fan that eases the burning emotions that have sprung up, and helps to relax you. This kind of inner discipline is the best, as it comes from your nature. It takes time to develop, which is why religions and traditions like Buddhism have many teachings and practices to help create this sense of control. But practicing as you walk the uncommon path is very helpful for dealing with afflictive emotions such as anger, jealousy and desire. Your path is your refuge, where you feel comfortable, relaxed and calm. The path takes you to a state of mind that dispels misunderstanding. We can come across both very beautiful things and very bad, ugly things and not be carried away. To be in control is actually a very freeing thing when that control comes from a place of love and compassion, both for yourself and for others. Being controlling when you are not happy about yourself or you are judging others as not being good enough is the opposite; this creates invisible chains that bind you to very particular ways of doing things. You have become a slave to your burning emotions and blinkered in the way you see yourself and the world. But inner control that allows you to listen while others speak, to value all human beings rather than jump to conclusions, and to practice being your true self rather than try to live up to or run away from the labels you have grown up with, is deeply relaxing and frees your mind to consider the important things in life. As you develop this inner, relaxed discipline, you will feel peaceful and happy—not proud, but appreciative. It also brings sincerity. Being sincere and genuine about any kind of practice will give you a tremendous feeling of satisfaction and joy from what you are doing, and you will feel that you are very lucky. You won’t need to show off to anyone else about your discipline, but quietly you will be thankful for it. Even a small community like Druk Amitabha Mountain is nourished by different people with individual skills. But the most important, I think, is having people with heart, not only skills. What’s the point of skills without the heart to help or the sense of responsibility to make sure that things are finished properly? There is no point in having skills without heart; nothing works that way. I really feel that, in everything you do, you must do it with a sincere and full heart to accomplish things nicely and with inspiration for what you are doing. Isn’t that the best way to use your knowledge and your talents? Having patience I should develop enthusiasm; For Awakening will dwell only in those who exert themselves. Just as there is no movement without wind, So merit does not occur without enthusiasm. What is enthusiasm? It is finding joy in what is wholesome. Its opposing factors are explained as laziness, attraction to what is bad And despising oneself out of despondency. Because of attachment to the pleasurable taste of idleness, Because of craving for sleep And because of having no disillusion with the misery of samsara, Laziness grows very strong. Just as I would swiftly stand up if a snake came into my lap, Likewise if any sleep or laziness occur, I shall quickly turn them back. • SHANTIDEVA, BODHISATTVACHARYAVATARA