Today's talk is about right effort. When we are established on the plane or the ground of virtue, the virtue of right speech, right action and right livelihood, our energy, which is associated with right view and right thinking, cuts off idleness. This is called right effort.

[01:01]

It has the characteristic of exerting or of exertion. It has the function of non-arousing, the non-arousing of unwholesome things, the abandonment of wholesome things that have been aroused, the arousing of wholesome things and the promoting of wholesome things that are already arisen. It's manifested as abandoning wrong action, wrong effort. Right effort, in a sense, is classified under the heading

[02:12]

of developing a certain kind of a mind. Right effort is a kind of a mind. So, right speech, right action and right livelihood are ethical practices and now we come into the mind quality practices. It's a kind of a mind that really delights in developing wholesomeness and really delights in wholesome things. It's a mind that does not want to waste any time. It's a mind that appreciates that this life is precious and fleeting and doesn't want

[03:23]

to goof off and waste it. And, therefore, it really delights in anything that is not wasting time vis-a-vis the point of our life. So it is a kind of a mind thing. It doesn't have so much to do with doing things but it is the ground, it is the basis upon which we do wholesome things. It is the willingness and the delight in doing good things, the willingness to do good things. So right now, just sitting here, is a good time to develop this mind of right effort. Also, in a simple situation like this, where nobody is in your face except for me, to look

[04:28]

at your mind and remember and think about how busy and turbulent it sometimes is. And in the midst of that turbulence, how can you find the kind of mind which doesn't become distracted and biased towards wasting it? This right effort could also be called diligence or being ardent.

[05:30]

Often when the Buddha is described or talks about himself when he was sitting at the time of his enlightenment, he said, I was steadfast, I was mindful, I was ardent and diligent. Diligent means long, steady application of one's studies, long, steady application of one's occupation. Diligent is to be industrious, it's to do things with a persevering, painstaking effort. And the root of the word diligent is loving, attentive, careful, to single out and highly esteem, to love something. Diligence is to love the wholesome, the skillful.

[06:37]

Ardent basically means to, in its root, means to burn. Can you find that bright, burning desire to practice Dharma in the midst of your mind? And can you say, when I ask you, can you find that bright, burning desire to practice Dharma all the time, can you say yes? Where does that yes come from? It comes from right effort. So, as I just mentioned, this presentation of right effort is often given in terms of four right efforts. Not arousing the unskillful, dropping and abandoning the unskillful, not arousing any

[07:51]

unskillfulness that hasn't arisen yet, abandoning any unskillfulness that's around, developing and arousing skillfulness that hasn't arisen, and whatever skillfulness has arisen, to bring it to completion. These are the four aspects. Under the first two, of not arousing unwholesomeness and dropping whatever unwholesomeness or unskillfulness has arisen, it sometimes helps to look at different dimensions of unskillfulness or different dimensions of time-wasting. One dimension is called the time-wasting of sloth and indolence, or what is it, entropy,

[09:00]

no, not entropy, inertia, the wasting time of inertia, that a body that's not moving tends to stay not moving, a body moving tends to keep moving. The next one is the wasting time or the wrong effort of actually liking unskillful, unwholesome things. This is a tough one, because unskillful means a lot of the things that people like to do, like have a job, make money, put the money in the bank and save it up and buy a house or a car.

[10:03]

It has to do with being attracted to things which are actually not going to promote your enlightenment, but promote your situation in the world of samsara. This doesn't even count stuff like drinking, gambling, smoking cigarettes, taking drugs and so on, of course that stuff is there too, but even what ordinarily we consider to be wholesome things are included there. Going to the movies, reading the newspaper, going to sporting events, talking about sporting

[11:27]

events, going shopping, talking about shopping, thinking about shopping. And the third one is, actually kind of third and fourth, third one is despondency or discouragement and self-contempt, being down, in the mouth, depressed, demeaning yourself, having contempt for yourself, I'm not good enough to practice kind of stuff or I just feel bad, I'm feeling lousy and that's really where I'm at.

