They all say in the teachings, and we know this in general in our daily life, if we want to achieve something, then what we need is enthusiasm. As one of the six perfections of a bodhisattva, it’s referred to as “joyful effort” or “enthusiastic perseverance.”
So, what is enthusiasm? Well, the way to get it clearly in focus is to see it in the framework of its opposite, and what’s that? It’s shocking – it’s called “laziness.” This is a big shock for us: we don’t like that word at all, but it’s logical – psychologically logical, okay?
There are three levels of laziness. The first one – we’ve all got it, it’s the most fundamental one, the obvious one – is, “Can’t be bothered!”
So let’s analyze: the thing we can’t be bothered doing is the thing that takes effort. And what takes effort? The thing that attachment doesn’t want.
Even just think in our ordinary life – the thing you can’t be bothered doing is obvious: it’s, “Oh, it takes too much effort.” What we’d rather do – this is the grossest laziness – is to sit back and stay in our comfort zone: not just our physical comfort zone but our mental comfort zone as well.
We all know that to learn anything you don’t know how to do – even in ordinary samsaric life – naturally, logically takes effort, because you’ve got to squeeze your mind, you’ve got to squeeze your body, you’ve got to learn to make effort – you’ve got to push past the inertia of attachment to that comfort zone.
The approach in the teachings is not in relation to the daily jobs, to ordinary samsaric life. The approach to effort in the teachings is talking only in terms of our practice – to give up our laziness in relation to doing our practice, to give up our laziness in relation to working on our minds – but looking at effort in ordinary daily life helps us understand.
We can see we can’t move one inch in anything at all, any endeavor in life, if we don’t make effort, if we don’t go against attachment.
Look at the ordinary example of going to the gym: you decide you want to get thin – this is an ordinary samsaric activity – and you get all excited in the beginning, and then suddenly the third day, it’s a bit chilly, and you go, “Oh God, I can’t be bothered,” you know? You’d rather sink back in your couch and watch the television and eat popcorn.
This is very deep inside us, this inertia that can’t be bothered, this attachment to our comfort.
Now the next level of laziness is a tricky one. The next one is like we’re lying to ourselves. You start off thinking, “I can’t be bothered,” which is the first level, but then you say, “Oh, I’m too busy, I’ll do it later.” This is called procrastination.
I think this causes us so much suffering. We put off doing things – even the things that we want to do – and then we lie to ourselves. If we simply say, “Oh, I can’t be bothered,” at least we’re being honest, but then we say, “Oh, I’m too busy, I’ll do it later” – in other words, you’re lying to yourself, you’re trying to make yourself feel better, but the fact is later never comes, ever, ever, ever.
Let’s say you go on a retreat. When you get back home you get all excited, and you decide, “I’m going to practice every morning.” The first morning, you get up early and you do your practice; the second morning, you get up early, you do your practice. Then the third morning, you wake up and go, “Oh, no, I’m too tired, I can’t be bothered” – and before you even know it, you’re saying, “But I’ll do it later,” getting yourself off the hook.
We spend our lives doing this: we put off doing so many things, and this is the greatest sadness. We end up having such regret at a wasted life, carrying around the heavy burdens of unfulfilled wishes.
The lamas say this is one of the most painful things at the time of death: the things we’ve put off doing, and now it’s too late.
Now, the third level of laziness, it doesn’t sound immediately like laziness, but this is the most powerful, especially when it comes to achieving our goals, our spiritual goals.
With this one we’re saying, “Oh no, I can’t do that, I’m not capable, not possible!”
This is the worst laziness of all: that’s the one that holds us back from achieving our goals because we don’t even have the courage to think, “I want it.” We don’t even have enough courage to say, “I want to do that.” We, therefore, don’t aim for it.
Let’s say I want to go to a particular retreat or do a particular job and in order to achieve that goal I’ll have to leave home, I’ll have to go to another country. Straight away, it all just seems impossible. And we will say, “No, can’t do that, I’m not capable, that’s not possible.”
And then the next thought is, “No, no, no, my family won’t approve!” “No, I’ll upset people!”
This is the worst laziness of all because we’re too afraid to even think that we want to do it. All we do is see the obstacles. We’ve all got the same problem: we keep ourselves very small, we don’t have enough courage to really say, “I want to achieve that.” And we’re so attached to other people’s opinions.
To achieve my goal, it might mean I’ve got to leave my family, it might mean I’ve got to leave my country, it might mean I’ve got to change the way I see things, but when we’re very stuck in our culture and stuck in our family and stuck in what we think other people will think, we don’t even have the courage to have the thought: “I want that and I will do it.”
So what’s the solution? All the lamas say that you won’t have enthusiasm to do anything unless you are clear about the benefits. When you know the benefits, then for sure you will want to do it and for sure you will make it happen.
Then, having thought about the benefits, having stated you want to achieve it, you then prioritize your practice in your daily life. You budget that thirty minutes into your timeline for your day’s activities: get up in the morning, have my shower, get dressed, do my practice, have my breakfast, go to work.
But if you don’t prioritize it, you’ll be skipping over it and saying, “I’ll do it later.” And before you know it, you’ll have forgotten all about your goal and sunk back into the inertia of your comfort zone.
Of course it takes effort! But it’ll be joyful effort. And eventually it’ll be your habit.
So: we can do it! And it begins with having the courage to think, “I want to do that and I will do it” and being super clear about the benefits of achieving it. That’s enthusiasm!