Viryaparamita: the Perfection of Energy

Viryaparamita;

The cycle of energy

Arising from the commitment to enlightenment

That further fuels that commitment. 

–      The perfection of energy includes both the cultivation of energy, and the observance of energy as it manifests in all of our actions, thoughts, and feelings.   Observing the energy that accompanies our acts of generosity, patience, and other paramitas is an important part of understanding them and visualizing how to perfect them.

–      Energy as awareness of possibility, 139: “Energy level shapes our understanding of what is possible in life and is therefor critical in determining what kinds of self-transformation we might seek and attain.”

–      The most basic technique for creating the sort of energy that allows one to ardently practice is the visualization of enlightenment. 

–      Energy and ethics: There are two basic ways to fail ethically: to commit a wrong, and to not develop oneself.  A kind and loving person who does not develop themself is lacking in the perfection of energy.

–      When we do not have energy, we may lack the motivation to care about morality at all.  Lacking energy, we are not driven towards anything.

–       Energetic: observant, attentive, responsive, awake, sensitive, alert, attuned

–      Energy and release: to expend energy all the time is not perfection – perfection requires knowing how to release into laughter, playfulness, meditation. 

–      Energy and pleasure: great energy is gained through learning to enjoy more profoundly, including learning to enjoy the pleasures of the body more profoundly.  There is always more subtlety and beauty to be seen and felt.

–      Desire as restriction of self, 155: “Desires encourage us to emphasize our own needs and perspectives over others and tend to block a wider understanding of the situation in which we find ourselves… our self-understanding shrinks… I become the one who seeks my own satisfaction… the act of grasping shrinks our vision and character… narrow, restricted desires can give rise to narrow, restricted lives.”

–      Addiction and desire, 155: “Addictions are desires that distort our judgment, and because of that, restrict our freedom… When they are not fulfilled, they become forms of suffering that come to be experienced as desperation…. Wanting something need not be destructive, but allowing it to block judgment, restrict freedom, and derail pursuit of enlightenment is.  Captured by craving, energy is diminished…”  

–      In the midst of desire, yet fully present with all being. 

–      Desire and rationalization: Desiring strongly, excuses and rationalizations come easily. 

–      Perfecting energy requires overcoming spiritual weaknesses; facing spiritual weaknesses requires courage; therefore perfecting energy requires courage.    

–      Three types of courage:

1.    Courage in response to the physical threat of injury or death.

2.    Courage in the face of emotional pain, such as despair or loss of purpose.

3.    Courage as an everyday act of self-care and development… of viryaparamita.

–      Everyday courage: “Courage is the capacity of body and mind not to allow the fear we all face to hold sway over our thoughts, emotions, desires, and activities.  It is the everyday courage to expand and change, to feel joy, to experience beauty, and to love both the world and our own existence in it despite all the ways that our lives are endangered.” 

–      Despair as temptation, 166: “Despair is the disappearance or surrender of hope, the release of all desire directed at the good life.”  Because continuing to struggle and grow is so hard at times, the urge to let go, to forget, to give up is enticing.  Despair is an easy way out, especially because we are often unaware that we are despairing.  (For example, broken hearted, I abandoned taking the precepts.  I couldn’t figure out why, I only later realized that I was in despair.) 

–      Depression: “A motionless urge for seclusion, invulnerability, closure.”  We find ourselves “unable to withstand the pain of a new beginning, opting instead for unconscious strategies of self-protection… We find ourselves willing to give up all together rather than face it again.”   

–      Faith generates energy.

–      Energy is not only about quantity but quality.  Meditating on energy, gain awareness of all that impedes it and facilitates it.