Viriya-pāramī: About Right Effort

Viriya, or effort is a mental perfection to be practised and strengthened in Buddhist practice. Right effort leads us towards liberation. Right Effort helps us create wholesome mental states and is an important part of the 37 factors of awakening.

Transcript

Yeah,

Today I want to talk about virya,

Energy or effort.

It's the fifth of the perfections and yeah,

Meaning perseverance,

The effort we do to abandon negativity,

To perform good deeds and purify our mind from all kind of unwholesome states.

In fact,

All the success we wish in our lives,

Whatever we do,

It needs effort.

We need effort and perseverance to do it.

But there is a little bit of,

There's a difference between the things that we normally try to achieve or to get,

The worldly things we want to get.

We want to be famous,

We want to be rich,

We want to whatever we want.

I have a good name or so,

Things like that,

That we usually strive for.

We need,

Of course,

All the effort to get that.

But what I'm talking about is then right now is the effort to do wholesome things in our mind.

This effort is not so much doing things to get something,

But it's rather getting rid of something,

Getting rid of mental defilements,

Getting rid of acousalize,

All kind of unwholesome states of mind.

So we make the effort to change from the negative states to positive states and positive striving.

So it's more abandoned than to process things.

So it's also the effort to go against inner unwholesome habits,

Kind of habitual tendencies that we all have,

Tendency to get angry,

To be greedy or whatever.

These kind of tendencies that come up and we can't really avoid it,

That anger arises or greed arises in our mind.

That's not the point,

But we can do something.

The Buddha said we are not a victim to our tendencies.

We can do something.

We can apply effort right now to try to change that,

To try to overcome it,

And to try not to react on it.

It's very important here that we see wisdom.

What I was talking about the last talk,

The fourth perfection,

Has to be developed to a certain extent before we apply this effort.

Because if there's no wisdom,

Effort can go into the wrong direction.

Good examples are people like Napoleon or Hitler.

They did a lot of effort,

But wrong effort.

They applied effort to do unwholesome things and to create a lot of suffering in this world.

So wisdom has to be there as well when we do effort to know what is wholesome and what is not wholesome.

Otherwise,

It can really be misdirected.

Effort is coming up very often in Buddhist scriptures.

And I want to talk a little bit about Bodhipakkhya Tama.

That's kind of the 37 requisites of enlightenment,

That's what they are called.

And alone in that part,

Which is very important for our practice because these 37 parts,

They have to come up.

We have to develop them to go on our path to awakening or to enlightenment.

And in this part,

It's at least nine times that you can find effort.

So it's so important.

Effort is coming up in the Samapatthana,

The four types of effort.

Kind of the translation for that.

Then it comes up in the four bases of mental powers,

The itipara.

It's there in the five spiritual faculties,

The indriyas,

In the five spiritual powers,

The balas,

In the seven factors of enlightenment,

The pochangas,

And as samavayama,

As right effort in the eightfold path.

So it's a really important part.

For requisites of enlightenment,

That is the right as it is effort to prevent the development of unwholesome mental states that have not arisen yet.

Then the effort to abandon unwholesome mental states that have arisen,

The effort to cultivate unarisen wholesome mental states,

And the effort to maintain wholesome mental states that have arisen.

I like to compare it to doing the garden.

I don't know if you all have a garden or at least some plants in your apartment or on the balcony or whatever.

So if you take care of these plants or your garden,

You need this for requisites.

The first two are to avoid the unwholesome.

So in our garden,

That would be the weeds,

All the weeds that try to destroy your happiness with being a gardener.

So first,

We have the effort to prevent weeds from growing because they take away the fruit that we want in our garden.

Then the second is if you see weeds are already there,

Then try to get rid of them.

You take out the weeds.

So this is the unwholesome part.

We try to make the effort to avoid weeds from growing and the effort to get rid of them if they are already there.

And the other two efforts are on the positive side.

So that is the effort to cultivate those that have not arisen yet,

The wholesome things.

In this case,

We want flowers,

We want vegetables,

We want fruits in our garden.

So we plant them.

We put seedling,

We put seeds,

And we try to make them arise,

Try to make them grow.

And the second effort is then to cultivate that or to maintain that.

It means we water them,

We give them some fertilizer so that they can grow.

So this is what's happening if you do the garden.

And that's also the right effort we have to do all the time,

In the Eightfold Path,

In form of gardening.

When you see it in your meditation,

It's the same.

You try to apply these four right efforts.

The first one is like you make the effort to prevent that hindrances arise in your mind,

In your meditation.

So the five hindrances are anger,

Greed,

And doubt,

And drowsiness of the mind or restlessness of the mind.

These five hindrances,

They will come up in your meditation.

Whatever you do,

That's there for everyone.

There's no way not to experience it.

It's just normal.

So one of them comes,

Sometimes you are unlucky,

And all five of them arise in your meditation.

And the right effort is then first try to prevent that they arise and disturb your practice or make your practice very difficult.