[12:28]

And I'll throw a little sloth in there too, so I'm just going to stay here. These are the ways to waste time. Now fortunately, if it helps people, you can go shopping and if it helps people, you can be down in the dumps and have self-contempt and lounge around all day, if it's helped people, if it's really for their benefit. But then what you're doing while you're shopping or listening to sporting events or taking drugs or whatever, then what you're doing is you're in a state of extremely intense joy at the wholesomeness of benefiting people by doing these ordinarily unwholesome things. You've all heard of couch potato, right?

[13:54]

Say yes. Yes. [...] Somebody called me a couch potato once, but then that same person later promoted me and called me a tan potato. I like that much better. A tan potato. I like that much better. Four antidotes to the unwholesome things, four antidotes to the unwholesomeness that

[15:11]

has arisen or four ways to prevent unwholesomeness to arise are, first of all, the first one is called separation. The second one is called steadiness or steadfastness. The next one is called delight and the next one is called letting go or rejection. So, first of all, you have to have a desire, you have to arouse a desire, a desire to not waste time. And while you're thinking of not wasting time, before you even get into that too much, you

[16:17]

might just stop and ask yourself the question, do I actually want to stop wasting time for the rest of my life? Do I actually want to give up laziness and indolence? Do I actually want to? And if the answer is no or even not an answer, then maybe you should forget about practice for the time being. And just go waste time in a kind of slothful way, of course. Does the answer yes come to that question that you, do you want to give up laziness?

[17:28]

Do you want to stop wasting time? Do I want to stop wasting time? Do you want to stop wasting time all day long? It's the same as saying, do you want to become enlightened? Do you want to help people? In the best way? Do you want to develop the skill to help people in the best, most beneficial, most wonderful way? Same question. Do you want to be free of suffering?

[18:31]

Absolutely. Same question. Nobody has cleared this thing up. Nobody has become free that hasn't said yes to that question and gone to work on that. You and I can start right now, right now, with that question. And if the answer is yes, we can practice the Buddha way. Because when you say yes to that, you're also saying, yes, I can practice the Buddha way. The Buddha way can be practiced by me. I can do my part with all beings to realize complete, perfect enlightenment. Yes, I can. That's the aspiration which you need to counteract deep, deep tendency to be lazy.

[19:45]

Then, if that aspiration comes up, you have to be very steady about it. You've got to take care of it and walk step by step with this aspiration. This precious, bright aspiration of all Buddhas to give up laziness, to be diligent in the practice, to love the Dharma practice and painstakingly care for it step by step. If we do those two practices and add in another practice which is called delighting, it means thinking about. This is a mind thing again.

[20:49]

In your mind, think about skillfulness. Think about it and think about it and think about it until you can think about it in such a way that you actually feel delight at the thought of skillful activity by you or by others. I mean like really enjoy the thought of somebody doing something skillfully. Like thinking of the kitchen workers skillfully preparing meals for us and think about that and be like totally delighted in the skill of their presenting us these meals. Can you find in your heart a bright delight in the skill of our kitchen staff? Let's hear it folks. I mean are you happy about how skillful they are?

[21:54]

Is that a delight? And how about our servers? Aren't they beautiful? Don't they do a good job? I mean really. Their skill, their precision, their mindfulness. Even the way they sometimes innovate on the forums like closing the door with their feet like Charlie Chaplin. These people are like, it's beautiful their skill. It's a delight. It's a delight to think about it. Isn't it? And also to see it, it's so beautiful. Not to mention our Oreo people. And the teaching around here. Can you believe it? Delighting in skill. Can you see that it is your nature? It is your nature to delight. You love, the Buddha in you loves skillful beings. Loves the skill.

[22:55]

We delight in it. This is what it takes. Got to have that delight. And you also got to let go of something. Got to let go of something. Got to let go of your attraction to certain things. Not the things, the attraction to them, for now. Got to let go of your attraction to anything that's unskillful. This is how to counteract a time-wasting, lazy side. But this isn't all of right effort. There's also, this is like the protective, counteracting side.

[23:56]

When I was sitting down, you know, I roll up a towel and put it behind my knee to make more space in my knee, in the knee joint. Because if I don't make that space, the knee tends to get crunched and the torn cartilage in there gets all crunchy and swells up and stuff. But if I put that towel in there and make that space, it doesn't crunch it so much and it seems to be pretty happy. So now, at the end of practice period, I've had this towel here that I've been using. And I have a different towel over in the doksan area. And the one over there is thicker than this one. This one's kind of long and thin, and that's short and fat. That short, fat one works better. I've been thinking of bringing it over here. It's black and would fit in better with the decor. But also might get lost by some unskillful jinky-doe.

