The Practice of the Six Paramitas – The Paramita of Diligence

With the paramita of diligence, we need to overcome the excitation of outer and inner speech. The deviousness and insidiousness of hidden mental tendencies (samskaras) manifests itself in excited speech. Knowing of this treachery, teach your tongue the art of asceticism.

Preach to the tongue-ascetic,

Seeing it as the essence of your own mind:

“You are restless like a demon in a heavenly fortress

Behind walls of teeth.

Know that you tremble

At the blows of the whip of your own wicked speech

you got used to lash other beings with.

You flutter like the flag of complacency waving in the wind;

Indulging in lies,

You wriggle, like a snake!

Do not be rude, do not praise yourself and do not lie,

And the flutter will be replaced by peace.

Renounce the unwholesome quest for power over impermanent phenomena subject to suffering, like you yourself are, my tongue!

Aspire for the wholesome quest for unity

With the permanent silence and Teaching,

Which are not subject to suffering.

During silence, your tongue in the mouth

Behaves like a bird in its nest.

In speech, your tongue behaves

Like a soaring bird.

Therefore, to teach your tongue the art of asceticism,

Use the techniques of four birds:

The Raven, the Swan, the Peacock and the Phoenix.

The Technique of the Raven

Your differentiation of impermanence — is the long beak of the Raven.

Peck the senses of “mine” and “I” with it

Out of the space of the mind

Like eyes out of the eye sockets of a corpse.

The Raven — is your mind

Undecorated with ideas about

Its importance.

The mind calms in the blackness of its feathers,

And its breath grows deep and calm

Like that of a person in deep sleep.

The Technique of the Swan

The Great Ascetic gave guidance on higher conduct in the simplest words:

Those who possess the ability to make what is right pleasant for themselves while what is wrong unpleasant live a pleasant and easy life in the Teaching.

An easy life in the Teaching is like the flight of a swan along the Path of the Sun.

Your heartbeat — is its song.

Your lungs — are its body and wings,

Your windpipe — is the long swany neck,

And your tongue — is its beak.

Your inhales and exhales —

are the beating of the Swan’s wings,

Balancing your breath in the left

And right sides of your body.

Meditating on the Swan’s flight,

You fill your entire body with breath.

The Technique of the Peacock

The Peacock charms with its open tail.

The open tail of wisdom — is inner contentment.

The Great Ascetic taught:

When a lake is fed by an inner source,

It does not depend on changeable rains

Or the fullness of the rivers flowing into it.

The lake — is the contentment of the heart,

The rains — is the perception of the smells of food,

The inflowing river — is the taste of food.

The inner source — is diligence.

Meditate like this:

“I seek protection everywhere, I seek shelter everywhere.

In the visible world, thoughts about shelter

Come down to a desire to own land

Somewhere in a quiet, well-protected place,

With my own house there and everything needed to live.

But do such a place and house exist?

And even if right now I entertain myself with the thought

That I own or will own such a place and house,

Do I not worry, knowing their impermanence?

Is it not safer to find shelter in my own heart?

After all, in my heart I decide

Whether to abide in happiness or be in unhappiness,

Whether to experience hope or despair.

My shelter is in the heart.

Establishing the mind in this inner house,

I'll dismiss both at once the desire for impermanent happiness

And fear of impermanent unhappiness.”

The technique of the Phoenix

Behold your own mind

As the unborn witness to all states.

It is present in the actions of the body, speech and thought like a Phoenix constantly resurging and burning up in its own flame.

The voice of the Phoenix — is the sound of deep breathing.

Hear its inseparability from silence,

And you've mastered the best kind of diligence —

Abiding in peace.

Grasping practice correctly

Correct diligence allows the practitioner to get past the thick wall of ignorance and gives the ability to grasp the sometimes seemingly elusive essence of the Teaching. Grasping the Teaching correctly consists in employing received wisdom on correcting our own vices. Let us examine this principle on the example of the following prayer:

May the ignorant turn from evil.

May the weak strengthen on the path of truth and good.

May the worthy gain the freedom of giving.

The purpose of this prayer is to develop goodwill. Through differentiation of evil, weakness and worthy (virtuous) behaviour, we get the ability to wish beings the form of good that is available to them in their state. For ignorant beings, the greatest good — is to turn from evil (wrong acts of the body, speech and mind). For weak beings whose morality has not yet gained strength, the most needed good — is to take the path of learning higher morality. For stronger beings who have mastered the fundamentals of the Teaching, the good needed for further growth — is to devote themselves to serving other beings (giving). By wishing beings the good that is currently available and needed to them, we develop genuine, empathetic goodwill.

To develop such sublime goodwill and ensure its effectiveness, we need to correctly grasp the meaning of the prayer in relation to our own inner life.

Who are “ignorant” within us? It is our thoughts. What is inner evil? It is identifying with an impermanent body subject to suffering and decay. So, we should turn thoughts from the belief “I'm — a body”.

Who are “weak” within us? It is our feelings.

What is the inner path of truth and good? It is the immeasurable goodwill, compassion, detachment and their combined joy. So, we should develop immeasurable feelings.

Who is “worthy” within us? It is our wholesome volition. So, power should be given to it for realization.

To better remember these ideas, let us refer to the image of a candle. Its flame has three parts: the inner dark, the middle light, and the invisible outer. The inner part is the coldest, while the outer — the hottest. The dark part of the flame, closest to the wick, is a convenient symbol for a well-focused thought which does not turn away from the emptiness which engenders it. The light part of the flame is a convenient symbol for the Immeasurable Feelings, which illuminate the path of seekers. The invisible part of the flame is a symbol for volition, which, while remaining unmanifested, sets everything in motion.

Coping with the excitation of the heart through right effort

Since the excitation of the heart results from wrong effort, a fundamental skill in developing diligence is mastery of right effort. How can we learn this?

