Nov 23, 2020
What is joyous perseverance (effort)?
“When you have focused upon something virtuous, joyous perseverance is enthusiasm for it. Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds says:
What is joyous perseverance? It is delight in virtue.
The Bodhisattva Levels explains it as a flawless state of mind that is enthusiastic about accumulating virtue and working for the welfare of living beings, together with the physical, verbal, and mental activity such a state of mind motivates.” —Je Tsongkhapa (reference below)
Joyous perseverance is supreme among virtues; Based on it, you subsequently attain the rest.
One who has joyous perseverance
Is not brought down
By prosperity, afflictions,
Discouragement, or petty attainments.
—Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sūtras
As rust corrupts
The very iron that formed it,
So transgressions lead
Their doer to states of woe
Oral teachings become corrupted when not recited,
Homes become corrupted by inactivity,
Sloth corrupts physical beauty,
Negligence corrupts a guardian. (Verse 241)
—Buddha, The Dhammapada
Links and References
Buddha.The Dhammapada. Translated by Gil Fronsdale. Shambala, Boston and London, 2011, pp.62.
Je Tsongkhapa. Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, by Je Tsongkhapa, Volume 2. Translated by the Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee. Joshua Cutler, Editor-in-Chief, and Guy Newlan, Editor, pp 183-185.