[25:03]

So I kept this white one over here. But today, just now as I sat down, or actually this morning, I folded it in a different way and made it short and fat. So I thought about, you know, I thought about that skillful thing I did and I felt delight, you know. You can allow yourself to feel delight when you do something skillful. It is fun to, like, reorganize your little towels and things in new ways that are helpful. It isn't doing anybody a favor to go around and think about how bad you are. It is good to feel bad about bad things you do, yes. But to then think about how bad you are and how incompetent and lousy you are and what a slouch you are, this is not helping anybody. Other people may tell you this, but, you know, that's their business. Your job is not to, like, get depressed about that, but to meet that with the bright heart.

[26:09]

Which admits that we've done a few unwholesome things, unskillful things, but, yeah, right, and I feel bad about that, but now I really want to practice wholesomeness nonstop. And I'm really happy that I can think that. I had a little piece of paper. I wrote some stuff down and it's not with me now. So, the next part was about how to, you know, how to arouse the wholesome and develop the wholesome that's already arisen. And there's like six aspects of that. One is, again, desire. It's a little different from aspiration. It's the desire to practice Dharma. Next one is called pride. Next one is called a renunciation.

[27:20]

Another one is called dedication. Renunciation. Another one is called self-mastery. Is that five? And one more. What is it? Oh, did I say? Yeah. Desire, pride, delight. Desire, pride, delight. Renunciation, dedication, and self-mastery. These are the ways to develop the good, develop the wholesome, develop the skillful. So, there's some practices you use to counteract and drop laziness. There's laziness of indolence and slothfulness, the laziness of attachment to unwholesome time-wasting activities,

[28:24]

and the laziness of self-contempt and discouragement. So, there's practices to counteract those, and then there's practices to develop the wholesome. But, you know, I'd like to go back for a second to some of those lazinesses. Think about self-contempt. I hope, I think I've said this to you already, but I want to say one more time that... Not one more time. I want to say again that self-contempt is based on selfishness. Self-contempt is a manifestation of our root self-concern. It's a kind of tricky way to be lazy and slothful, lazy and waste time, because usually, if we're just like lazy, sometimes people come and kick us. But if we say, oh, I'm no good and stuff, that'll fool a lot of people.

[29:26]

That's a kind of laziness, that's a kind of wasting time that people say, geez, you're a wreck, what can I say, you know? It's a safe way to waste time in a certain sense among certain circles. Not in Buddhist circles, though, hopefully. You won't get by with that. That doesn't cut it. Oh, I can't do it. Doesn't cut it. It's just another form of self-indulgence and self-concern. Discouragement is selfish. It's not allowed in the heart of Buddha. You don't get to be discouraged. Forget it. It goes with not being lazy. If you say, I do not want to be lazy anymore, if you say, I want to give up wasting time, then you don't get to be discouraged anymore. I mean, you can do it, but it doesn't go with the program. It doesn't go with the program.

[30:30]

You're supposed to give it up. You're into encouragement. Encouragement. And if you see discouragement, you meet it with encouragement, with aspiration, with delight. Not delight in the discouragement, but delight in not being stopped by it. Not being tricked by it. It's pretty tricky. For many years, I was fooled by it. Fooled by it in myself, fooled by it in others. It's especially endearing in others. Oh, poor me, I'm no good. Oh, yeah, well, jeez. Poor thing. Rather than, oh, that's a sleazy trick. Watch out for that one. I mean, it seems so humble in a way, you know, kind of like, oh, would you please move that mountain?

[31:37]

Oh, jeez, it's so big. Poor little me, I can't do that. Well, I didn't mean all at once. Just a little bit at a time, would you? I mean, could you pick up one grain of it? Yeah, I could do that. Would that be too much? Would that strain you? No, I could do it. Well, then, would you move the mountain, please? What do you mean? Move several. Move a hundred billion trillion of them, would you please? Well, gee, I might get tired. Yeah, so what? We need the mountain moved. Would you please move it? Oh, gee, poor me. No. No. That's not the way the Buddha heart talks. It doesn't talk like that. It doesn't say, oh, I can't do that. It says, would you please move the mountain?

