So as I mentioned the word virya or energy, most of you are familiar faces, so maybe a few people are stopping in for the first time tonight. Is that true for anyone here? Mm-hmm. Couple. More than that. We're five. Just to give you a context, this is... the middle of a practice period, an intensified time of study where people make a commitment to maybe do more meditation, to meet with their teachers a little bit more, to talk with their friends and get support for their practice. And there's a particular study that's been going on led by the abbot who's leading the practice period, Paul Haller, about some practices called the perfections or paramitas. The one, there are six of them that we've been focusing on, and the one that is being focused on this week is something in Sanskrit that's called virya.

[01:08]

And I want to read to you a few of the definitions I've found because to me this particular practice is tricky because of the meanings, the kind of subtle meanings differences in some of the words that we use to describe it. So to give you a taste, these are some of the words that I found in translations of Buddhist texts and a little bit from the dictionary. So virya is called joyous effort, which I think is a wonderful combination of words, joyous effort. And then perseverance is another word. that's used for virya, which has a little bit of a different tone to it, more of a bit of slogging feel to it. And then there's zeal. That Z sound gives it away, right?

[02:10]

Zeal. It has a very sharp and focused feeling to it. In the dictionary, it says zeal is great excitement or interest in a subject or a cause. So it has that additional being drawn towards something. It's not just energy in a vacuum. It's being drawn towards something. There are the words vitality, which has a similar sound to virya, right? And in one of the texts... Aiken Roshi talks about how the source, the word source of virya is similar to the source for our word virility. So that means a lot of things to a lot of people too. But vitality comes from that same root. Life, life itself, vitality, virya. And then prowess and potency, prowess.

[03:14]

A little bit of skill in that word, isn't there? And potency is then more like virile, being potent or virile. Another word for virya is enthusiasm. And the dictionary expression or definition of enthusiasm is ecstasy arising from supposed possession by a god. And it comes from... the Greek enthusiasmos, which means having God within. I think this is an interesting interpretation. Later I'm hoping to get to maybe what I would call a Zen notion of virya or energy or enthusiasm, which has to do with that we already have it, that there's nothing to get. that virya is life itself. So that sense of having God within already, that sense of enthusiasm, being enthused, is interesting to me.

[04:25]

Shantideva, who has a wonderful book called A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, has a whole chapter in the version I've read. has a chapter called Enthusiasm. And Shantideva says that enthusiasm is finding joy in what is wholesome. So that's a real practice-oriented interpretation or definition of the word virya. It has to do with determining what is wholesome, but finding joy in that. It doesn't sound like there's a whole lot... effort in that definition, does it? Maybe finding has some effort associated with it, but joy in what is wholesome. And then the opposing factors, which is another way to look at a definition of a word that Shantideva points out is, so what opposes enthusiasm?

[05:30]

And what he says is laziness. That's no surprise, right? Attraction to what is bad, a little bit difficult to define, but just imagine what's not wholesome. And then despising oneself out of despondency. Now, when I first thought about doing this talk, I was actually very enthusiastic about, and I requested to be able to have the week that dealt with virya or enthusiasm present. I love this subject matter and I find that there are a lot of instructions about how to work with this effort or there's a whole other series of ways to study that involves something called right effort and there are a lot of instructions about what that is and how to work with the hindrances that come up in the process of applying right effort.

[06:33]

But I was a little hesitant. I've been hesitant about speaking tonight because I know we've also been introduced to a study of depression. The whole practice period started out with some classes that Lee Lip and Paul Haller gave, which brought people's attention to how to work with depression, how to practice with depression. And I have to say, I am not so familiar with that mind state. Not that I am never depressed, I have been depressed, but I've never been paralyzed with depression. So some of the things I'm going to mention now, I want to be very careful and respectful. When I talk about energy and I talk about application of energy and even effort, there may be a place, there may be a time when that is not physiologically possible. And there have to be very small steps towards this practice that can be taken when someone finds themselves in a very deep, deep place with lack of energy or depression, which would be one way I would define it.

