The Joy Of Waking Up At 5am To Meditate

Hey everyone,

This is Judy Cohen and this is Wake Up Call 371.

We've been exploring those six perfections and so far we've looked at the perfections of generosity,

Ethics,

And patience.

Today let's look at the perfection of effort or what's called virya paramita.

And given that the virya we put into our meditation practice is one of the first ways to think about effort,

For me sometimes that does happen at 5 a.

M.

So that's why I named that in today's blurb that I was wondering if anybody would come because I could imagine a bunch of people saying no,

Not talking about getting up at 4 a.

M.

But you're here so let's jump in.

I love the way Norman Fisher talks about virya as joyful effort and he uses this word irrepressibility.

Someone who has perfected this quality of energy just can't be kept down.

Things happen in their lives,

Things happen in the world and still every day they get up,

Sit,

Go for a run,

Go for a swim,

Go to the gym,

Sing in the shower,

Work like crazy and enjoy every minute of it.

So I'll contextualize a little bit.

I've had times in my life when I did that.

When I was a baby lawyer,

I was in the pool the minute it opened at 5 a.

M.

I was at my desk by 7,

I was working and learning and calling everyone I knew who might be a potential client or referral source or who I know something I didn't about the law which was everyone and taking them out to lunch or making plans for drinks.

I was working Saturdays,

Sundays,

I loved it,

It was new,

It was interesting,

I wanted to be good at it.

I was getting paid a lot,

$27,

000 a year and also I was working that hard because it made me feel powerful and truthfully I was also working that hard because I was scared to death.

I was scared I would get something wrong or forget something,

Miss a deadline so I was motivated by my love of the word,

By wanting to be good at it,

The money,

The status and also fear.

And when I started teaching same thing,

Almost,

You know,

Now I was working twice as much because I was practicing and teaching but I loved being in the classroom,

I loved seeing that light go on in my students' eyes when they got the concepts and also the light going on for me.

I in some ways learned more teaching than practicing for a long time.

There was no money in it,

Still isn't,

But there was definitely a certain status so that was motivating.

And to be fair,

There was also fear once I almost hyperventilated driving to school one evening because I was so afraid I didn't understand that night's materials,

Right?

So even though some of my joyful energy was motivated by fear and by money and by status,

In those early days I had a lot of joyful energy and I have that now for what I do,

For this,

For the wake-up call.

So first thing I wanted to ask everybody is just to take a moment and see if you can relate.

Is joyful energy present for you?

And that might be at work.

Are you familiar with that sense of what Norman calls irrepressibility?

And if not in relation to the law,

Are you familiar with it in relation to something else?

You're an athlete and you're passionate about that or about your kids or about learning how to be an anti-racist or maybe you're passionate about democracy.

Thank you,

President Biden,

For reminding us about that.

But really it can be anything.

I just want you to tap into that sense of irrepressibility,

Joyful effort that keeps you going in whatever that fulsome direction is that you're pointing in,

Even when you're under slept or overworked or there's just flat out not enough time in the day,

Which is so often.

So that's virya.

And so now what I want to do is use that frame of reference and point our attention towards our practice,

Not the law practice or teaching practice.

Or don't point it at.

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In other words,

I'm not saying we're going to point our attention towards law practice or teaching practice,

Although there's a spillover and I'm going to say something about that in a minute,

But exploring the paramitas because they are this path of the bodhisattva,

The person who is moving through the difficulties of life and living their life to serve others.

We're exploring that and thinking about ourselves as these bodhisattvas or these Shambhala warriors,

That our role in the world as mindful lawyers is to reduce suffering as much as we can and do that by meeting and overcoming and helping others to meet and overcome the obstacles of life.

And not only the external obstacles,

Right?

Also and first and continually,

All throughout our lives,

The internal obstacles,

Right?

So the internal obstacles of selfishness and confusion and disappointment,

The classical big umbrella obstacles of greed and aversion and delusion,

That veil through which we see our lives and filter our lives,

Right?

So let's point our attention towards practice with that in mind.

And just thinking about generosity,

The first paramita,

Dhanaparamita,

That's the first step and doing this by perfecting generosity towards others and towards ourselves,

Knowing that we can't be truly generous towards anyone else until we know how to look at ourselves,

See ourselves with generosity,

With kindness,

And with understanding that we're all imperfect humans.

And then ethics,

Sila paramita,

Perfecting ethics through a kind of inspired sense of always wanting to do the right thing,

Which is in the biggest possible sense to serve and love everyone.

And again,

Starting with ourselves.

And then patience,

Kshanti paramita,

The third paramita,

Undertaking this path with patience,

Knowing that there are an endless number of opportunities to care,

To help,

And that no matter what we undertake,

We're not going to finish it in this lifetime,

But we're just going to put one foot in front of the other and slowly do everything we can,

Including with respect to our own internal issues.

So chipping away at those with kindness,

With self-compassion,

And slowly transforming greed,

Transforming our own aversive nature into more love,

More tenetiveness,

Transforming misunderstanding into clarity.

So joyful effort is what makes that possible,

Virya,

Irrepressibility.

It's this bright,

Endless energy that essentially makes not doing all of that not an option.

So it kind of is a joy of waking up at 5 a.

M.

To meditate,

Because meditation is the key.

Without a practice,

There's not really any way to see what's going on,

And there's no way to work with it.

So I actually do love getting up super early,

But for you,

Maybe it's the energy to sit for a half an hour late at night,

Or before you leave your desk for the day,

If you leave your desk for the day,

Which I hope you do.

And I would also say that virya,

It becomes a habit.

So putting aside obsessiveness,

And I have plenty of my share of that too,

And that's not what we want to cultivate,

This habit of true joyful effort to practice mindfulness,

To study,

To see and uproot greed and aversion and delusion in our own minds and our own hearts for ourselves,

But also for the benefit of everyone.

And even very specifically for the benefit of our clients,

Our colleagues,

Our students,

The people we love.

And that's what I mean by the spillover effect.

In my experience,

We cultivate joyful effort by just getting into our practice,

Getting excited about our practice,

Seeing the benefits.

They say it is said that mindfulness is onward leading,

That it's the self-sustaining.

And by seeing the transformative work that we can do by doing this work with ourselves,

And then seeing how virya transfers out into the world in the way that we work and in the way that we have this commitment to keep on going and helping others.

So let's sit.

Thinking at a posture that is supportive.

And I just want to say if you have the impulse right now to hop off the call,

Just consider that.

You may have to.

It's all good.

But if you have the energy or can summon the energy to stay for the next 10 minutes and sit,

Do that.

And just settling in,

Finding your seat or your seat on the floor if you're standing,

Bringing the attention to the breath.

Remember if the breath is not supportive to the sounds in your environment,

Giving the mind a rest,

Giving the heart a rest from all its engagement and everything that feels like it has to be done.

Okay.

And then maybe getting curious about what is it that draws you to sit to meditate?

In my tradition,

We usually think of it as one of two things,

Either the peace of the present moment or the investigation of what is present in this moment.

And for you,

That may not be what motivates.

So whatever is motivating you right now,

Whatever is calling you or supporting you in your practice right now,

See if you can turn towards that with some real gladness.

Such healing isn't for you.

To your practice the posture of turning the corners of the mouth slightly upwards.

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