Explore/Chapter 7 - Diligence

Chapter 7 - Diligence

Summary

BCA Chapter Summaries

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The understanding and practice of bodhicitta depends on the knowledge of the stories, key concepts, texts, and people associated with it. Explore these various aspects to gain a better understanding of bodhicitta, the desire to seek the ultimate happiness for all sentient beings.

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Concise Summary of Essential Points

Although we may have developed some reflective awareness of our mental states and cultivated patience in relation to difficult situations, we still need something that encourages us to make consistent effort on our path. In the first verse of the chapter, Śāntideva reminds us that there is no hope of us really proceeding forward in our Dharma practice without diligence. The diligence required to support us on the path to enlightenment, where we need to sustain our enthusiasm over long periods of time, is indeed great. But what is the quality of this diligence? In the second verse, Śāntideva explains this.

Diligence means joy in virtuous ways. (7.2a)^[1]

Śāntideva defines this diligence or joyous effort as taking delight in virtue. The definition of taking delight in virtue indicates an important aspect of diligence. It is not just working hard and being busy. Busyness in itself, especially when focused on self-centered goals and activities which may have harmful repercussions for others, is not only not considered diligence but indeed the very opposite—it can be a form of laziness. So diligence must be connected with virtue. This is a crucial point in the bodhisattva's path. On seeing the suffering of ourselves and others, there may be some wish to be of benefit, but the strength to continually engage in virtue is an essential factor in implementing that wish. And in turn that must be sustained by a sense of joy and delight that resonates from our innermost being. Without this delight, we may feel a surge of inspiration when we meet the Buddhist path or encounter a heart-touching situation, but there will be no sustenance for the longer road ahead. These powerful statements encourage us to create a life that has attention to living in virtue as its foundation.

Śāntideva then goes on to identify the direct counterpoint to this diligence, which is laziness in all its forms. As it says in The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma (Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna),

The single basis for affliction is laziness. Wherever laziness is present, the Dharma is absent.^[2]

And where does this laziness come from? Śāntideva tells us as follows:

A taste for idle pleasure And a craving for repose and sleep, No qualms about the sorrows of saṃsāra: Laziness indeed is born from these.

Verse 7.3

[ src citation ]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Page(s) 97
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.

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སྙོམ་ལས་བདེ་བའི་རོ་མྱང་དང་། །

གཉིད་ལ་བརྟེན་པའི་སྲེད་པ་ཡིས། ། འཁོར་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མི་སྐྱོ་ལས། །

ལེ་ལོ་ཉེ་བར་སྐྱེ་བར་འགྱུར། །

The chapter then goes on to precisely identify several different colors of this laziness, such as pure indolence and attachment to negative activities, but it also describes the laziness of shrinking away from positive tasks when we become discouraged by the lack of belief in our own strengths and abilities.

Śāntideva encourages us to understand how precious this human life is, how quickly this opportunity can be lost, caught as we are in the jaws of death, and he ardently encourages us to awaken from the slumber of indolence and to practice what is virtuous. He further points out that the Buddha has said that even the smallest of insects can attain unsurpassed enlightenment. Therefore, he asks, how could we ever let our diligence to practice the path weaken?

Although Śāntideva speaks directly of the condition of us ordinary beings, enmeshed as we are in a web of laziness and unable to effectively pursue and sustain virtue, he doesn't just leave it there. According to Śāntideva, all is not lost, as he offers various methods to eliminate this tendency to laziness in the form of four counteractive forces and two antidotal strengths. The four counteractive forces are aspiration, steadfastness or self-confidence, joyfulness, and relinquishment. The two antidotal strengths are the strength of earnest practice and the strength of controlling body, speech, and mind.

To illustrate how we can vanquish the laziness that stops us from engaging in virtue, Śāntideva uses the analogy of a king who overcomes his foes through the support of his four armies. The four armies here symbolize the four counteractive forces that are essential to eliminate causal factors conducive to laziness, as they help us sustain and develop our practice of diligence.