[32:42]

It says, would that help for some reason? Yeah, it would, actually. We need it moved by Thursday. Well, I can't move it by Thursday. I'm sure I can't. Okay, well, just move it. I don't care how long it takes. Just move it. Okay. To agree to move it by Thursday is something you should renounce. Don't take on that project. That's an example of renunciation. You should renounce that one. You can't do that. That's too advanced. Well, I think so. As far as I know. None of you can move that mountain here by Thursday. So don't take that on. That's part of being enthusiastic. It's to say, no way! Nobody can move that mountain, including me. No, no, I can't do it.

[33:42]

No. You ask the Bodhisattva to move the mountain, they say, fine. But it's going to take me a long time, you know. I just calculated, you know, that it would take me like a whole afternoon to move that one rock. But I can move that one rock in one afternoon. Yes, I can. I figured it out. And I can move the whole mountain. If you want me to. If it's good, if it's helpful, if it's, you know, if it's a skillful thing, I'll do it. No problem. I'll be delighted to do it. What, you know, what a great thing that you ask me. What a great thing that you ask me. I'm so happy. Yes, I will. Now will you receive the three pure precepts?

[34:48]

Yes, I will. Now, well, let me see now, will I be... No. It's okay, you can think that, but that's lazy to think about whether you want to do it or not. Whether you want to practice them or not. I shouldn't say to think about it, but to sort of say, oh, I don't know if I... No. Yes, I will. Want to practice wholesomeness? Yes, I do. You want to be perfect by Thursday? Well, I want to, but I can't be. I won't agree to that. Yes, I will. Part of this thing, part of the way you develop skillfulness is to have what's called Dharma pride. Pride. The pride, you know, what is it? A lion's group is a pride, right? You're the children of the lion.

[35:50]

The great lion, Shakyamuni, you're his children. He did the lion's roar. That's his Dharma. You're children of the Dharma lion roar king. Or are you? You're in the pride of the Buddha Dharma. You need to have pride that you can practice. You need to be proud that you're a Dharma practitioner and proud that you're going to practice it. And no matter how hard it gets, no matter how much affliction throws in your face, no matter how much karmic results fall on your head, you're going to practice. Not only are you going to, but you want to, and it's a delight to you. You're going to move the whole mountain, stone by stone, pebble by pebble. Someone said to me

[36:56]

that she was standing outside the Zen Dojo here, recently, since it got cold. A couple of days ago, it wasn't cold. Now it's cold, right? Pretty cold. She was standing outside in the cold, and as you know, we heat this place now. And she came inside, and it was so warm. And she thought, you know, knowing how warm it is inside, when you're outside, she could feel a very clear, a very tangible, high priority of getting indoors. It was so clear, so vivid, this desire to be in the warmth. And she wondered, how come my desire to help beings isn't that clear? Like, so tangible, it's like wanting to get warm when you're cold. Well, we need that actual kind of like that tangible thing,

[38:04]

like, you know, salivating when the food comes by. You need that kind of thing about practice. You need that kind of like burning warmth about the practice. We have to develop it. It's necessary if we want to realize the highest welfare for everybody in the world. In the universe. When I was younger, I asked Suzuki Roshi one time, what is right effort? And he said, to get up when the alarm clock goes off with no hesitation. This takes care of all of right effort. Such a nice little thing, you know. It counteracts that wasting time thing,

[39:08]

that laziness, but also it is that spirit of just, yes, I will. It counteracts the laziness, the time-wasting, and it develops the wholesome. Yes, I will. If we don't do that, before you even think about it, with no hesitation, not even a consideration, just jump up. This is even before thinking. Really. If you don't have an alarm clock, the wake-up bell could apply. As soon as you hear the wake-up bell, even that quiet part of it, before it gets real loud, as soon as you hear it, get up. Carefully, steadfastly, mindfully, but without hesitation. I have this picture here of this killer whale

[40:17]

jumping out of the water. It's kind of like the totem of the talk today. This young lady is making quite an effort, lifting several tons out of the water. Big effort here. And looks like having a lot of fun too. And quite beautiful. Sometimes they talk about, you know, the spirit of a Zen practitioner as a vigorously jumping fish, just... but steadfast. Steadfastly, vigorously jumping fish. Serene, vigorous jumping. The old teacher Dogen said,