[07:48]

So please, if this is a situation that you find yourself in, please... I hope these words aren't discouraging to you. That's my concern, is I don't want to discourage anyone with the talk of energy if they really feel they can't find any of it. So going through the definitions, it was obvious to me that it's important to talk about this practice of energy or this discovery of how to support energy, keeping in mind a balance between, and a couple of the words I came up with were a sustained effort, which is something that has a certain picture about it, and open-heartedness. So in this little morning group that we have where we've been talking about

[08:52]

This week I've been in the group talking about varia with some people who have enough varia to show up every day. We were talking about the difference between drive and, I would say, joy. So to be driven, to have the energy, have a sense of being driven, is kind of a compression. And it's not what we're talking about. That kind of energy where we're driven to do something is, the heart's too closed in that situation. So whereas when I talk about sustaining energy, it could sound like being driven, like a train, right? But I don't mean it that way. It can't happen that way because it can't be sustained. If the heart isn't open, if we aren't relaxed in our effort, It cannot be sustained.

[09:53]

And one of the more important parts of this, and why I'm so tender about not wanting to discourage anyone, is that one of the biggest sins is to take on something that will discourage us from practicing. So if we take on too much and we therefore stop sitting or we stop paying attention because we've taken on too much, that's really, really not good. So... finding a level of energy that can be sustained. And I suggest that an open heart is a necessary part of the ability to sustain any kind of energy. I can see I'm going to get nowhere near the end of this talk. So let me focus on some of the things I have written down here. There's two, there's several ways to approach talking about effort.

[10:53]

And one is we can start with saying, which Aiken Roshi says in his book on the Paramitas, he says, in terms of defining the strength of our virya, 5% is enough to start with. So, and then he says, if you have enough vitality and stick-to-itiveness to sit through 25 minutes of zazen, then you have quite a lot of spiritual zeal. And he includes in that, he says, or if you can ask the teacher a probing question, you're well along the way. So please take heart. Every one of you who are sitting here right now have quite a bit of spiritual zeal. It's a good place where you are right now. There's nothing wrong with your effort. And you could use a little improvement. Excuse me, that's... Suzuki Roshi's words. Also, Sylvia Borstein has a similar kind of, in her book on the Paramitas, she says, you know, practice as if your head is on fire.

[12:01]

Right? That's something we hear from other texts. Practice as if your head is on fire. And then she says, but do it with energy, not alarm. So soften it and sustain it that way with energy. Energy but not alarm. So that's one end of the spectrum. So you've got a lot of energy already. You're here, you're showing up. Everyone's got their eyes open, pretty much. And paying attention and you've brought yourself right here to this place. There was another paragraph I was really interested in because in a way it's the other end of this. It's talking about sustained effort. I actually got this off the internet from a Tibetan teacher. I believe it's pronounced Jinmo Renge Osho. Osho doesn't sound Tibetan, does it? That's Japanese. Well, anyway, I'm sorry.

[13:02]

They just had his name. It didn't have his lineage. And he calls Viriya the sustained effort to overcome laziness. But he says the exertion has to be clean and free of strategies. or romantic notions about enlightenment and Buddhahood. So when we sit with no gaining idea, this is what we're talking about. There is an effort there. There is not no effort. But the gaining idea dissipates the effort. He said, there's no use gritting your teeth and locking your legs in full lotus and trying to pull yourself out of samsara and into nirvana. You like that, huh? and because there's simply nowhere else that you could be other than exactly where you are anyway, so what a useless effort that is. But sometimes that gritting of the, you know, that pushing, that gritting of the teeth that seems like what, you know, maybe what some people do in their zazen practice, particularly in a long, long retreat, which many of you will be doing in December, the seven-day retreat, when if you find yourself interpreting effort that way,

[14:18]

I think you're going to find pretty quickly that you can't sustain that. Although, you know, if you're kind of young, it'll take you a while. He says exertion does not imply some kind of spiritual gymnastics or punching out of self-image. I thought that was interesting. So it's like, get away from here, ego, get away from here. You know, that kind of harsh pushing away. That's not what's being described here. And he says this, exertion is being utterly straightforward with whatever arises. That sounds really balanced to me. Really balanced. Just being completely erect, completely upright, not leaning into it, not leaning away from it, being with it completely with an open heart. That is virya. And then he says, exertion is doing whatever needs to be done and doing so as completely as possible, taking a complete step, a complete breath, touching completely, hearing completely.

[15:35]

This is complete and wholehearted practice. And the kind of controversial thing that came up in our little group in the morning was, the idea of sustained practice, sustained effort. And I told the story on myself, something that happened in my very first practice period at Tassajara when I was walking up to the zendo and I had heard many, many, many times, you know, we're supposed to practice every moment and, you know, practice as if your head's on fire. And I'd heard all of these things. But somehow I had interpreted that as... Well, you practice, and then you take a little break, and then you practice some more. And as I was walking up the steps to the Zendo, it hit me like a wind, strong wind. I thought, oh, practice is every moment.

