Cattāri Brahmavihārā

I have, for quite a long time, made it a practice to recite the paramis every morning as a way to reaffirm my commitment to a certain style of practice. Recently, however, I engaged in a discussion with a Bhikkhu friend of mine and I ended up agreeing with his view that the parami teachings lay outside of the sasana. As a result, I am looking now to the bodhipakkhiyadhamma, or 37 factors of awakening, as my guide.

As fate would have it, the factors of awakening aren’t organized in a neat list that’s easily memorized. They repeat and have significant overlap. As such I may just take to reciting the 8FP. However, there is one quality that I am finding repeated more than any other and which I have been working with in my own practice and it is viriya. Without it nothing much seems possible but with it almost nothing is impossible.