So this morning I want to explore with you the parami,
The perfection of energy.
And so just to say that Lish and I started this series the beginning of April,
Now it's April 15th,
So we started out with gratitude and then from gratitude we went to ethics.
Last week we explored renunciation and we explored,
Oh my goodness I'm forgetting,
Give me a minute,
Renunciation and wisdom,
Yes wisdom,
Took me a minute to remember.
And today we'll look at the perfection,
The parami of energy.
In the Pali,
The language of the Buddha,
It's known as viriya,
Viriya is the word that's translated into energy or effort,
It's a powerful word in the Indian language,
It kind of means a heroic effort or a strong effort.
The message to be heroic I think can easily be misunderstood.
Heroic is not striving,
It's not striving,
We don't tense up around our effort,
Although admittedly I have,
You know,
I remember in my early retreat practice the way in which I kind of approach my practice,
The meditation,
Was kind of like,
Okay,
I'm going to do this,
I'm going to bring all my energy,
I'm going to bring all my effort and I'm going to be present with my body and I'm going to be present with my mind and I'm going to stay with my breath and I kind of,
The whole way in which I was approaching it was sort of this gearing up for the practice and it's kind of exhausting and honestly I fell asleep a lot.
In the Sayadaw Uteshania practice that I've been practicing for myself and I've introduced to this group,
His practice has a very liberating approach to effort and to energy.
It's this very gentle turning of attention over and over to what's happening now.
There's the energy of seeing and not succumbing,
You know,
Not succumbing to what you see.
Kind of like,
You know,
I'm going to practice with this,
So if anger is alive,
I'm not going to succumb to the anger or if fear is what I'm experiencing,
I'm not going to succumb to it,
Or if there's restlessness or anxiety in the body,
It's not a succumbing to these emotions.
It doesn't mean that we deny that there's fear or there's anxiety or there's anger in the body.
We're not denying.
It's not a pushing away,
You know.
We're bringing a very relaxed awareness to it.
We don't really let the story take the center stage.
What's needed really is the effort to be very gentle,
Like,
You know,
Okay,
Aware of anger and it feels like this,
Oh there's the story.
Okay,
Aware,
Not liking,
Our heroic effort is really in the capacity we have to be aware.
The effort of our mindfulness practice,
You know,
To remind ourselves frequently to check in with what's being known,
What's being known,
What's obvious in this moment.
You know,
Am I aware?
Aware of what?
That's the effort really,
Very light.
And as we develop this kind of light effort,
We have to remind ourselves frequently at first and then it almost has a life of its own.
Our effort becomes effortless.
You may find that as you practice this,
Dropping in,
Am I aware?
Aware of what?
What's most obvious?
It becomes part of our day.
I find this for myself,
You know,
Just,
Huh,
Am I aware?
Oh,
Look at that.
I'm aware of agitation or I'm aware of beauty.
So at first it takes some time and then it,
And then it doesn't.
Then it just becomes a natural effort to be aware.
This light effort,
You know,
When we put our faith in really being mindful,
You know,
Pausing,
Like,
Looking long enough to see and to recognize what's obvious,
Rather than going into kind of the automatic expected behavior of like anxiety or the expected behavior of worry or anger or complaining.
All the things that we do,
You know,
To just be aware,
To recognize what's happening,
That takes a little bit of effort and some refrain.
To relax and not act.
That's the heroic part of this,
The virya,
To make the decision to not get swept away by what we're seeing.
Even in meditation,
You know,
I'm always amazed and just honored that so many of you are coming from the West Coast.
It's,
You know,
It's early,
It's 6.
40 in the morning.
You know,
That's really,
And you're coming,
You're waking up and you're coming and you're sitting together.
You know,
That takes some energy.
There's a conviction and energy to really be here and to show up for yourself.
And that's just beautiful.
And I really,
That represents to me this effort that I'm talking about,
This energy.
Krishnamurti,
A yogi from India said,
It's the truth that liberates,
Not your effort to be free.
It's the truth that liberates,
Not your effort to be free.
It's the truth.
So what is the truth?
I would like to take a moment to reflect on this a little bit.
So for yourself,
You know,
Drop in a question,
You know,
Where,
Where in your life are you making too much effort?
Where is it tight?
Where are you trying too hard?
Where are you grasping too much?
Don't get lost in the story.
Just see,
Just see,
This is where I'm over-efforting.
And the opposite as well,
You know,
Where in your life do you make too little effort?
Where are you lazy or habitual?
Think about this.
See it.
This is where I under-effort.
I make too little effort.
It's the truth that liberates.
The truth,
Seeing the truth right now.
Not with judgment,
Just seeing,
Clear comprehension.
And now remind yourself,
What is your intention behind your practice?
What do you really,
Really care about?
What would your practice look like if you were being really true to yourself?
It's the truth that liberates.
Not your effort to be free.
What do you really,
Really care about?
And what would your practice look like if you were really being true to yourself?
And may we all remember what matters.
