On the night of the Buddha’s awakening, he vowed: “I shall not give up my efforts until I have attained liberation by perseverance, energy and endeavor.”  I imagine from this, that he was singly focused on liberation, with the wherewithal to apply all of his energy to it.

This is in contrast to one of the most pressing issues for us in the 21^st century—energy.  Increased demands for our time and attention from varied corners of our lives leave dispersed the energy needed for what is most important to us. We are pressured to respond to external stimuli, technological and otherwise.  This leaves little energy to establish priorities and work one pointedly towards attaining our most important internal goals.  We find even less energy for working toward communal goals of justice and equity.

Many students, friends and colleagues report burn out and consequent inability to establish appropriate boundaries and wise plans for the use of energy.  Despite all good intentions, we find ourselves drained, unable to find the energy for our most important endeavor—freedom.

Yet, the quality of courageous energy, the third factor of Awakening, is an indispensable ingredient in our quest for freedom and happiness.

 Exerting courageous energy is not striving and pushing to make something happen. It is relaxed diligence in cultivating the qualities of heart that set us free.  Energy applied in this way is not dispersed or depleted.  It grows.  Although this may appear to be a paradox—to use energy to find more energy—if you practice in this way, you will be happily surprised.

Last week, we recommitted to our practice of Mindfulness, the first of the Seven Factors of Awakening (qualities of mind/heart that lead to awakening).  From these mental factors an awakened perspective emerges.

The second factor, dhammavicaya, keen investigation of Dhamma, invites a penetrating mind to join mindfulness with investigation of things as they are.  Rather than relating to life experience in a superficial way, we relax into it with deep curiosity and interest to learn from, rather than judge, what is happening.

In the texts, the mind of investigation is likened to a stone sinking deep into water, rather than superficially tossed about like a cork bobbing on the water’s surface.  Investigating deeply all mental, emotional and physical events, whether seemingly significant or insignificant, of pleasant, unpleasant or neutral feeling, by asking, “what is this?”, stopping, listening and observing in stillness, the Path deepens.

Approaching experience in this way, we understand viscerally the evanescent, constantly changing and ephemeral nature of life itself, dependently arisen.  No longer seen as “I,” “me” and “mine,” experience is deeply understood as the result of causes and conditions lawfully unfolding, culminating in effects, phenomena naturally coming together and falling apart.

Seeing thus, we are not bombarded and bobbled by the coming and going of events.  Response (not reactivity) is appropriate.  Where there is injustice, inequity, difficulty, done is what must be done and let go is what must be let go—the joys and vicissitudes of life completely embraced, no part left out—the heart/mind of wisdom and compassion fully aware and awake.

At the recent International Vipassana Teachers’ meeting, “Earth Care Week” was born.  Each year, during the first week of October, teachers and members of the greater community will come together to celebrate our planet and engage with environmental issues, including climate change.  We will explore ways to bring care for the Earth into our practice.

Exhorted by the Buddha to contemplate the “body as a body internally, externally and both internally and externally,” we know viscerally our direct connection by being mindful of, and taking care of, our planet.  My friend and colleague Catherine McGee expresses it beautifully:

“It is here we awaken: knowing body as body, knowing earth as earth… we… come to know we are of this earth. When we sit in the solidity of our bones, the firmness of the flesh, the density and weightiness of our human presence, we… know what it is to sit ‘as earth sitting on earth’. [We know] our basic elemental nature [which] we share with everyone and everything…Our intimacy with earth, [breathtakingly immediate and unmediated] is primary …We are literally ‘in our element’ as embodied creatures.”

“And it is here…that we take our place as human beings –…marvelous human animals that can respond and act together:… speak up for those yet to be born, … say ‘no’ when justice and respect for life is undermined… Through love and humility, [we can live simply], for the benefit of the whole…

“[Can] you live your life as if you really knew, in the depth of your heart and … cells, that you are not separate from this earth and [its] beings?”

How do you contribute to the care of our home?

Mindfulness is the seventh aspect of the Eightfold Path. Through mindfulness, we develop awareness of all phenomena coming and going. We develop a kind and spacious mind by cultivating mental qualities of: awareness (recognizing what is true right here and now), interest (penetrating with awareness what is true) and acceptance without dependence or clinging (without taking experience on as an identity). In this way, our mindfulness practice is not superficial—it is penetrating.

We see what is here, now, with a kind and penetrating mind, neither craving the pleasant nor rejecting the unpleasant. Even if a sense of struggle or tension arises, such reactivity is a worthy new object. Taking the struggle as our present moment object of mindfulness, we know its bodily sensations, the feeling (pleasant/unpleasant) of it, the stories around it. Perhaps we can see we have become caught up in expectation, with too much effort or striving, wanting the experience of the moment to be different from what it actually is. We approach our experience with openness and kindness. We soften the mind and penetrate the experience. Every experience is worthy of mindfulness.

In his discourse on mindfulness, the Buddha says explicitly that mindfulness (direct contemplation of body, feelings, mind and specific categories of mental qualities and experience) is the direct path to the “realization of Nibbana, for the purification of beings, surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, and the disappearance of discontent…” This encourages me to understand mindfulness and practice diligently. How about you?

Mindfulness is the seventh aspect of the Eightfold Path. Through mindfulness, we develop awareness of all phenomena coming and going. We develop a kind and spacious mind by cultivating mental qualities of: awareness (recognizing what is true right here and now), interest (penetrating with awareness what is true) and acceptance without dependence or clinging (without taking experience on as an identity). In this way, our mindfulness practice is not superficial—it is penetrating.

