Good evening, everyone. So I want to speak tonight about practice of enthusiasm and energy. This is part two. This is a follow-up to the talk I gave a couple of weekends ago on Sunday, August 14th. It's online. Check it out if you'd like. But I want to talk about sustainable energy, which applies not just to our energy systems, but also to our own personal energy. So this is one of the Bodhisattva practices. Sustaining energy and enthusiasm and vitality is a personal as well as societal issue. So this is about virya paramita, one of the liberative practices.

[01:07]

There's a system of six and a system of 10. And for those who don't know them, I'll just go over them quickly. So there's generosity, or dana. There's ethical conduct, sila, in Sanskrit. And patience, important practice, kshanti. And then comes the practices of more active bodhisattva work. The first one, being virya, can be translated as effort, or enthusiasm, or energy. It's etymologically related to vitality or vigor. So this is an important practice, and it's important for us now. How do we revive and sustain our own practice of enthusiasm, our enthusiasm for our practice for taking care of ourselves and all beings. So this is a challenging practice.

[02:09]

And this is a practice of selflessness, too. Of course, we take care of our own energy, but this is about how do we offer our energy, our effort, our enthusiasm to help others, help society and social issues. So this is Bodhisattva practice, a liberative practice. It means to carry beings to the other shore of liberation. So this is a complicated and very important practice. And it is a practice. So we can say it's a practice of commitment. So I think I gave the first four. The fifth practice is samadhi or meditation. In my last talk, I emphasized the relationship between energy and enthusiasm and meditation. So how do we take care of balancing our energy during zazen is one aspect of this.

[03:17]

The sixth one is prashna paramita, the word of practice of insight. That's translated as wisdom. How do we support wisdom, insight, awareness for all beings. Then there's another set of four, which are sometimes included, upaya, which is skillful means. How do we share this awareness that comes from our jhasa? How do we share it skillfully, appropriately, helpfully for different beings and different kinds of beings? And then there's now a commitment, Pranidhana, which I'm kind of talking about in connection with our theory of energy. How do we find our enthusiasm, our commitment to follow the Bodhisattva way?

[04:18]

And then there's Bala or powers. How do we use our various talents? Each person here, in Ebenezer and online, has actually many. How do we use that beneficially? So that's the ninth and then the 10th is nyana, knowledge, which is different from wisdom. It's all the things we know about, but then we can apply them. So coming back to the practice of energy and enthusiasm, how do we find our own energy to sustain us? How do we find our own enthusiasm to accomplish what would be helpful. So all of these different six or 10 practices are interrelated. So how do we find skillful means in terms of practice of energy and enthusiasm? So the great Indian Buddhist Mahayana teacher Shantideva said that energy is the endeavor to do

[05:31]

What is skillful? What is helpful? So we work at this. It's a real practice. How do we find our own energy, our own enthusiasm, for our own practice in life, and then to share with others? Because our practice is about universal liberation, about helping everyone to awaken. as we say in the four bodhisattva vows at the end of this event. So part of this is to counter apathy. We're self-contempt. So we all have some, at times, habits of putting ourselves down, feeling like we're not good enough to actually be helpful, not good enough to actually find our energy and enthusiasm.

[06:41]

So the practice of energy really is about finding ways to counter that. Find inspiration in the world around us through to support beings, it doesn't have to be just people, it could be trees, mountains. In Michigan, how do we find inspiration to support us, to support our enthusiasm for practice? And then how do we find the courage to actually engage in this? Part of the practice of this is to actually pay attention and note our energy levels, to know when our energy is lagging, know when we're weary, when we need to take a rest, and also to sustain our efforts, to sustain our enthusiasm for practice, for our lives, and for each other.

[07:53]

Sometimes this is typical. So as a practice, we have to pay attention to our own energy level. We work to sustain our energy and our commitment to practice, both individually and to support Sangha. Sangha is this particular Sangha. Sangha is also The various sanghas of the world, the communities that we are involved with, how do we support them? How do we find our energy, effort, enthusiasm to do that? And this is not something we find once and then we're finished. This is an ongoing practice. All these practices are ongoing. And we have to sustain our energy to take care of these practices. So right now, we're hampered in our energy, in our enthusiasm, by the residue of the pandemic.

[09:13]

It's sort of over, but it's not. But even to the extent that it is in a new phase, or somewhat over, It's been debilitating, and we have to recognize that. I think we don't fully recognize how this has affected us through this last period of pandemic. Each of us in different ways, and how it's affected our world and our society. Finding, locating our enthusiasm, energy, our aspirations for that, and taking care of them, paying attention to them. When our energy is low, okay, notice that. Then how do we take care of that and re-energize?

