Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (203)

Buddhist Practice Should Give Rise to a Courageous and Diligent Mind

The World-Honored One exhorted King Śuddhodana to place his mind upon the gateway to liberation, to relinquish the myriad dharmas, to relinquish the enjoyment of the five desires, to relinquish the illusory dharmas of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms, and to be courageous and diligent, using right mindfulness and right contemplation to observe and deliberate upon the myriad dharmas—all these dharmas are truly like a dream, like an illusion, illusory, impermanent, and suffering. After contemplating and observing them as they truly are, one will spontaneously and proactively become courageous and diligent, resolutely cultivating and practicing. Only after the mind genuinely accepts this can one attain liberation.

Therefore, in learning Buddhism, one first hears the true Dharma, then engages in right contemplation and contemplation in accordance with reason, and courageously and diligently cultivates according to correct principles. Practice must be courageous and diligent in order to succeed, because learning Buddhism is like the principle of boiling water: if we want to boil a pot of water, we must keep adding fire and let the fire burn continuously; only then can the water boil. If the fire goes out halfway through, the water cools down again; then we heat it again and stop again—when will this pot of water ever boil? Courageous diligence follows this same principle: with one sustained effort, the pot of water can be boiled quickly. If practice is lax and slack, one will advance and retreat repeatedly, wasting a great deal of time and energy in the process. Courageous diligence and resolute practice belong to the power of meditative concentration (samādhi); when the mind is resolutely fixed within the Dharma of liberation and continuously cultivates the Dharma of liberation, the result will inevitably be liberation.