We see what is here, now, with a kind and penetrating mind, neither craving the pleasant nor rejecting the unpleasant. Even if a sense of struggle or tension arises, such reactivity is a worthy new object. Taking the struggle as our present moment object of mindfulness, we know its bodily sensations, the feeling (pleasant/unpleasant) of it, the stories around it. Perhaps we can see we have become caught up in expectation, with too much effort or striving, wanting the experience of the moment to be different from what it actually is. We approach our experience with openness and kindness. We soften the mind and penetrate the experience. Every experience is worthy of mindfulness.

In his discourse on mindfulness, the Buddha says explicitly that mindfulness (direct contemplation of body, feelings, mind and specific categories of mental qualities and experience) is the direct path to the “realization of Nibbana, for the purification of beings, surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, and the disappearance of discontent…” This encourages me to understand mindfulness and practice diligently. How about you?

On the night of the Buddha’s awakening, he vowed: “I shall not give up my efforts until I have attained liberation by perseverance, energy and endeavor.” This quality of samaviriya, wise effort or courageous energy, is the first step of the meditative aspect (wise effort, mindfulness and concentration) of the Eightfold Path. The Buddha’s awakening demonstrated the power of indefatigable and balanced energy arising from spiritual urgency—the recognition that now is the only reality. Practicing the Path to liberation requires effort to abandon unskillful mental qualities and develop the skillful. Through this vitality, stillness, through which the grace and mystery of life are revealed, appears. By this effort, we do not seek to “improve” ourselves. Rather, we open our minds to understanding the qualities of heart that keep us bound and suffering and those that set us free. This is a radical shift that requires profound kindness and compassion.

Exerting courageous energy is not striving and pushing to make something happen. It calls for balance—neither too much effort nor too little. We see when effort is tight and we relax; we see when it is flagging and we arouse energy, with equanimity. We see when we’re caught, when we’re asleep, when we’re attached, when we’re frightened; and make the effort to let go of that which obstructs clear seeing. Doing so, we awaken to the unvarnished truth of experience. Through presence in body, mind and heart, wisdom arises.

Will you arouse effort, energy and vitality in your practice? Now is the time

Wise Livelihood is often discussed in terms of “shoulds.” We should earn our living in a righteous way, gain wealth by legal, peaceful, honest and harmless means. And there are 5 specific kinds of livelihood the Buddha said should be avoided: dealing in weapons, living beings, meat production and butchery, poisons, and intoxicants. These point to noble relationship to work. Yet, there is a risk that we will reflect on wise livelihood as a series of rules that, if we follow the “shoulds” and avoid the “should nots”, will mean we can check off that limb of the Path as fulfilled.

Yet what is most alive for our contemplation of how to practice wise livelihood is not separate or apart from all of the Ennobling Eightfold Path. No matter what detail we focus on in walking the Path of a wise and compassionate life to freedom, we see that when we practice Dhamma, we are always working with mind and mind states. Wise Livelihood engages all the Path factors—Wise Intention, View, Speech, Action, Effort, Concentration and MIndfulness as the bases for how we earn our livelihood. What intentions and mind states do we bring to our choice of work, how we work and our co-workers, employees, employers, customers moment to moment?

Mindfulness and insight yield awareness of emotional responses leading to action rather than reactivity. Comparing, resentfulness, complaining and other such states of mind can be replaced by a sense of gratitude for the ability to work, to earn a living. Every moment at work can be fertile ground for awakening.

Last week, we reflected on offering the gift of fearlessness to every being by “acting in accordance with the deep aspiration toward radiant and inclusive unselfishness and integrity…”

Deeds, involving actions of the body, are our vehicle of expression in the world. Our actions also shape our minds, and our minds make the world. This is not metaphorical—it is literally true. In the Buddha’s words: “When a lay follower possesses five things, he lives with confidence in his house, and will find himself in heaven as sure as if he had been carried off and put there. What are the five? He abstains from killing living beings, from taking what is not given, from misconduct in sexual relationships, from speaking falsehood, and from indulging in liquor, wine, and fermented brews.” AN 5:172-73

These tenets of wise action ask us to: act with reverence for all forms of life, be honest, conduct relationships with integrity, speak truthfully and kindly, and consume healthily. They are not so much commandments as pointing us to reflecting on principles of ethical action. For example, take the second precept, which could point us to look at how we use the earth’s resources, or the fifth precept–in our times we can abuse or be intoxicated by drugs, Internet, TV. The nuances and subtlety of ethical practice will be revealed by reflecting before, during and after acting, as the Buddha advised his 7 year old son to do. Imagine a generous and kind world where even one of these precepts is kept by everyone, for instance, not stealing or not killing. Can you?

The Second limb of the Noble Eightfold Path—Ethics:

Our world is at risk; we are the world. The renowned humanist Vaclav Havel (Czech playwright, essayist, poet and dissident, ]the ninth and last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic) once said that morality means taking responsibility, not only for our own life, but for all life. Martin Luther King expressed it as our being “tied together in an inescapable network of mutuality.”

The image of the lotus in muddy water is iconic in Buddhist literature as the symbol of transformation into awakening (lotus), from, and rooted in, the suffering or vicissitudes of this life (mud). This process of transformation includes cultivating radiant unselfishness and integrity, a state of mind and heart based on this interconnected worldview that is conducive to seeing “reality” clearly.

Seeing clearly means to see, at minimum, that we cannot and do not exist independently and thus the suffering of anyone is also ours. This wisdom conduces to the development of an engaged heart that wants the well being of all beings and acts accordingly.

This sense of the existence of the great web of life is activated through the experience of walking the Path: nurturing the capacity to see clearly (wisdom), acting in accordance with the deep aspiration toward radiant and inclusive unselfishness and integrity(ethics) and developing an interior life (meditation). We offer aligned ethical living as the gift of fearlessness to ourselves and our fellow beings—the confidence that we and they will not be harmed by our thoughts, words and deeds.