[10:16]

Getting overexcited is not a sustained enthusiasm either. This is a real practice. This is a challenge. but it's something that we need to do for each other as well as for ourselves. Part of this is going beyond fear. It's very common that we might feel afraid of taking on something that we enthusiastically, we might be afraid of standing up, we might be afraid would be foolish. But how do we go beyond that? How do we not be caught by our fear and actually take on taking care of our energy, taking care of our enthusiasm, and effort to support our own and everybody else's practice to help, help suffering beings, suffering beings within us, within our Sangha, and within the world.

[11:30]

This is the Bodhisattva practice. So, you know, there are many forms of, many aspects of our energy level. Part of this is just mental strength. How do we take on being aware, being strong, in our heart and resilience. Part of this is helped by seeing a wide range of space. And this is an important aspect of our Zen practice and teaching. So we, you know, may feel like we chat. That should be a general side of freedom. Well, That may seem ridiculous.

[12:32]

How am I, one person, one living being going to free all living beings? But this is to ignore that we are not alone, that we're doing this with many, many, many, many beings all around the world. And also we're doing it over time. In whatever area of effort you are engaged in, you are attracted to, you are inspired by. It might be literature, it might be music, it might be gardening, it might be, you know, whatever practice you're doing that expresses your energy and enthusiasm. We have many ancestors, we have many people over profoundly long periods of time who have been part of this. We're not just alone in space or time. So this is how we go beyond our personal fear.

[13:33]

And also, you know, part of this is seeing through our own personal distractions and obstructions. I was talking last time about how this vitality and energy and enthusiasm has to do with meditation. And you meditate, and you notice us, and we see, you know, many distractions through our sustained practice, become more aware of our own personal harmonic hindrances and habits that might obstruct us. Those are actually our areas of practice. Those are not, you know, we can see those as obstacles and feel like our energy is defeated by them. We can also see them as opportunities to bring our energy into life, into vitality. Don't run away from your distractions. Just pay attention to the whole thing.

[14:38]

So part of energy and effort and enthusiasm is just to pay attention, really allow that to be our enthusiasm. Our life circumstances are the context for actively developing our energy, not becoming passive. doesn't mean that we have to be running around. So, part of, you know, so, virya or vitality is a kind of partner sometimes with patience. Patience is not passive practice. It's, as a practice, it's active. It's paying attention, sitting still, but being aware of what's going on in our body and mind, in our sangha, in the world. And sometimes we don't see something, some helpful action to do. But in active patients, we're always paying attention.

[15:41]

And when we do see something we can do, then we take it on. We take it on with energy and enthusiasm. So this practice of vitality, how do we find our own lifeliness? How do we find our liveliness together? So I appreciate that it's a very lively song, and there are lots of good people, lots of interesting different things. And of course, each one of us supports everybody else. It's a wonderful, strange process. We don't necessarily recognize it a lot of the time, but we are supported by someone. sitting together in person, we feel the energy around us. And being on Zoom too, I think there's this awareness of the other people in this space and how do we recognize and appreciate and support each other.

[16:48]

So this is a challenging time. It really is. There's so many things going on in the world. There's climate breakdown. threats, imminent threats to our democracy. There's cruelty, there's just, this is a difficult world. But from the point of view of vitality and enthusiasm for the bodhisattva, this is the best time to be alive. Not to succumb and give up and become defeated, but to say, oh, whatever I do that's helpful, that is lively and enthusiastic and inspires others in their enthusiasms. Whatever we do now has an effect. Everything we do has an effect. This is the basic law of quantum. Everything that happens is a product of many plus conditions.

[17:49]

Everything we do or say or think has repercussions and supports the world. the changes that we might all wish to happen in our world, we don't always necessarily know how they will happen. There are people who study this, study how change happens, but we each contribute, and we don't necessarily know the outcome of our own efforts, our own energy, our own enthusiasm, our own caring for each other and ourselves in the world. you don't necessarily see the outcome of that. Sometimes it may take a long time, generations for these efforts to bear fruit. But we are privileged to be in a time when everything we do is supportive of awareness and awakening.

[18:53]

It's an important benefit for the world. So please take care of yourself. Please take care of each other. Please do your best to arouse liveliness and enthusiasm. And see when your energy level is fine. Okay, how do you want to take care of that? So this is a practice. This is an active practice that we take on. So I'm very interested to hear any comments, questions, responses from anybody on Zoom or anybody here. Thank you all very much. So any comments on Zoom, or anybody here that needs comments or questions or responses about how we practice with our tele?

