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Guided Meditation: Working with Low Energy

Welcome. A really warm welcome for everybody. Here we go; I have to get all my gizmos straight, so we'll start with a guided meditation. Just a light guidance, not a lot, to finish arriving to our seat here. That is, to sit—either literally or figuratively—to sit and to know that you're sitting. What does that mean, to know that you're sitting while you're sitting? Bring attention, bring awareness to the experience of the moment. In this moment, we're sitting.

Part of noticing that we're sitting is noticing that we're connected, grounded, and connected to the zafu we're sitting on, the cushion, maybe a zabuton, a mat, maybe a chair, or a bench, whatever it might be. It can be helpful to feel the contact of the body with what's supporting the body.

Then, rest the awareness on the sensations of breathing. Feel the movement of the chest or abdomen, or feel the air going in and out of the nose. Notice in a way that's relaxed and yet purposeful. Find the balance between the amount of effort we're applying.

When the mind wanders, as it likely will, we just very simply, gently begin again without making a problem out of it, without building stories around it. We just begin again with the sensations of breathing.

Sometimes when we come to meditate, we find that the energy is low, when we feel drowsy, drifty, or not really present. One thing we can do is put a little bit of attention on the posture. Sit up just a little bit straighter, letting that little extra effort with the body help energize the mind.

Something else we can do if you find yourself with low energy is to bring a sense of curiosity to the experience. Where does low energy show up in the body? Maybe it's a heaviness in the shoulders, or maybe it's a slouching posture. How do the thoughts feel? If there's some drowsiness or tiredness, are the thoughts kind of wispy, unclear, or dreamy, maybe? Just having a sense of curiosity, investigating, "Wow, what does it feel like to not have a lot of energy?" Does that also mean there's low enthusiasm? Bringing the spirit of inquiry can help raise the energy a little bit.

If our energy is flagging, something else we might try is to reflect on what inspires us about this practice. The potential for freedom, the opportunity to end suffering for ourselves and others, the Buddha—maybe we have a heartfelt connection to the Buddha. Sometimes it can be helpful to bring these to mind.

Sometimes when we meditate, the energy is not available for us, maybe for a number of reasons. But we can use the body to bring in a little more energy, or bring some investigation or curiosity, or bring to mind something inspiring about why we're practicing. This is so that those times when we're on the cushion, our practice can be fruitful, meaningful, or useful, not just sitting and whiling the time away. It allows our practice to support us and be a benefit for our life, so that we might have energy and be able to support and be of benefit for others.

In this way, may our practice be for the benefit of all beings everywhere.

The Parami of Energy

Good evening. Welcome, wherever you might be and whenever it might be, a warm welcome. Today, I'd like to continue on this series of the paramis^[1]. First, maybe I'll say just a word about the paramis. Sometimes we translate them as "perfections." These are qualities that can be a support for our life and for our practice. There is a list of ten. The first one is generosity, the second is ethical behavior, then renunciation, then wisdom, and tonight I'm going to be talking about the fifth one: energy.

Energy is the translation of the word viriya^[2]. It gets translated in all kinds of different ways—sometimes perseverance, strength, effort, courage, or vigor. For the most part, I'll be using this word "energy." Dharma teachers kind of interpret this fifth parami sometimes along the lines of right effort and sometimes more about energy. This is something that I appreciate so much about the dharma: there are so many depths, and sometimes, if you pull one little thread, you discover this thread is connected to so many other things. What's interesting or inspiring today, I want to be what's interesting and inspiring for you, for me, next year, next week, tomorrow. I really appreciate the richness of this, so I like it when this word viriya gets interpreted with real breadth. I feel like sometimes maybe one interpretation will be really helpful and supportive, and maybe the others don't feel quite relevant until they do, sometime later.

One way that we might understand this word viriya is the willingness to stay with what is. That is, to not bounce off of those things that are uncomfortable or suffering. For us to learn about suffering takes some viriya—to really understand it, to find our way with suffering without running away or turning away, but to engage with it in a way that brings freedom and awakening.