Śāntideva explains, through some powerful examples, how we can make sure we won't let our guard down. For example, he talks of a warrior in the midst of battle who will immediately pick up their sword if it slips from their hand, in fear of being run through by the enemy. Likewise, if we feel ourselves in the grip of laziness, we must reach for the supportive strengths to sustain our practice of virtue.

In conclusion, Śāntideva reminds us that if we can suffuse our minds with the quality of diligence that takes delight in virtue, then all the actions of body and speech which follow that mind will be positive and beneficial.

Just as flaxen threads waft to and fro, Impelled by every breath of wind, So all I do will be achieved, Controlled by movements of a joyful heart.

Verse 7.76

[ src citation ]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Page(s) 108
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.

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ཇི་ལྟར་རླུང་ནི་འགྲོ་བ་དང་། །

འོང་བས་ཤིང་བལ་དབང་བསྒྱུར་བ། ། དེ་བཞིན་སྤྲོ་བས་དབང་བསྒྱུར་ཏེ། །

དེ་ལྟར་ན་ནི་འགྲུབ་པར་འགྱུར། །

↑ Helena Blankleder and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans., The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra, by Śāntideva (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006), 97.
↑ Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans., The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma, Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna, Toh 287 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024), https://read.84000.co/translation/toh287.html?#UT22084-068-021-355.

Additional resources

Text · Sanskrit Original Work

बोधिचर्यावतार

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།

Bodhicaryāvatāra

Śāntideva

- An "Introduction to Bodhisattva Practice," the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra is a poem about the path of a bodhisattva, in ten chapters, written by the Indian Buddhist Śāntideva (fl. c. 685–763). One of the masterpieces of world literature, it is a core text of Mahāyāna Buddhism and continues to be taught, studied, and commented upon in many languages and by many traditions around the world. The main subject of the text is bodhicitta, the altruistic aspiration for enlightenment, and the path and practices of the bodhisattva, the six perfections (pāramitās). The text forms the basis of many contemporary discussions of Buddhist ethics and philosophy.

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Text · Sanskrit Original Work

शिक्षासमुच्चय

བསླབ་པ་ཀུན་ལས་བཏུས་པ།

Śikṣāsamuccaya

Śāntideva

- Śikṣāsamuccaya (T. Bslab pa kun las btus pa; C. Dasheng ji pusa xue lun; J. Daijōjū bosatsugakuron; K. Taesǔng chip posal hak non 大乘集菩薩學論). In Sanskrit, "Compendium of Training," a work by the eighth-century Indian Mahāyāna master Śāntideva. It consists of twenty-seven stanzas on the motivation and practice of the bodhisattva, including bodhicitta, the six perfections (pāramitā), the worship of buddhas and bodhisattvas, the benefits of renunciation, and the peace derived from the knowledge of emptiness (śūnyatā). The topic of each of the stanzas receives elaboration in the form of a prose commentary by the author as well as in illustrative passages, often quite extensive, drawn from a wide variety of Mahāyāna sūtras. Some ninety-seven texts are cited in all, many of which have been lost in their original Sanskrit, making the Śikṣāsamuccaya an especially important source for the textual history of Indian Buddhism. These citations also offer a window into which sūtras were known to a Mahāyāna author in eighth-century India. The digest of passages that Śāntideva provides was repeatedly drawn upon by Tibetan authors in their citations of sūtras. Although Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra and Śikṣāsamuccaya both deal with similar topics, the precise relation between the two texts is unclear. Several of the author's verses appear in both texts and some of the sūtra passages from the Śikṣāsamuccaya also appear in the Bodhicaryāvatāra. One passage in the Bodhicaryāvatāra also refers readers to the Śikṣāsamuccaya, but this line does not occur in the Dunhuang manuscript of the text and may be a later interpolation. (Source: "Śikṣāsamuccaya." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 821. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

Bibliography: Works on Chapter 7 - Diligence

[1] Helena Blankleder and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans., The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra, by Śāntideva (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006), 97.

[2] Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans., The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma, Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna, Toh 287 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024), https://read.84000.co/translation/toh287.html?#UT22084-068-021-355.

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Explore/Chapter 7 - Diligence

Contents

Concise Summary of Essential Points

Notes

Additional resources

Bibliography: Works on Chapter 7 - Diligence