Then the second,

Abandon.

To abandon if one of these hindrances has arisen.

So when you see,

Okay,

There is now drowsiness,

I'm very tired,

Then try to get rid of it.

There are certain techniques,

Whatever the problem is,

Whatever the hindrance is,

Try to make them disappear.

If you're drowsy,

Whatever,

Wash your face with cold water,

Let light come in,

Open your eyes.

Try to let energy arise so that you can continue.

As I said before,

If anger or greed arises,

You know,

It doesn't help you in your meditation and try to abandon them and see them as what they are.

There is anger,

But it's not mine right now.

Let it go.

Don't react.

So we don't feed these unwholesome things in our mind.

If we don't feed them,

It's like not pouring oil into the water,

Into the fire.

And then the fire will extinguish because it's not fed anymore.

Then on the positive side,

We cultivate positive things in our meditation.

And these are the Bo Chang as I spoke about before,

The seven,

You could say factors of enlightenment and they are mindfulness,

Sati.

Then Tamavichayo,

That is like investigation of Dhamma.

That's what I always say when we do the meditation,

The daily meditations,

Try to bring the Dhamma into it and reflect,

Not just practice in concentration,

But really have an investigative mind and take the three characteristics of existence into your practice.

Repeat on impermanence and see how things are changing.

Then see that they are not really satisfying.

They are tukka,

They are suffering.

See that they are not really under your control.

Anatta,

There's no self,

No control.

So using these three characteristics and investigate your meditation.

That's the second factor of enlightenment,

The second of the Bo Chang.

Then of course,

Viriya,

Energy,

The effort to do it,

To practice,

Effort to overcome an wholesome,

Effort to maintain wholesome or nourish them.

And the next one is pithi,

Rapture,

Joy.

That rapture and joy arise in your meditation because that also gives you the energy to do it.

If there is pithi,

If there is rapture,

Then it's easy to practice,

Easy to do your practice,

To your meditation.

And it's also a natural thing that this factor of enlightenment arises if you don't have to do too much with your hindrances.

That's it.

Once the hindrances are subdued or let go of,

Then they will arise.

The next one is pasadi or tranquility,

Calmness,

Peace of mind.

And the next,

The sixth of the Bo Chang is concentration,

Samadhi,

Really going deeper into calmness.

And the last one,

The seventh is equanimity,

Bheka.

And this equanimity is not a carelessness or just,

Okay,

I don't care about anything,

But it is a balance of mind.

The mind is balanced and still having compassion and metta.

So that's the seventh of these Bo Chang.

These Bo Chang,

These factors of enlightenment,

They lead us to awakening.

They lead us to freedom.

And that's what we have to cultivate.

And then also when they have a reason,

When we see,

Okay,

There is rapture,

There is equanimity,

There is concentration,

We maintain it.

We really take care of it because they are welcome.

They should be in our mind.

When they are there,

There are no hindrances.

When hindrances are there,

Then usually these factors of enlightenment are not there.

So that's why here right effort is very important.

Right effort to overcome the unwholesome and right effort to nourish and increase the wholesome things.

Yeah.

And the same goes to samavayama,

The right effort in the Eightfold Path against the preventing of unwholesome things,

The abandoning of unwholesome things that have arisen and cultivation of un-arisen wholesome things and they're nourishing or they're maintaining it.

So you see everywhere is right effort in this Eightfold Path.

Then there's the question,

How can we let this right effort or this virya arise in our minds,

This inspiration to do it?

Well,

Of course,

Buddha always recommended to contemplate on the benefits of practicing meditation and applying that also in daily life.

You have to know that no benefit can arise if there is no hard work.

So we have to really constantly practice wisdom,

Try to let our wisdom grow.

Because if we don't do that,

Then wisdom will wane,

It will disappear.

We have to feed that all the time,

Make the effort to increase it.

And if we don't do it,

If we give up on it,

It will slowly disappear,

Even if it has already arrived.

So we know we have to have some mindfulness.

We have to have a peaceful mind,

Calmness,

And some clarity in our mind if we want wisdom to arise.

Therefore,

We need to have this right effort and practice meditation.

Then there are certain techniques the Buddha recommended to increase our virya,

Our right effort,

Our energy.

And one of them is bhutthana sati.

This is one of the mindfulness trainings we can practice.

Sati is mindfulness on the Buddha.

So we contemplate on the qualities of the Buddha.

What kind of qualities did the Buddha have?

How did he teach?

And what wonderful things did come out of that teaching?

What kind of great things happen and how many beings were benefited by that?

So there is a certain contemplation of bhutthana sati that we can practice,

And that lets virya arise.

Another one is dhammano sati.

It's the same again,

Sati,

Mindfulness,

Contemplation on the qualities of the Dhamma and how beneficial the Dhamma is in our lives and in other beings' lives,

How beneficial it is for all beings.

So these kinds of contemplations will help us to let virya arise and gives us inspiration,

Leads to joy and energy.