The Origins of the Paramis

The teachings of the paramis are not from the earliest layer of the text; the Buddha himself didn't teach about the paramis. Instead, it was sometime later. The tradition holds the question, "Why did the Buddha become the Buddha? What was so exemplary about this individual?" One answer that came up was because he had perfected the paramis, these ten qualities.

In that literature describing the paramis, the parami of energy is described with an utterance: "May I be filled with inexhaustible energy, vigor, and fortitude in cultivating the path to enlightenment and in working for the benefit of others."

For me personally, I feel a little bit overwhelmed. Like, "Oh my goodness, inexhaustible energy, vigor, and fortitude." It feels a little bit like I either want to be dismissive, "Oh, that's just hyperbole from thousands of years ago," or I feel like, "Wow, who can do that? Somebody other than me, or somebody other than anybody I know, can have inexhaustible energy, vigor, and fortitude."

But then, Bhikkhu Bodhi^[3] writes about this a little bit. He's a well-known scholar and translator. He writes that energy is needed because our own natural tendency is to either flow with the stream of desire or to just drift along with whatever the tendency of the mind is. Flowing and drifting is, in some ways, being pushed around. It takes energy to not be drifting, to not be flowing, to either be going against the stream or even to just stop moving. When I consider this, it feels like it makes a little more sense. It takes this inexhaustible energy, vigor, and fortitude to not just be drifting and flowing all the time.

I know that there certainly have been times in my life when I was just drifting, feeling like going the path of least resistance, and I found myself not happy with my life. It wasn't rewarding in the way that I was thinking or expecting it to be. It wasn't until I really started to look at my life and make some changes—which was not easy, it certainly took effort to go a different direction or to look at things more clearly and candidly—that I understood this idea of energy. We need energy so that we're not just flowing and drifting. But it takes energy, and sometimes we just don't have it. Where does it come from? We're human beings; we have a limited amount of energy. So what might we do to support our having energy?

Samvega: A Sense of Urgency

The classical teaching in the tradition is samvega^[4]. I like the way it sounds: samvega. This is a word that describes what Gotama, the person who was going to become the Buddha, experienced. The tradition holds that after he had seen the heavenly messengers—old age, sickness, death, and a monastic—he felt moved. He felt compelled to go on this quest. Samvega is what he had: this sense of urgency, this sense of, "Yes, this is what I'm going to do, I'm going this direction."

There's a sense of energy that's associated with that, coming along with a sense of resolve and dedication. It might be a real support for us as we go through the vicissitudes of practice. In the teachings of the Buddha, we don't hear about him having doubt, but we do hear about the tremendous effort and determination that was put forth.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu^[5] expresses this well. He says that it's a difficult word to translate, that there isn't exactly an English equivalent to it because it has a complex range. According to him, there are three different aspects to this idea of samvega.

One is the oppressive sense of dismay, terror, and alienation that comes with realizing the futility and meaninglessness of this life of just going, flowing, or drifting. So, this first feeling of, "Oh, what have I been doing with my life? This isn't going the direction I wanted it to. This just doesn't make sense." This feeling of dismay, terror, and alienation—these are powerful words—is the recognition that just drifting is not what we want to do.

Then, the second aspect of samvega is this chastening sense of our own complicity, complacency, and foolishness in having let ourselves live this way. For me, I had a little bit of anger to this. Anger of, "I thought that if I drifted in this direction, everything was going to turn out fine," and it wasn't turning out fine. Also, this sense of our complacency and foolishness: "Oh, why didn't I know better?"

The third aspect is the sense of urgency of trying to find a way out.

These three things together—the sense of urgency, the sense of complicity, and this dismay—can be the fuel for practice. Sometimes we only experience this after a grave difficulty or some tragedy in our lives. That is when we have this real sense of urgency to practice, as we're trying to find a solution and trying to make sense out of things. But we don't have to wait until there's a tragedy in our lives for samvega. There can be this recognition of suffering, and it doesn't have to be the most terrible suffering. There can be a real wish to understand this suffering: "What is going on here? How did I get here?" This wish to understand is stronger, more powerful than the wish to avoid it, so we're willing to investigate and get curious about our difficulties.

