A slight detour from listening, contemplating, and meditating, to spotlight rejoicing.
As mentioned in the Correct Conduct post, rejoicing is one of a sevenfold practice commonly used in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition to lay a foundation for Dharma practice. In addition to the formal prayer form, each of these practices can be incorporated into one’s motivation and daily life nonverbally as well.
As mentioned in the Correct Conduct post, rejoicing is one of a sevenfold practice commonly used in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition to lay a foundation for Dharma practice. In addition to the formal prayer form, each of these practices can be incorporated into one’s motivation and daily life nonverbally as well.
Of these, perhaps the most immediately beneficial to the widest range of practitioners is the practice of rejoicing, which simply means taking joy in the wholesome conduct and spiritual practices of oneself and others. Like all transformative practice, it has untold dimension, texture, and impact—its benefits can only truly be known through implementation and direct discovery. Still, as beginners, it helps us to learn about the practice and its advantages, as a method for encouraging us to try it for ourselves.
As with the other components of the Seven Branch Prayer, rejoicing has a dual effect—purifying and magnifying. Taking joy in others’ good fortune, progress in the Dharma, dedication, and so forth eases any competitiveness, envy, jealousy, or other tainted view we might have. This simply means that our minds become more still in the moment, more receptive and open to taking what is good as good, without the intervention of self-interest. Moments when we can be genuinely, serenely appreciative of others’ goodness and practice serve as oases in the midst of fractured, confused, and turbulent mental states. They provide a haven from klesha-emotion, if only temporarily, in which we might catch a taste of our natural state of mind. One of the many benefits of surrounding ourselves with a sangha (a community of Dharma practitioners) is the exposure to multiple opportunities for rejoicing in their practice and commitment.
Better still, we have a ready source for joy in ourselves! Rejoicing in our very own practice, study, and progression in understanding and loving-kindness—to name but a few—is immensely powerful, and often overlooked. We can furnish ourselves with ample opportunity for taking joy—the raw material is in our own hands! This is especially valuable in the context of retreat, when we have minimal to no contact with others. In any setting, we are able to use ourselves as a platform for frankly investigating what we need to improve in ourselves and taking quiet joy in our progress. Done right, this gentle inward approach is honest, humble, and free of guilt—qualities we at times sorely lack towards ourselves.
Recognizing the value and vitality of Dharma practice, and celebrating the fact that so many causes and conditions have come together to make it possible for us and others to take it up, brings great lightness and contentment to the mind. It stokes the fires of enthusiasm, itself the fuel for steadfast commitment and eager readiness to practice that is itself joyful diligence. This is just how mind works, or Mind Training 101: we do what we like to do. Enjoying our practice is a vital ingredient for cultivating and nurturing our inclination to engage its transformative power.
This enhancing aspect of rejoicing relates to the complex issue of merit. The Tibetan Buddhist tradition places a high value on generating merit through practice as a means for propelling us happily and successfully along the spiritual path. But what is merit? Put simply, merit is the positive energy that comes of conducting ourselves in accord with our true nature. It is the groundswell of being in active harmony with our core qualities, such as wisdom, love, and serenity. We all have these qualities, though their full dazzle is covered over by less appealing ones. Merit is the surge of power that comes from moving with our intrinsic excellence. Because ignorance, klesha-emotion, and the enticements of samsara can so readily derail us from synchronicity with the qualities of enlightenment, flowing with, rather than against, them produces a surge of wholesome energy which can be channeled into further goodness. We feed excellence rather than confusion.
A fabulous positive feedback loop results: meaningful conduct of ourselves and others yields authentic celebration of both the wonder and the very ordinariness of our Dharma activity. That joyful energy encourages us to further our practice. We rejoice in that, alive to the countless influences from others that allow us to encounter the Dharma, provide us the conditions for its practice, and support our growth as spiritual practitioners.
But wait, there’s more! We are not limited to ourselves and those we see around us. Every time we sit on a meditation cushion, read the sutras, recite prayers, bow, make offerings—whatever the practice—we can rest briefly in mindful recollection of the many practitioners whose practices we are emulating. In that moment, we can take joy in the resonance between our practice and that of the great arhats, bodhisattvas, and even the Buddha Shakyamuni himself. We remain poised, for however long, in the infinite web of interconnection we and all beings share with each other and realized beings.
Joyful appreciation and celebration, then, has the power to infuse every element of our Dharma practice with the vivid and present awareness of our intimate, integral connection to the natural environment that provides us with the ease and inspiration to practice, to others who support and contribute to our practice directly and indirectly, and to the realized beings who have gone before us, teaching and showing us the efficacy of Dharma. It does not require a particular form—in fact, it may be most powerful as a consistent interior attitude of appreciation and contentment, free of outward displays that may be colored by hidden agendas of self-interest.
A single moment suffused with such joy is flush with merit—the positive energy that both reflects the excellence that is our true nature and fuels our progress towards letting go of all that keeps us from manifesting it directly. What’s more, right within that awareness, we can recognize our kinship with all beings, who share the same nature and interconnection, but may not have the same access to Dharma that we have. The commitment to make ourselves available to practice not only for our own sake, but for others as well, rises up unbidden within that space.
When we generate this energy—at the start, in the midst, or at the conclusion of practice, or even in stolen moments throughout our day—we nourish our awareness of Dharma as the central source of meaning and purpose. Over time, this can grow into an engine that continually fuels more practice, more celebration, more mindfulness of our intrinsic goodness and interconnection to all—more true happiness! Everything we do in this mind frame becomes a Dharma practice, and we naturally share the goodness with all beings, dedicating the wholesome fruits of practice to all.
Try it now—post a comment about rejoicing: an insight, question, doubt, or anything you like. There's no time like the present to begin this marvelous, bountiful, uplifting practice!
~ May all beings know the true joy of perfect enlightenment! ~
I find rejoicing one of the most potent tools for combating the poverty mentality. When falling into a funk, feeling downtrodden about my capacity or what I haven't accomplished, remembering to rejoice- to recognize what I have done, all the amazing opportunities to engage the dharma, to meet with genuine teachers etc.- it cracks through those dark mind states, elevates my outlook and gives me the energy to do what needs to be done.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I have been hearing Drupon Khenpo talk of often this year is the need to look at our practice, our lives, from multiple perspectives. In other words to see it realistically. If we look at the practice we've engaged in, or the virtue we have performed, and see it as only positive that likely means that we are overlooking pride or other kleshas which generally come up along with our practice of virtue. As Drupon Khenpo says its not the fact that those things come up along with our practice that's the problem; as beginners that is just the way it goes for a while. The real problem is not recognizing them for what they are.
He compares it to a farmer collecting in the harvest. When the farmer is growing her crop of say barley, there are weeds which grow along with the barley in the field. As long as the farmer recognizes the weeds for weeds, and the barley for barley she can separate them out and there is no problem. The problems only come when the farmer lumps it all together and tries to eat the weeds with the barley. Or if, in recognizing that weeds will grow with the barley, thinks it is no use and decides not to grow the harvest at all, feeling that the harvest should only consist of 100% barley with nothing else growing. Both of those approaches don't benefit the farmer and those around her. In order to avoid those pitfalls we need honesty with ourselves and the ability to rejoice in what we can do and have done.
The practice of rejoicing, at least in its self-oriented aspect, in essence seems to me to be the practice of looking more realistically.