Joyful Effort
by Trudy Grienauer
My schedule has been blown empty for many months now, and I haven’t touched a single item on the to-do list I drew up in April. Every time I think of tackling a major project, it is easy to postpone. There are no deadlines, no need to squeeze precious time for creativity out of the nooks of a usually busy life. Time is suddenly abundant – and easily wasted.
I have berated myself for “doing nothing” since about May. I can live with the fact that I missed the collective sour-dough baking and closet-organizing phase of the pandemic – but why am I not writing more, organizing my photos, getting a website ready to welcome inquiring seekers? Slowly it has dawned on me that I just have no energy for “projects” – none.
Into my sense of depletion and listlessness, my Zen Buddhist community has brought our annual fall period of intentional practice and focused study. This year, the chosen topic are six qualities of enlightened beings (paramitas), offering a vast field of practice for us aspiring bodhisattvas: generosity, ethical conduct, patience, joyful effort, meditation, and wisdom.
Out of the six paramitas, joyful effort immediately stood out for me. How can I get some of that? Please, bring it on! In the Buddhist context, joyful effort is the zest and energy we bring to our spiritual practice and study. Surely, though, some of it could be diverted to the rest of my life?
As I delved into the recommended readings and compared what authors had to say, I started to ask myself whether this effort was a skill or rather a grace? Is it the extraordinary exertion of saints and spiritual masters? Or is it something that happens when we get out of the way, stop trying to do so much, and let life flow through us?
I found that every time I was able to link an activity to my spiritual intentions and values, I felt a boost of energy. Shantideva, an Indian sage of the 8th century, said that joyful effort is “finding joy in what is wholesome.” If my work is congruent with my values, I can enter into it wholeheartedly. It involves the whole me. And it makes me whole.
As we study the paramitas, we see how they are all connected. For example, meditative awareness helps me to gain clarity of my deep aspirations as well as any situation I am facing. With clarity, I can better discern where to apply my energy – what needs to be addressed, nurtured, taken care of? What can I let go, with self-forgiveness for not doing it? Once I see clearly, I will have more energy to jump in – in Shantideva’s words “like an elephant that suffers the midday sun plunges into a refreshing lake!”
What the current situation often seems to ask of me is rest, sleep, self-care. Our habitual understanding doesn’t see these as effort, rather the opposite. Yet this may be exactly the place where I am asked to stop straining and let life flow as it wants to flow, with joyful attention. It is a matter of seeing things as they are, even if I don’t like it, getting in touch with my vow to care for self and others, and responding with my whole being.
Trudy Grienauer
is a spiritual companion trained in the Pacific Jubilee SoulGuiding program. She has been a student of Zen Buddhism since 2005 and currently practices with Vancouver’s Mountain Rain Zen Community as a distance student. Trudy explores her creativity as a poet, photographer, cook and choir singer. She draws inspiration from hiking and travelling. .
