Cattāri Brahmavihārā

The Pali word viriya is often translated as “energy” and it forms an important part of Right Effort or samma vayama. Today being an uposatha day, I find myself face to face with my recent lack thereof. I have been especially lax in regard to my formal sitting meditation practice, believing the voices that tell me “Oh, you’re too tired to sit for a full session, why not just rest?”. Interestingly enough, I have found that although I reap some benefit from loosening up I have not felt anymore rested. In fact, it seems that the more I give in to fatigue (despite whether it be real or imagined) the stronger it becomes. Therefore, I’m making a public adhitthana today that come what may I will do formal sitting/walking/standing meditation for 35 minutes each morning and evening. Regardless of how tired I am or how useless I might believe it to be I commit to meditating for at least an hour and ten minutes every day which is not much when you think about it. As Ven. Thanissaro says, I need to focus on the causes and the results will come. So, to help me out with this I found this collection of Dhamma talks from Ajahn Pasanno which are available here: http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/Passano_mp3/Viriya.htm