[16:38]

No vacations. And that was such a gift. That was a real turning point in my... I felt like the bodhicitta kind of got turned up a little bit, and it occurred to me that this is really about all the time and there are no vacations. So that was something that we talked about in our group, and there was not 100% agreement on that. Because another piece of one of the supports of Virya, and Shantideva talks about three supports, actually four, four supports for... And they are aspiration, steadfastness, joy and rest. Rest is a support for virya. And I'll talk about that one first. So the paragraph in Shantideva that describes rest and the relationship to virya says, when my strength declines, I should leave whatever I'm doing.

[17:47]

in order to be able to continue with it later. Having done something well, I should put it aside with the wish to accomplish what will follow. So that's a pretty even-handed way of looking at rest. You want to stop when the energy isn't there anymore because you want to be able to apply yourself and notice what is wholesome. You want to be alert enough to notice the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of what's arising in you to how you're engaging with life. So rest is important and how to differentiate between the kind of tiredness that requires rest and the kind of tiredness that's just an expression of what's called torpor. There are many, many clues about that, and we're not going to get to that tonight. But rest assured, rest assured, that if this is a subject for you of sleepiness and torpor and the question of how to determine what is rest and what is perhaps an avoidance,

[19:00]

There are a lot of supports for understanding that practice, and it would be a good thing to talk with your practice leader about or your Dharma friends about. How do they work with it? And I'm going to share this because it seemed really helpful to a lot of people. You know about getting up in the morning, right? Particularly for the practice period, those of you who have been getting up really early and you're not so used to it, you've made this commitment, and you're laying in bed, and it's almost painfully pleasurable. And when that alarm goes off and you don't want to move, you're in good company. And a couple of hints that I've been given through the years have been really helpful. One is Linda Ruth Cutts, who's the current co-abbit with Paul Haller, said that what she does is the minute the alarm clock goes off, with her eyes closed, laying in bed, her hands go up like this. And it's an action which is such an encouragement.

[20:04]

It sets the tone, right, for the next thing that's going to happen. Is the next thing going to happen that I'm going to lay in bed like this for a while? Or am I going to stick my toe out of the covers? And the other clue is once that foot is on the ground and the other one meets it, and you take maybe three, four steps, maybe five, that torpor that was in the body that seemed like it was completely necessary, that was going to last forever and it was completely necessary to pay attention to because it was real, is gone or very dissipated, at least by the time you get to the toothbrush. And then you look in the mirror and then a lot of that is gone. So just keep that in mind as some practices to work with. Investigating whether you're... the feeling you have in the morning is torpor or whether it's something that you really need to pay attention to and your body needs really to rest.

[21:05]

So just to talk for a moment about one of the other supports that Shantideva brings up, which is this aspiration. Aspiration... the way I understand it, has a kind of a carrot and a stick aspect to it. So there's the idea that of wanting, of the vow or the intention arising to practice. And this intention arises for various reasons, too many to understand probably, it will arise in your body and mind. And the idea of Benefiting other beings, benefiting all beings with this practice is part of this aspiration that can keep the energy flowing. I notice that it's much easier for me to come to that little meeting in the morning because there are people there that I'm going to be with.

[22:14]

And it seems like when we're all together, it's helpful. And that gets me coming somewhere where maybe if it's for myself, it's a little bit more difficult. So it's a support to have this aspiration. to benefit beings. That keeps the energy flowing. Also, this is both maybe a carrot and a stick. We notice the benefits of this practice through the way our karma ripens. So when we find ourselves acting in wholesome ways and sustaining wholesome practice, we can notice the results of that. You know, in the present, what's ripening today as a result of something that, you know, I may not understand all of the causes and conditions for this result, but I can see that in the meantime there's been some wholesome activity. And this is a very interesting result, and that can be an encouragement.