Curiosity and Investigation

That brings us to another way in which we can increase our energy: investigation. To have some curiosity, to have an engagement with whatever it is that we're doing. Whether it's meditation, having a sense of curiosity about the breath or what the mind is doing, or a sense of curiosity about what's happening in our life and the way that we're behaving.

I think we've all had the experience that we have a sense of energy when we're interested. We can sit through a podcast, for example, that other people might think is the most boring thing, but because it interests us, we have a sense of energy and are really engaged with it. The same goes with hobbies or whatever it might be. We can bring that sense of curiosity or investigation to our experience, whatever it might be. Instead of slapping a label on our experience—"that's boring, this is painful, that's hard"—we could really tease apart what all the different elements are.

This also ties in with the fourth parami, the one that precedes energy, which is wisdom. One way we can understand wisdom is that it's a discernment or distinguishing. It is seeing with some clarity what really is. When I talked about wisdom, I talked about owls having big eyes, seeing clearly. Part of that is to make the discrimination between this and that, instead of just lumping things together. One thing that is important to investigate as part of our practice is the question: What is helpful and what is unhelpful? What is helpful to find more ease, more freedom? What is on the path to awakening and enlightenment, and what is not on the path?

Even asking that question is on the path. To ask, "What is helpful? What is skillful? What is wholesome? What is this?" We could even point to the self as an investigation: "Who is doing the investigation?" It's more about openness and questioning than finding the answers. It's more about being receptive to learning something new rather than thinking that we have it all figured out.

Our mindfulness practice brings us face to face all the time with difficulties, as well as what leads to suffering and what doesn't lead to suffering. Part of wisdom, part of investigation, and something that can increase our engagement with what's happening, is asking these questions. "This leads to suffering, but does this uncomfortableness lead to the end of suffering?"

Looking at ethical behavior can be painful. Maybe we realize, "Oh, there were times in my life when my ethical behavior wasn't so clean. I told lies or I took things that weren't freely offered." It might be painful to recognize that in ourselves, but that can be part of the building of our ethical behavior in the present, as well as diminishing or putting aside those things which might decrease our energy. Not being ethical really dissipates and takes away our energy because there's always a part of the mind and a part of the heart that is busy with whatever it is that we did that was unethical or unhelpful.

Joy as an Awakening Factor

So, samvega and investigation can increase energy so that we might not just be drifting or flowing through our lives. Something else that can increase our energy is joy and happiness.

Sometimes we might feel that our practice is drudgery. It has fallen into the category of being one more chore that we have to do. It's something we just have to squeeze into our day even though we don't really have time for it, and it starts to feel burdensome. Maybe it's one more arena in which the inner critic gets to play loudly and have a commentary about the quality of the meditation, how long we're meditating, or how often we're meditating. In this kind of drudgery, of course there isn't going to be a lot of energy.

Can we connect with how things were while we were still in the honeymoon phase of practice? We used to open up dharma books and feel inspired by them, or go to dharma talks and feel inspired. Can we touch into what is inspiring for us? Maybe it is listening to dharma talks. Maybe there's a devotional element to your practice, like bowing or prostration, that nourishes and feeds the heart in a way that hearing a dharma talk doesn't. Maybe chanting is a beautiful practice for you.

For me, there's something about sutta^[6] study that I really love. I was doing some sutta study with some friends recently, and one person said it's kind of like a puzzle. I was thinking it's interesting how in the newspaper we have Sudoku and crossword puzzles, but in some ways, the suttas are just a joy of engaging with them. "What is being pointed to here? What is the context here? How do we understand this, and how is this relevant and applicable to our lives?" I love doing this. It's not for everybody, but what is it for you that brings energy to the practice?

