Diligence

Diligence is a little different from dedication. Dedication is diligence in one's duties and work. Diligence is being willing to put in the effort to do everything in life. A person can be dedicated at the office, but then get home and refuse to do anything else, not exercise, not look after the family, with the excuse that work has worn them out.

Diligence matters in many areas. Diligence in exercising, practicing an instrument, studying a foreign language, doing homework, helping with housework, gardening, picking up trash around the neighborhood, joining charity work, joining political and social organizations that promote patriotism, setting time aside for religious practice, writing to train one's use of words.

Diligence also differs from passion. Passion is working very hard at something you love. Diligence does not require liking it. As long as the task is right, we make the effort.

A diligent person has will, and has beaten the human instinct for laziness. And once you keep it up, diligence has its own pleasure. Do not overwork, just keep working steadily, and there is joy in it. A diligent person has a bigger advantage than others. Once diligent, you have the will to study and rise. Once diligent, you readily give service to the people around you, and so usually create merit. Once diligent, you tinker and explore and so easily discover new things, which we call creativity.

Diligence is made of two things: mental determination, and a body with reasonably good health.

Will is supported by merit, driven by recognizing what is right, or produced by feeling. Love, hatred or a correct understanding can all produce will.

Knowing something is necessary, we make the effort. That is wisdom giving rise to will.

Loving something, we make the effort. Hating something, we make the effort. That is feeling giving rise to will.

With enough health, will has an easier time. People in poor physical health tend to become lazy. Traditional Eastern medicine holds that kidney failure can also give rise to laziness. So we should exercise regularly and keep our health steady in order to have a diligent mind.

A diligent person is easily respected, while a lazy person is looked down on by everyone. Laziness contributes nothing to the community, so merit gradually dries up, and once it is gone we are despised. Sometimes people even conclude that a lazy person is a wicked person. They are called wicked because they calmly let others struggle to carry work that concerns them too.

If we find we are not diligent, we must correct it urgently, because it is a very large flaw in our lives. We need to practice and to resolve, until we become very diligent. And not only for the present, but diligent in creating merit for many lives to come.