[23:16]

On the other side, when we find ourselves maybe in unwholesome activity, the results of that karma are fairly obvious fairly quickly, often too. And that's something that keeps us on the path and remembering to make this effort. Another of the carrots of aspiration is that one of the paragraphs in Shantideva says that the Tathagatas have said, if we develop the strength of exertion, even if those of us who are flies, or even those who are flies, mosquitoes, bees, and insects, will win the unsurpassable awakening, which is so hard to find. So awakening is actually possible. And it seems like, according to Shantideva, who has heard the Buddhists say, that with the strength of this effort, the strength of this effort, perhaps,

[24:24]

I don't know, that's a bit of a standing, going out on a limb, but it's very, there's a great result from this effort, this effort that we put forth. And that great result is we can wake up. We can definitely wake up. The stick... Another of the stick parts of aspiration is, Shantideva says, knowing that I live in the mouth of the Lord of death. Death is not that far away. And if that is encouraging to you to think of the shortness of life or the uncertainty of life... to shore up this aspiration, to raise this energy in difficult situations, then please go there.

[25:27]

Many monks in the past have found that contemplation of death is very helpful. There's a practice of walking around with death on your shoulder. I think it's your left shoulder. That's a very helpful reminder to pay attention and to practice. How long is this talk supposed to end? 8.30? About 8.30? I'm just going to mention one thing to you that I don't have time to go into a lot, but maybe it's something that you can study further or go into yourselves and then maybe have a few questions. When I was talking about these practices for looking at energy, there are

[26:35]

five hindrances. And these hindrances to practice are hindrances to energy, to patience, to all of the other parameters that we've been studying. But if we look at them in terms of energy, the five hindrances are lust or craving, ill will, drowsiness or torpor, restlessness and worry, And doubt. So the ways that we can work with torpor, this sleepiness, which is the, you know, maybe near enemy of energy or virya, is there's some very simple things to do. And this applies. This is specifically, I think, about your meditation practice where this may be coming up. But I think you can extrapolate this into your life. Is imagine light. Imagine light. That's one of the instructions.

[27:39]

And the other is just get up, which is what I was suggesting by just putting the foot on the floor and moving. Move, get up, move. Go outside is one of the other. Get some fresh air. See if that rejuvenates you or if indeed you're so depleted that you indeed have to rest. Maybe it's just a temporary situation that can be worked with in that way. And when you're meditating, If you're feeling sleepy, we meditate with our eyes slightly open and looking down, and it's recommended that you raise your eyes higher up on the wall. Just raise those eyes up, and with it, your energy will rise. And you can work with torpor that way. There are many more suggestions, but I don't want to start something I can't finish, which was one of the admonitions. So perhaps... I could see if there are a few questions and then we can go to bed and get some rest.

[28:42]

But first, it was joyous enthusiasm. Joyous effort. Good. Yes. You mentioned the last hander is without. And what's the difference between the doubt that's the hindrance and the doubt that's one of the three pillars? Right. It's called skeptical doubt. And the antidote to skeptical doubt is to go talk with somebody, to study, and then take your doubt to a teacher or a Dharma friend and check it out, work through it, work through it. What's the good doubt? You will. It's a very subtle doubt, and it's very deep and complete.

[29:54]

I think we approach that kind of doubt by noticing the insubstantiality of a separate self. So for me, I thought that was skeptical. I have a solidified picture, so I'm skeptical about it. Skepticism, when applied in those ways, can be helpful, I'm sure. But the skeptical doubt this is talking about is doubting that the Four Noble Truths, for instance, or doubting that awakening is possible. Those kind of doubts, doubting the practice itself, doubting the kind of basis that Shakyamuna Buddha discovered. That's not doubt, that's intelligence. It's following the instructions. Sarah?

[31:01]

I'm wondering about, just to continue this conversation about God, about the conversation about the answer, it's a sheet about certainty and the evil that come from being certain when we were upon you, it was threat. And I'm wondering that doubt that you're saying, is it something the opposite of that kind? rigid, frozen certainty? I'm in the world of effort right now, and so when you're talking, it's coming back around through this mind that's been studying effort. So I would say that the kind of certainty that cannot be sustained is probably not helpful. There is a kind of certainty that

[32:04]

which comes from investigation and turning over what you've experienced and talking with people, there's a kind of ground to stand on that I think is helpful. So what you cannot sustain is not wholesome. Thank you. Aspirations. A lot of things in Zen are contradictory. And sometimes that's helpful and sometimes it's not.

[33:07]

So if it's confusing to you, maybe check out what the difference feels like between aspiration and ambition. Aspiration, you know, is just as simple as breathing in and breathing out. Ambition maybe takes some drive, right, and some effort, which we were talking about. And it's more constricted. and limiting and blinders on in order to accomplish a goal. Aspiration is perhaps more just our natural state when we're not hindering ourselves, when we're not in our own way. Seems close enough to 8.30. Thank you very much.

[34:06]

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