What is joyous perseverance (effort)?

 

“When you have focused upon something virtuous, joyous perseverance is enthusiasm for it. Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds says:

 

What is joyous perseverance? It is delight in virtue. 

 

The Bodhisattva Levels explains it as a flawless state of mind that is enthusiastic about accumulating virtue and working for the welfare of living beings, together with the physical, verbal, and mental activity such a state of mind motivates.” —Je Tsongkhapa (reference below)

 

Joyous perseverance is supreme among virtues; Based on it, you subsequently attain the rest. 

 

One who has joyous perseverance

Is not brought down 

By prosperity, afflictions, 

Discouragement, or petty attainments.

—Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sūtras 

 

As rust corrupts 

The very iron that formed it, 

So transgressions lead 

Their doer to states of woe

 

Oral teachings become corrupted when not recited,

Homes become corrupted by inactivity,

Sloth corrupts physical beauty,

Negligence corrupts a guardian. (Verse 241)

—Buddha, The Dhammapada  

Links and References

Buddha.The Dhammapada. Translated by Gil Fronsdale. Shambala, Boston and London, 2011, pp.62.

Je Tsongkhapa. Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, by Je Tsongkhapa, Volume 2. Translated by the Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee. Joshua Cutler, Editor-in-Chief, and Guy Newlan, Editor, pp 183-185.