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Seven Factors of Awakening: Effort

So then we come today to the third factor of awakening. During these seven days of this week at the seven o'clock sittings, we'll go through the seven factors of awakening, Saturday and Sunday as well.

So the third factor is the factor of effort. It's appropriate to translate this word, which is the effort factor of awakening—viriya^[1]—as heroic effort. Now, I've had a complicated relationship with the idea of effort and practice, so much so that in my early years, I put a lot of effort into practice, but I didn't see it as effort. Effort was kind of a bad word. It's kind of like work, which was not such a welcome thing—or the idea of working at something in meditation. I associated effort with somehow striving, pushing, or doing something more than just adding something to the experience.

But slowly over time, I've learned to recognize that I actually put in a lot of effort in practice. But the effort that arises, the effort that really works—that's the magic effort, or the alchemy that really helps meditation unfold—is not a self-centered effort. It's not the effort of striving, pushing, or contracting, and not an effort that is exhausting. I've done plenty of that! Rather, it's an effort which the psychophysical system almost wants to do. It's almost like a natural flow of aliveness.

As meditation practice develops, there's more and more of the sense that there's a current of effort, a current of energy or engagement, that is what the system wants. It is how the system is. It's not much different than a little toddler who is completely involved in putting effort into playing a game, playing with blocks, or playing in the sand and building a little sandcastle. There's effort there, but it's not work per se. It's more like play, the effort of play. There can be a lot of energy in play, but it doesn't feel like it's effort to play. So the phrase "heroic engagement"—to really see that this is important in what we do and that we give ourselves to it.

It's helpful to understand each of these factors of awakening, to see how they continue to build on the previous one. The first factor of awakening is sati^[2]—awareness or mindfulness. That's really developing and establishing ourselves in our present moment experience so we can experience it, feel it, and be alive to it in a more vivid way. This happens not because we're working at it, but because our senses, our attentional apparatus, is really available to receive, feel, experience, and perceive what's happening. It's a kind of restful place to be, this opening to attention.

Then as that becomes more acute—and maybe that's not the best word, maybe "sharp"—there's greater clarity of awareness of what's happening in the present moment. Again, this isn't because we're working at it, but because we've cleaned the glasses that we're wearing, or we've cleaned the windshield of a car. Now, "Oh look, we can see much more clearly." Or the smog has cleared and we can see the mountains; we see them with clarity and with details in the distance. We start seeing the distinctions of things. Things are not a blur; we see things clearly.

As we begin seeing things clearly, we start seeing the distinction between what is skillful and not skillful, what is helpful and not helpful. There are two areas to this: what is helpful in terms of where attention goes, and what is helpful in terms of how to be when we're attentive.

For example, if I'm sitting meditating and trying to stay with my breathing, but my mind is just chattering away at sixty miles a minute, at some point I might realize where attention needs to be. Where it's wise and helpful is to really bring attention to this high-energy, agitated mind and hold it in awareness. Hold it in the open palm of awareness. Don't try to fix it. Don't have a problem with it. Don't try to push it away. Don't be upset with it. Just be with it. I find that with that kind of attention, it's a bit like an upset child—when there's a calm adult there, the child begins to relax. The mind also relaxes if we can learn to bring attention to it.

Two things happened in that example. One is that I decided it was skillful to bring attention to the busy mind. It was also important how I paid attention to it. I paid attention in a non-judgmental, non-critical, non-striving, non-probing way—not working, pushing, or fixing, but just being open to it. I was open in such a way that I wasn't involved in it. I wasn't angling it, but rather had a spacious awareness. The mind was open to see it and allow it. Then something begins to thaw, relax, or settle.

With time, we start seeing these distinctions: what's helpful and what's not helpful. We see where it is useful to put attention, and how to put the attention there. The choices we make around those two things are Right Effort^[3], the right courageous effort. Sometimes we do make some effort in this practice, meaning we do make some choices about how we are and what we do. In meditation practice, a lot of that has to do with a choice about what we do with our attention. So, we pay attention to what is skillful and what is helpful.

Sometimes that means, for example, with the breathing, the sensations of the body, or whatever we are paying attention to in the present, it is skillful to pay attention to what is pleasant. If there's a strong tendency towards paying attention to the problems, and what's unpleasant and the difficulties kind of take over, then sometimes it's wise to specifically choose what is pleasant and enjoyable in our practice. If all things are equal, sometimes it's useful to orient yourself a little more to what's pleasant. Like in the breathing, find out what is pleasant and enjoyable about the breathing. Maybe there's a certain part of the cycle of breathing in and out that's more enjoyable, or a certain place in the body where the breathing feels a little nicer. It feels good to be connected there.

Taking in the nourishment, taking in what's pleasant, makes it easier for the mind to want to be there. If the mind is only paying attention to what's unpleasant, why would it want to be in the present moment? Certainly, sometimes it's appropriate to pay attention to what's unpleasant^[4]. I've sometimes had physical pain in meditation, and I found it very useful, important, and skillful to bring careful attention to the pain. Sometimes this is so I know how to adjust, change my posture, or fix the way I'm out of alignment. Sometimes I pay attention to the pain so that I don't make it worse by contracting, by pushing, or by getting caught up in aversion or self-pity. To kind of feel the pain sometimes really opens up and allows something to release and relax.

So Right Effort—the effort factor of awakening—has to do with a very relaxed choice about where we put our attention. What do we do that's skillful and helpful? Awareness is one of the great resources we have. I think of awareness and attention to be a little bit like food. Where our attention goes, it feeds what we pay attention to. If we put a lot of attention into what's unskillful and unhelpful, we paradoxically feed it and grow it, and it develops more fully. If we spend a lot of time with resentment, hate, self-pity, or conceit, and we're really paying attention to it—telling stories about it to ourselves, reviewing it all—then the food of attention is going there and feeding it. It tends to feed or create the condition for what's unhealthy in us to keep growing, developing, and gaining greater momentum within our life.

But if the food of attention goes to our goodwill, our compassion, or our care—if it goes to our generosity, to kindness, or if it simply goes to a clear, open attention to what's here—then it's feeding what's skillful. What's great about this is that if we attend to how we pay attention, and are careful with that, then we can feed what's skillful, healthy, and wholesome for us.

When we need to pay attention to what's unskillful—if we have a lot of hostility or resentment—sometimes it's useful to take a good, honest look at that. But we don't feed the resentment, because the effort we're making is to be with the resentment in this open palm of awareness. Just see it, allow it to be there, but don't fight it. Don't give in to it, don't act on it, but just notice it. Make room for it and see what happens if we just allow it to be there without feeding it.

So the word for effort, the effort factor of awakening, is this: it's a little bit of a choice. "This is where my attention goes," or "This is how to pay attention." Because we have enough clarity, we can recognize where it's useful to pay attention, or how to pay attention with this kind of open attention. This choice is a little bit like a recognition: "Oh, this is how to do it." As the mind becomes more present and we see more clearly what's here, it isn't so much that we choose in the abstract, "Oh, it's a good idea to be this way." It's more like we recognize, "Oh, here it is. This is the way to be. Here it is. This is where the engagement is. This is what I feed. This is what I allow."

So here is the factor of awakening of mindfulness, the factor of awakening of investigation (the differentiation of dharmas^[5]), and this factor of awakening of effort. May your ability to recognize that this is the right place for your effort to be, give birth to heroic effort. What you do is important. You are important. Let your effort flow into caring for yourself and the world. Thank you.