Sometimes we have this idea that, "Well, yeah, but if I'm happy or having fun doing it, or it's joyful, then it can't be spiritual. It can't be proper if it feels good." I would just invite you to investigate that belief.

You might recognize I was talking about energy, then investigation, and now I'm talking about joy. These are three energizing factors of awakening. The Buddha identified a whole list of seven qualities, but these three are the ones that are uplifting and energizing. Joy is on this list! Joy is energizing, supports our having energy, and is a necessary element of the practice. The encouragement is to find your way with joy and happiness, of course in a way that keeps with ethical, wholesome, helpful, and skillful behavior. We need to stay connected with these areas that really nourish and fuel our practice.

Avoiding Energy Drains

If we want to look at energy, it's also helpful to look at what blocks energy, what dissipates it, or what gets in the way. I already talked about how unethical behavior subtracts from our energy. Another one is distractions. How many notifications is it possible for us to have? We just heard one on my phone earlier—my apologies about that. Our attention is often being pulled in so many different ways. Maybe we're trying to multitask and do a few things at once. Multitasking fragments and dissipates our energy. There's something a little bit more fulfilling and satisfying if we can uni-task as best we can, to bring focus and intentionality to our effort as opposed to just drifting.

This is obvious, but something else that takes our energy is not getting enough sleep. Maybe that goes without saying, but I'll share for myself, I notice what a difference it makes when one has a good amount of sleep. This should be such a priority, and I'm happy that more and more these days, people are talking about the importance of sleep.

I talked a little bit earlier about being inspired. If we're not inspired, if we don't have a sense of a direction that we're going, we lose energy. Sometimes in spiritual circles, they don't like to talk about goals, but maybe we can talk about the direction we're going. I would say we can talk about goals—we can talk about awakening or less suffering. Sometimes we shy away from having goals because we feel like, "Well, maybe other people can do that, but I can't." A lack of self-confidence prohibits us from dreaming big or having an aspiration. Not having a direction or an aspiration doesn't give our energy an occasion to coalesce around. What is the purpose of your practice? Sometimes that feels too heavy-handed, but sometimes it's really helpful to connect with your aspiration. We can have curiosity and bring investigation to that.

Balancing Energy: The Simile of the Goldsmith

I've been talking about increasing energy so that we might, with this parami of energy, have inexhaustible energy, fortitude, and vigor. But of course, we can have too much energy. It can spill over into restlessness. If it's out of balance with concentration, the mind can't quite settle.

Pointing to that is the simile of the goldsmith that we find in the sutta. It goes like this: Suppose a goldsmith would prepare a hot furnace, heat up a receptacle, take some gold using tongs, and put the gold into the receptacle. The gold is sitting in a crucible getting heated in the furnace. From time to time, the goldsmith would blow on it, sprinkle water on it, or just look on. If the goldsmith were to only blow on it, it's possible that the gold would just burn up. If the goldsmith were to only sprinkle water over it, it's possible the gold would cool down. If the goldsmith were to only look on, it's possible the gold would not reach the right consistency. But if the goldsmith would from time to time blow on it, from time to time sprinkle water on it, and from time to time just look on, the gold would become purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability. Then whatever ornament the goldsmith wishes to make from it—whether it's a bracelet, earrings, necklaces, or a garland—can be achieved.

This is significant because the way the Buddha is describing the gold here—having just enough heat, being cooled, and being purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability—are the exact words he uses to describe his own mind right before awakening. He is describing not too much heat or vigor, not too much coolness, not too much standing back, but finding balance from time to time.

Many of us are familiar with the story of Sona^[7], who played the lute, a stringed instrument. The Buddha taught him that the strings should not be too tight or too loose, again pointing to the importance of balance with our energy.

May we use our energy in a way that helps us on the path to enlightenment. Let me look for the definition of how it's used: "May I be filled with inexhaustible energy, vigor, and fortitude in cultivating the path to enlightenment and in working for the benefit of others."

Thank you.