Then in vajrayana,

In the practices of Tibetan Buddhism,

Also practicing in Bhutan and other Himalayan countries,

And a lot also,

Of course,

Nowadays in the West,

It's very important to contemplate on four thoughts.

These four thoughts,

They are always contemplated on every meditation usually.

When you do one of the vajrayana meditations,

It's always the first thing you do is you reflect on these four thoughts.

The first thought is contemplation on the precious human rebirth that we have.

It's so rare to be born as a human being.

As I mentioned in one of the former talks,

It's as rare,

It was described as rare as if you put all the seas in this world together and you have one huge ocean.

And in that huge mass of water,

There's one yoke floating,

The yokes that the oxen have to pull wagons and so on.

So a yoke is floating in that huge ocean.

And in that ocean,

On the ground,

On the base of the ocean,

There is a turtle.

And this turtle is only diving up to the surface of the ocean once every hundred years.

And that this turtle is diving through that yoke.

That's as rare as it is to be born as a human being every hundred years once.

And then it goes through that yoke,

Almost impossible.

So it's not that usual that we are born as humans.

But it's something we never contemplate on,

Of course,

Because now we are humans.

Very normal to be a human,

But actually it's a very precious birth we have.

And that we are able to get in contact with Dharma,

With this knowledge,

And with the possibility to practice meditation.

So it's a really rare thing.

And we don't really appreciate it as much as we should.

And that's why,

Especially here in the Vajrayana practices,

You have to contemplate it each time you do a meditation so that it becomes a habit of the minder,

Understanding that it's deep rooted in your mind that there is not time to waste.

It's not that often that we are born as humans.

The second great thought is about impermanence and death.

It's also one thing we often do in our daily meditations.

We contemplate on impermanence.

And I often say,

Bring it to yourself and reflect on that again and again.

Not to be negative,

But to see the urge that we should have actually to practice and to not waste our time,

But really do the best we can to be as wholesome as possible.

So that is also something that will help us to get more virya,

More energy to practice.

The third thought is on karma,

That there is cause and effect,

That we see karma more clearly.

I mean,

Karma is a thing that is very hard to really talk about in detail because it is so rich and it's so wide that the Buddha says one thing you cannot really explain in detail because our human mind is not able to grasp the whole understanding of cause and effect.

But we can do it in a way that we see,

Okay,

Everything I say,

I do,

I think,

Even what I think is a cause for a result to arise in future.

And so seeing that,

Contemplating on that will also give you an urge to practice meditation because there's so many unwholesome things we have thought in the past and done and said in the past and they have results.

We will have to experience them.

Something that clear can give you a lot of virya or energy to really practice.

Then the fourth of these wonderful thoughts is the contemplations on the faults of samsara.

What is this samsara?

There are 32 clans of samsara in this samsara,

Realms that we can be reborn and human is actually the best to practice,

But there are so many more in suffering states,

Really terrible suffering that can be lived,

Can be happened in samsara.

And that it is so unsure,

It's always changing.

There's nothing stable in that samsara.

So seeing that will give you the urge not really to be,

Want to be reborn again and again in this cycle.

Maybe sometimes you're lucky or you did good and then you are in a luckier rebirth,

But that is also impermanent and you have to come back in a state that might not be very nice.

So contemplating on that also gives you an urge to practice and let's virya arise.

So these are good things to help you to get the energy to do something.

Yeah.

And finally to put it all together,

This virya,

This energy,

It brings up the energy to go against our habitual patterns that we have in our minds.

So all these habits,

Which are mostly,

As I say in the beginning,

Going into a rather negative direction,

Not in a positive way.

And so to go against that,

To bring up the energy to say goodbye to the unwholesome things and bring up the energy to fill your mind with wholesome things.

Because if you fill your mind with wholesome things,

Then the unwholesomes don't have space.

They can't work.

So that is also one thing,

To fill it with wholesome and the unwholesome can't do you too much harm.

We have the virya to recognize our moral misconduct and let it go and to pull ourselves out of negativity again and again.

Normally we tend to go with the stream,

Which is always the easy way,

Follow it,

Following our wishes and whims and whatever.

But to make the virya the effort to go after wholesome,

Positive things and abandon these unwholesome things,

That is what we should do so that we do not create more suffering for ourselves and others.

So I hope that gave you a little bit of understanding about virya and of the importance of virya in our practice and also the importance that we practice this virya,

This effort in a correct way,

In a wholesome way,

As a right effort.

So it doesn't go into a wrong direction and if you do your virya,

If you make your effort in the wrong direction,

It can create a lot of suffering for you,

For yourself and others.

Okay,

Then I hope this brings you more knowledge again and I wish you much effort for your practice.

Stay healthy and have a nice Sunday.

Bye.

Reviews

Thank you for this teaching. One I will listen to again.

The knowledge and the “tools” to incorporate into my meditation practice.
Grateful🙏