Next in the Noble Eightfold Path is right joyous effort. It is not just pushing. It is a mind that takes delight in doing what is constructive. Often, we do not really know what joyous effort is.

Our whole school system is directed towards effort and very much imbued with reward and punishment. If you make a lot of effort, you get a reward, but if you do not you are punished. We often bring that mentality into the Dharma and think, “Okay, I’ve got to do this because I’m pleasing somebody else or because some authority said so.” That is the mind that is looking for some reward. Sometimes we think, “I’ve got to practise the Dharma otherwise I’ll go to hell. Otherwise, I’m a terrible person. Otherwise, the sky is going to fall.” That is the mind that is afraid of punishment. Both those motivations of seeking approval as a reward or avoiding some punishments are not conducive to joyous effort. They are only conducive to pushing ourselves and making ourselves a little bit anxious.

Joyous effort is based on a thorough understanding of the path. It is a mind that sees the benefit of practice for self and others, and without pushing, without a lot of shoulds, takes delight in doing the practice.

We need to do some thinking about what joyous effort is and not just assume that we understand this mental state correctly. Often, we confuse joyous effort with pushing. We should know what those two mental states feel like inside of ourselves and how they are manifest in our words and our actions. Only then can we discriminate between when we are making a joyous effort and when we are pushing. This discrimination is crucial to our Dharma practice.

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