[20:14]

How we practice with our tele? Please share. Thank you for your talk, Teigen. And greetings to everyone. It's good to see those of you that I can see. I really appreciated this talk. I could use all the turning words about energy and enthusiasm that can be said. And I guess I was wondering if you could say a bit more about any suggestions for when we are faced with multiple situations like you were describing that are really competing for 100% of our attention and energy. We want to take care of the world and we want to take care of the Sangha and we want to take care of our families.

[21:22]

And each of those things, oh my goodness, I'm being joined by a kitty. Each of those things really needs our full self. And it's hard to know how to balance things that each need 100%. We run out of percent pretty quickly. So we need to take care of our enthusiasm for all the things, but you know, we can become overwhelmed if we think we have to take care of everything at once. So take care of what's right in front of you, whatever comes up. Take care of, so I know you have a very challenging job. How do you take care of each thing as it comes up? And, you know, we get drawn away to other things, but take care of what's in front of you, especially, and then there'll be something else.

[22:26]

So we can't do everything all at the same time. Some people can multitask, but actually multitasking means jumping around from one thing to another. So give yourself and your energy completely to what's right in front of you. And then what's next? I don't know if that helps. Yeah. Thank you. And please take care of yourself. Getting overwhelmed by all the different things, 10,000 things that need our support, that doesn't help anything. So part of the practice of energy and enthusiasm is to find the balance, to rest when we need to, to take care of our energy, to do what we can as we can. So good luck.

[23:30]

Other comments, responses, questions, please. OK. Thank you very much for offering this contemplation of vitality I've been, as you were speaking, almost the whole time this neon sign was going through my mind with a little verse on it that always comforts me. And it's associated with a koan, but I think it's a separate like little piece of Japanese poetry, but it goes something like this. When your mind isn't cluttered by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life. So I think, like, just from practicing with the Diamond Sutra that I've been feeling like the unnecessary things are actually thinking there are things to do. And somehow, that doesn't keep me from

[24:35]

appearing to do things, but I don't feel like I'm doing anything most of the time. Yeah, so there's this Chinese Taoist term, wu wei, effortless effort. And, you know, this is, we can, I think we've all sometimes found that space where we just take care of us in front of us, as I was saying. We take care of the next thing. And of course, there's clutter all around us. There's a clutter of the world. all the many beings who we wish we could take care of. But there's a time we can find kind of cruise control. Okay, plugging away at the next thing. And then paying attention to our energy. There's this danger for people in helping activities, helping professions. The bodhisattvas are getting burnt out, you know? It's easy to feel overwhelmed.

[25:38]

But if we just, okay, this, then this, then this, then take a stop and breathe, hit the pause button, rest when you need to, and then come back. So that process can at times feel effortless, it can feel sometimes like, okay, this is just our life. and getting overwhelmed and feel, you know, sometimes feeling like just giving up, but that's not our practice. Our practice is that when we see that, okay, what do I, how do I, how do I take care of my energy now when I'm tired? Well, maybe you take a nap, but how do I sustain all this? So this is about sustainable energy. Thank you for this. Anybody else, comments, responses? Energy is definitely something that I struggle with half my whole life.

[26:46]

Do you have advice for maintaining energy, especially on activities that you just don't want to be doing, that you've lost interest in, like a job to eat or any number of other things, like washing the dishes that I particularly hate? Well, I love washing the dishes. Anyway. I'll take laundry any day. Yeah, so we all have areas of activity that we have some affinity for or that we don't. And so again, pay attention to your energy. When you're involved in some task that you really don't want to do, how do you just sustain, okay, how do I do this as best I can? And whether you like it or don't like it, it's kind of irrelevant. your energy and the next thing might be something you really like and it doesn't matter. It's like we take care, life gives us all kinds of difficulties.

[27:52]

That's our practice. So yeah, it's a great question. How do we sustain our energy when we have to do something that we really don't want to do? If you look at that, what is it about not wanting to do that? It's something that you have taken on in some way. It's part of your job, the dishes are dirty, whatever it is. Okay, your dish life is kind of irrelevant. How do you bring your life to it? I don't know if that helps. That's extremely helpful. Anybody else on Zoom or here with comments? I have a comment, but it looks like maybe Ed does, and David does as well. Ed unmuted himself first, so I'm going to give him the first tip, if he wants. Well, hey, thanks, Taigan. You know, I always think, I mean, sometimes energy is a bit of a carry in the coal mine.