The method of employing the five kinds of right effort.

The five kinds of well-intentioned effort which do not cause stress and suffering and lead to peace and fulfillment are:

1. Conception of good aspiration in the heart.

2. Eradication of existing vicious qualities

3. Growth of existing wholesome qualities.

4. Prevention of the rise and development of emerging vicious qualities

5. Abiding in an equilibrium of peace without trying to add anything to the pure mind.

1. Conception of good aspiration in the heart.

Practitioners think: “Wisdom, concentration, diligence, patience, self-restraint, giving — those are qualities good in all respects and leading to inner peace. Why don't I acquire these virtues? They have no flaw. I believe in those qualities. I wish to possess them. May they manifest in my thoughts, speech and behaviour. I wish to remember the grace of those qualities.”

2. Eradication of existing vicious qualities

Practitioners examine their mental state by observing: “Right now I feel agitation or greed, or doubt about the absolute value of virtue, or ill-will, or stagnation and dullness”. Wishing to eradicate one vicious quality or another, practitioners say: “I'll reduce and cause the extinction of this bad, mind-tormenting quality. I'll deprive this quality of support, will see its unprofitability, will realize that the desires and thoughts arising from it are negligible and also bring stress and a state of misery. I'll become completely disillusioned with the habit of this vicious quality. I'll throw it away like throwing away a rotten piece of food.”

3. Growth of existing wholesome qualities

Practitioners note: there are virtuous, wonderful qualities my mind is familiar with — those are peace, friendliness, compassion, dispassion, contentment. I know them as good, as bringing pleasure both now and then. So I'll grow those qualities, increase them immeasurably, merge entirely with those qualities. I'll recognize and welcome them, allow them to fully envelop the mind. Whenever doing anything, I'll check myself — have I made sure that this action of mine is endowed with a virtuous quality? I'll fill my thoughts, speech and actions with virtuous qualities.”

4. Prevention of the rise of emerging vicious qualities

Practitioners should be vigilant about received perceptions. Perceiving external phenomena, living and nonliving, beautiful and ugly, pleasant and unpleasant, practitioners should not permit the rise of emerging vicious qualities: we should avoid comparing ourselves to others, thinking “I'm better”; we should also not be jealous of others, thinking “why do they have that and I don't?”.

Diligent practitioners think of what is pleasant and unpleasant as follows: when what is pleasant contributes to the purity of my mind and peace, it is good… when what is unpleasant contributes to the purity of my mind and peace, it is good… when what is pleasant pollutes and confuses my mind, it is bad… when what is unpleasant pollutes and confuses my mind, it is bad… what is good, I'll take, pleasant it is or not, what is bad, I’ll reject, be it pleasant or unpleasant.

5. Abiding in peace

Making an effort to abide in peace is the subtlest of all efforts. To master it, we need to have three abilities:

1. The ability not to let the mind wander in the three times. When there is a memory, desire or vision of the future, we need to weigh them like grain on scales. We need to weigh their usefulness, novelty, the reason why they arose and also the reason why they go away.

2. The ability to contain stress not with stress but with relaxation. This means that the calming of the mind should happen through the cessation of the mind-stressing triple thirst (thirst of the senses, thirst for existence and thirst for decay)

3. Practitioners are content with peace and see it as their inalienable nature, they do not try to improve peace or add some additional sensual happiness to it.

Such is the application of the five well-intentioned efforts. Once seekers begin to form well-intentioned efforts seriously, it is important to them to clarify for themselves what is the right way of dealing with the notion of “I”. This notion plays a leading role in forming an effort, so we should understand how and when using this “I” would be useful and when — it would be useless. The following passage is about this.

Three Ways to Use Cow Urine

In the healing arts, cow urine is used in three ways — internally, externally and also as material for making medicines.

In urine, there are traces of bodily fluids which participate in food digestion and blood production, therefore, with skillful internal application, it can have a healing effect on the internal organs of the body.

Due to the presence of primordial vitality which forms in the kidneys in the urine, when applied externally, it can have a healing effect in treating the sinuses, joints, skin and tendons.

Cow urine is also used to purify medicinal metals and stones from the poisons contained in them. Thanks to the ability of urine to absorb and retain what is poisonous to the body, it purifies materials soaked in it from substances which are harmful for health.

Good use of the notion of “I” is like good use of cow urine in treating the body.

Skillful mediators show wholesome differentiation and volition by making the decision: ”I'll develop the existing wholesome qualities of the mind, I'll give rise to those wholesome qualities which have not yet arisen; I'll eradicate the existing unwholesome qualities of the mind, I'll prevent the rise of emerging unwholesome qualities of the mind”. Such use of the notion of “I” is like the use of cow urine in treating the tissues of the body. It empowers differentiation and volition with the energy needed for their correct functioning.

Skillful meditators identify with limitless space, with light, with emptiness, with the unborn mind by thinking: “I — am limitless space, I — am infinite light, I — am conscious emptiness, I — am the unborn mind. Such use of the notion of “I” is like the external use of urine in treating the sinuses, tendons, joints and skin. It helps acquire a steady view, peace of the senses and vitality.

Skilfull meditators cut off attachment to form and name with the thought: “I'm — not a body, not a feeling, not a view, not volition, not consciousness fettered by vices. They are impermanent, while the “I” I endow them with suffers from impermanence. Therefore, such an “I” is unsatisfactory. Such use of the notion of “I” is like the purification of medicinal metals and stones with the help of cow urine. After all, the body, feeling, view, volition and consciousness fettered by vices, all of them, being impermanent, subject to deterioration and contamination, need to be purified from the sense “that — is I, this — is mine, I'm such” by the sense of “I” itself.

Author

Roni