[41:30]

right effort is to practice with our entire body. It's a practice that strikes people in the face. It's like riding a horse upside down and whirling around the Buddha hall. Laughter It's 9 times 9 is 82. You turn your head and your face has got a new life. Turn your head and you got a new life. It is going into the room of the teacher and it is the teacher coming into the Dharma hall giving a talk. Silence

[43:16]

When we meet someone who is down in the dumps, who is all despondent and discouraged, we feel delight in the possibility of doing something skillful with that person. Our heart leaps. We want, we desire to go indoors where it's warm and have a good time. We want to help this person. We don't know what it is to help them but we really want to help them. We joyfully watch for the opportunity to be helpful

[44:26]

and maybe whisper in their ear, Oh despondent one, what do you want to do with your life really? I will be patient for incalculable eons waiting for the opportunity to help this person. I'll try this or that now and then if it seems likely to work but if it doesn't I'll wait and wait and wait for the next chance. In this way little by little eventually we will be able to meet and understand the Dharma together. I'm sure of it. Thank you.

[45:31]

Then we'll have a few more days of practice period. Things will be different. The problems that face us will change. But will we be able to take care of this diligence? Can you develop this ardent feeling in your heart, this warm burning desire to practice the virtues and skillfulnesses of the way? Do you have that in your heart? Can you keep it and take care of it through the rest of the practice period and beyond? Thank you.

[46:49]

I think it would be alright to put this picture on the altar. Just for a little while. Thank you. Is that okay, boss? Will you share your throne with the killer whale? I'm laughing because of this story I just thought of. You see, my mind went like this. I saw Shakyamuni, then I saw the Dharma-protecting Bodhisattva. You know? Daigenshuri Bodhisattva. The Dharma-protector Bodhisattva. And I thought this is like, you know, direct, you know, output, okay? Then I thought of this.

[47:50]

I went to visit a yogi one time. His name was Yogi Chen. And he was about 75 when I visited him. And he had been a yogi for many years. He went to high school with Mao Zedong. And he lived in a cave 25 years in Tibet, this guy. Anyway, I went to his house in Berkeley, his apartment in Berkeley. And he had this altar, you know, and it was an altar he set up on a mantelpiece over a fireplace. And on top of the altar were many things. And the incense ash on the altar was like, I think, maybe almost an inch deep. It fell off the edge, you know, but it piled up on the thing. And sticking up on this incense ash were various things like, for example, Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower. So I knew what they were about, because he's a Tantric Buddhist,

[48:52]

right? And then there was various Buddhas, you know, Amitabha and so on and so forth. And then there was an Antivity scene, you know. I could relate to that. But he also had Santa Claus on there. So I said, what's a Santa Claus for? And he said, well, originally it was just a gift. Somebody gave me this Santa Claus. It was a gift like a Christmas or something, okay? So I just had it. I had it sitting in my room over near the altar. And then when I was meditating one time, I saw the Santa Claus go over and take refuge in Buddha. And then I realized that in a matter of America, Santa Claus is a Dharma-protecting deity. You know,

[49:52]

a good share of what Santa Claus represents is actually the values of Dharma. It protects the values of generosity and kindness and diligence. You know, if you're diligent, you'll be rewarded. So he put Santa Claus up on the altar rather than just sort of down below. And this killer whale is kind of like a Dharma-protecting deity in California. It represents the spirit of vigor, of energy, of pride. Yes, I am a killer whale and I can fly into the sky all several tons of me. I have that ability. This is my thing. We are Dharma practitioners and we are going to practice. With joy and vigor we're going to burst up out of the world and realize the Dharma. Yes, we are. This figure can be a Dharma-protecting deity. Originally

[50:54]

just a killer whale. So poor little things that we are, we need little Dharma-protecting deities in our heart, in our mind, to protect and nurture the spirit of not wasting time. Such a precious opportunity right under our nose It's right there, moment after moment, the opportunity to be present and realize the Dharma. We're not going to waste it. We're going to walk straight ahead,

[51:57]

upright, and use this wonderful opportunity we're going to walk through heaven and hell. Hmm. We'll let you do a little bit about right effort. Hmm. Hmm.

[52:49]

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