In todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;Energy in Pursuit of the Good,and#8221; Sangharakshita shares the story of Indra and the squirrel as we learn of one of the Five Spiritual Faculties: Energy. Is such a life of everyday Buddhist spiritual practice possible in the West?
From the talk and#8220;The Pattern of Buddhist Life and Workand#8221; given in 1966 as part of the series and#8220;Introducing Buddhism.and#8221;
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. Now, thirdly, we come to Vira, which means Vika, or energy. And it's technically defined by Shanti Deva in the Bodhicarya Avatara as energy in pursuit of the good, not just any old energy, any old Vika. But energy in pursuit of the good, in the sense of nirvana, that is real energy or real Vika. Now, energy or Vika can be of two kinds. It can be either subjective or objective. Now, as subjective, it corresponds to Samyak Viyama, right effort, which is the sixth step of the Noble Eightfold Path. Right effort, as you probably know, consists in the effort to eradicate unskillful states of mind which have arisen, to prevent the arising of unskillful states with haven't arisen, to cultivate skillful states which have arisen and to bring forth skillful states which have not yet arisen in one's mind. This is the fourth or right effort. The effort to eliminate all unskillful states and cultivate all skillful states of mind. The unskillful, of course, being those rooted in greed, in anger and bewilderment or delusion, and the skillful, those which are rooted in generosity, in love, and in understanding. So, this is the subjective side of right effort. Right effort is applied to one's own mental content. Then the objective side of right effort, or the objective side of Vika or Vika, rather, consists in the doing of good works. Doing something to help others physically, without setting out a physical effort and trouble and difficulty. And both, of course, are of importance. Both must be present. We find that Buddha, in his discourses, in his sermons, always insisted upon the importance of energy. He has always been stirring his monks. He never used to allow them to sit idle. He never allowed them just to pass the time. He always is sitting there, should be doing something. Not because rushing hither and thither, but at work, either on their own minds, or doing something for the benefit of other people. That's because it's very easy to become lazy. It's very easy to become slothful. It's very easy, well, just for a few weeks I'll let things slide. Won't go to the Vihara, won't listen to any lectures, won't meditate. Just let things slide, just take them easy. It's very easy to do this sort of thing. Therefore, the Buddha was always insisting on Viriya, or Vika, or energy, all the time. Now, there's a very interesting little story in the Jataka book, which illustrates this question of energy. The Buddha is supposed to have told the story. Apparently, the God Indra, the same one that we encountered earlier on in the lecture, the God Indra was on a journey. So he came to the banks of a great river, an enormous river, miles and miles across. Just down by the edge of the water, he found the little squirrel. So the squirrel was behaving in a rather extraordinary manner. It kept dipping its tail, this big bushy tail, into the water of the river, then lifting it up and sprinting the water on the dry land. So the king of the gods, Indra, said to the squirrel, "What on earth are you doing?" So the squirrel replied quite cheerfully, "I'm emptying all the water of the river onto the dry land." So Indra said, "You foolish little creature, do you really think that you can do that?" So he said, "Yes, it's only a question of going on long enough." So Indra was quite impressed by that, and the Buddha commented, "Yes, if it may appear to be small, we may not appear to be doing very much, may not appear to be making very much progress, but if we carry on long enough, after all the house may be very big, but the house is built by putting just one brick on top of a nut." We all know this, but it's very difficult to apply it. We may not be very impressed by our own efforts. We may think, "Well, I only read maybe one book on Buddhism every month. I meditate just five or six minutes a day. That isn't much. I hear one lecture a week or every two weeks, that isn't much." But if you keep it up, if it's regular, if you put this energy into it consistently regularly, if you make a regular effort, however small, if it's only regular, if it's only kept up, then the effect, the results, they do accumulate. Therefore, this effort, this persistence, this vigor, energy is very, very important. Of course, it can go to extremes, like the other faculties, like the other spiritual senses. What is extreme in this case? Restless. Not energy in pursuit of the good, but just energy in pursuit of anything. Anything to, as it were, get away to be distracted, but often to get away from oneself. So you get some people, you probably all know them very well. They can't settle down. They always want to be on the move, always on the go, doing something. But in neurotic compulsion to do something, to be busy, they can't sit still, they can't sit down. Can't take things easy in a relaxed, sensible sort of way. The effort isn't smooth, it's restless and agitated and jerky. So this is because, which one's sighted, it hasn't been balanced by its counter-balancing. Back onto your spiritual sense, which is, of course, some art. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this screen. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donny and thank you. 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