[28:55]

I mean, it can offer a guidepost, a sign of really what you do and do not want to do with your life. And it's an opportunity to acknowledge and recognize that change in course might be called for maybe as well. And I think when I've read the great myths and so on, it's almost always about a redirection in a life, in a single life based on events that suggest to the main character that they're doing something they're not particularly inclined to want to do. And so I think that's a valuable, maybe potentially valuable consideration in this thinking. Yes, very good. And that's partly a response to Wade. Part of our energy is to marshal our intention or to examine our intention.

[29:59]

What is it we care about? I talked about this last time, we talked about enthusiasm. What is it that you, what are your enthusiasm? What are the things that you want to take on? And if you find yourself with a whole pile of stuff that's just odious, maybe, you know, what Ed said, you need to look at what is important for you. And part of energy is transformation. So we don't need to be stuck. You know, it's possible that, you know, at times maybe all of us can feel stuck. But that's when the practice of energy and vitality is most important. Look at what's going on. Bring your energy to that. Question, what is it that I'm stuck with? And how do we take that on more energetically? So thank you, Ed. Is David ready next?

[30:59]

Yes. Thank you, Taigen. My question is about, The relation between, on the one hand, vitality and enthusiasm, which sounds exciting and super energetic, and you spoke about liveliness of various pursuits. And then on the other hand, later in your talk and the questions, we're talking about things like conserving energy and And living in the face of conditions that, you know, not just the pandemic, but somebody could say late capitalism, there are reasons why a lot of people feel exhausted and overwhelmed and that their energy feels run down. Maybe, could you say something about the relationship between, on the one hand, the high energy of vitality, and then on the other side, trying to preserve or conserve or restore energy? Well, they're not separate. So vitality doesn't need to be, you know, all glitzy and glamorous and pizzazzy.

[32:06]

Vitality is how we pay attention to our vitality. and how we take care of it when we feel tempered, when we feel fought, when we feel tired or whatever. So it's all vitality. And yes, I think we live in a world that's really challenging. And as I said, we can see that and feel overwhelmed and depressed, or we can see that and feel, okay, how can I help now? because now is when most help is needed. And the practice of skillful means, which is one of these practices, is then to look at what, again, examining intention is. Ed was talking about it, looking at, OK, what is it that I can do or want to do in this situation? And we all get caught in human institutions, which are all fallible at best.

[33:09]

and how do we take care of that and bring our best results and care into that situation as best we can. So it means vitality is not only when we're very lively, vitality is when we're fighting and looking at what is it we can do. I don't know if that response helped. That's very helpful. Thank you. I wanted to ask if you could say something about having fun because I really sincerely believe that having fun is a very important part of having the energy to do the important things in life. A few examples, well two examples, one is Jerry gave a really beautiful teaching to me on this yesterday. She emailed me a couple of days ago saying, okay, can we get coffee after service?

[34:13]

And I said, sure. And in my head, I was positive that this was going to be some like, you know, to previous, you know, like comparing notes, what's working, what's not, how do we, you know, that kind of thing. And when we got coffee, she just wanted to hang out, you know, she just wanted to like, just because it was, we just wanted to be friends and talk, you know. And it was beautiful, it was wonderful, just to, you know, laugh together. And, you know, a couple weeks ago, I was playing catch with Amber's kids and just noticed how much that refreshed my whole energy and zest for calm, you know? Um, so I guess I feel like as adults and adults in capitalism, that, uh, we're, we're encouraged to talk down that part of ourselves that can just have fun.

[35:17]

But I feel like that's, um, that's, that it's important to, to have fun. Amen. Thank you. That's great. Um, some bodhisattvas just want to have fun. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, getting together and talking and just, you know, this, this, this bodhisattva business doesn't have to be grim and serious. In fact, it's not. It's about how do we bring our joy to ourselves and each other. And, of course, we face difficult situations that are, there's so much suffering all over the world. And it's important to be aware of that. But also, if we get overwhelmed by that, that's no help. How do we keep our spirit? One of the translations for virya is zeal. So how do we be zealous and wisely in terms of taking care of ourselves and each other and the world?

[36:18]

Yeah, play is important. It's really kind of time now, but just quickly, David, I think one thing that's important to talk about play, I think it's connection that really revitalizes us. You and Jerry had some good connection. You and Ambrose, too, had some great connection. And it's that connection, it doesn't have to be necessarily play. That connection can really make us feel vital. I know in chaplaincy, sometimes I'm going into real hard situations. but I have a great connection and all of a sudden I feel vitalized, so to speak. Yeah, it makes you feel vitalized amidst difficult situations. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, David. I think we do have to stop now. Thank you all. Please take care of your energy as best you can.

[37:19]

Enjoy it. Enjoy your energy.

[37:22]

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