4.2.2. Faculty of Effort (Vīriyindriya or Vīrya)

[Full title: The Five Faculties (pañcindriyani; Sanskrit: indriya)—The Faculty of Effort (Vīriyindriya or Vīrya)]

The vīriya is explained in the Āpaṇa sutta in Saṃyutta Nikāya under the following:

It is indeed to be expected, Sāriputta, that a noble disciple who has faithwill dwell witheffortroused for the abandoning of unwholesome states and the acquisition of wholesome states; that he will besteadfast, resolute in his effort and not shirking from the task of cultivating wholesome states.

That Energy of his, Sāriputta, is his faculty of effort.^[1]

The Saṃyutta Nikāya gives the following definition;

“And what is the faculty of effort? Here the noble disciple dwells as one who has produced strength; for the sake of abandoning unskillful dhammas and arousing skillful dhammas he is firm, of steady valour, unreliquishing in purpose with regard to skillful dhammas.^[2]

This definition is in effect of the sammappadāna way–the four sammappadānas are here deduced to two, just abandoning unskillful dhammas and arousing skillful.

Vīriyindriya is to some extent synonymous with vīriya. But there are two kinds, or degrees, of viriya, namely:

1. Pakati-vīriya, ordinary energy
2. Bhāvanā-vīriya, energy developed by meditation.

Another classification is:

1. Kāyika-vīriya, bodily energy
2. Cetasika-vīriya, mental energy

Ordinary energy (pakati-vīriya) can be easily recognized. Persons who possess much ordinary energy in worldly matters can easily attain developed energy (bhāvanā-viriya). The strict observances (dhutaṅga) of a monk are instances of bodily energy of a developed nature (kāyika-bhāvanā-vīriya).

If, after setting up developed bodily energy (such as reducing sleep and being alert and energetic), there is still no mental energy (cetasika-vīriya), such as enthusiasm in keen attention to meditation (bhāvanā-manasikāra), then steady application to or concentration on the subjects of meditation (kammaṭṭhāna), such as mindfulness of breathing, cannot be attained, and the period of work is unduly lengthened without achieving clarity of mind and perception.

Any kind of work will be properly and appropriately done only if the person performing it obtains quick mastery over it. It will be improperly done if the work obtains mastery over the person. By “the work obtaining mastery over the person” is meant that the work is done without real energy, as a result of which no concrete results appear, and as days and months drag on, distaste for meditation) and slackness in body postures appear, leading to sloth. With the appearance of sloth, progress in the work slows down, and with the slowing down of progress, further sloth develops. The idea then appears that it would be better to change the form of the work. Thus constant changes in forms of work occur, and in that way the work obtains mastery over the person lacking energy.

In meditative work, quick success is obtained only by one endowed with both bodily and mental energy. From the moment when body contemplation is set up, the energy that develops day by day is bhāvanā vīriya, energy developed by meditation, and it is this energy that, in the bodhipakkhiyadhammas, is called the faculty of energy, vīriyindriya. It represents the disappearance of sloth and laziness in meditative work and the appearance of enthusiasm and vigour. The mind takes delight in dwelling on objects on which its attention is strong. Thence, the task of setting up developed energy, and graded development, is identical with that of the faculty of faith (saddhindriya).

Kattha vīriyindriyaṃ daṭṭhabbaṃ? Catūsu sammpadhānesu ettha vīriyin-driyaṃ daṭṭhabbaṃ.

Where should one look for the faculty of energy? One should look for it in the four constituents of right effort.

Lay persons and bhikkhus who profess to be followers of the Buddha can know whether or not the unsettledness and turbulence of their minds in the matter of vīriya have disappeared and whether or not they are thus persons who have obtained mastery over their minds, only when they come to the four constituents of sammappadhāna (right effort).

“Let my skin remain, let my sinews remain, let my bones remain, let my blood dry up, I shall not rest until the realm of personality belief (sakkāya-diṭṭhi), the realm of the duccaritas, and the apāya-saṃsāra, that are in my personality, are destroyed in this life.” This is the singleness of determination and effort in sammāpadhāna. It is the effort of the same order as that exerted by the Venerable Cakkhupāla’ s.^[3] When one encounters such determination and effort, one must recognise in it the predominating control of viriya over the mind. In the matter of vīriya, the unsettledness and turbulence of the mind have disappeared in such a person, and he is one within the Buddha-sāsana who has obtained mastery over his mind.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

SN 48.50/V, p. 225

[2]:

SN V, p. 197

[3]:

Dhp Verse 1