Energy is one word, and there is another word that is most important in developing Energy: Interest. When you're interested in something, you have Energy, even if you're totally exhausted, even if you're absolutely wiped out. Let's say you've been working on a job at work for three weeks in a row. Everyone's doing overtime, everyone's working weekends. It's important to get it done by a certain date. Stress, stress. And then, Friday evening, the job's done. Everybody's happy. All you want to do is go home and go straight to bed. You don't even want to eat; maybe drink some juice and just drop into bed. You get home, you go to your door, you start to put in your key and you notice there's a note on the door. It says, "Hey, I'm in town tonight. We haven't seen each other in three years. Can we get together tonight? I have to leave tomorrow." This is an old friend. You haven't seen them in three years. They're in town just for the night. Are you going to go to bed? Or, all of the sudden, does Energy arise, through the interest of wanting to be with your friend? It's very simple. It will work for virtually everybody, if it's a really good friend. You will not go to bed. You will spend that evening with your friend. So interest is the key factor for developing Energy.
Now, you might ask, "Well, how do you get interest?" Some people are just automatically interested in something, but other people get interested through a friend who's already interested in it. Like for many of you, you got interested in meditation because you met somebody else who meditated. Because you met that person, you decided you would come, also and see what's going on. So, actually, interest is often generated by the people we meet. Now, According to Buddhism, past life theories, and Kamma, there's even going to be stuff from the past which ignites interest today. That's just already there. It's already in you, so that when you come across something on your own all of the sudden, although it seems brand new, you have an immediate interest in it.
Energy's very important in the practice. As far as getting it to arise, interest is the key factor. If you want Energy for the direction of the practice, for your actual growth in meditation and in Buddhism, hang out with other people who do it. This is also a way to get Energy because you're going to talk about the practice, because you're interested in the practice and they're interested in the practice. The combination of two people being interested gives you more Energy.
What happens in your interviews? How many of you have come into your interview dragging yourself in there? Do you drag yourself out? Do any of you drag yourself out? Not usually. I have never really seen a person drag themselves out, especially not an old student. It's as if, all of the sudden, you say to yourself, "Oh, good!" One old student referred to interviews as her "Dhamma fix." It was cute.
Energy arises through interest. Through hanging out with good friends who have the same interest, you get more Energy. And, of course, the Energy level we're talking about - like with the friend coming for the evening - is a lot of physical Energy. There's a bit of mental Energy as well, of course, but, all of a sudden, we're not going to sleep; we have Energy on the physical level.
In the meditation practice, maybe we won't always have that ability to get Energy on the physical level. We might be sick; we might be injured. That's fine. But then, we're still working on Energy on the mental level. Can we still reflect? Can we still do something? Can we still work on the practice? If you're sick, if you're injured, what do we teach you to reflect on? Number one is how fortunate you are. If you reflect on how fortunate you are, you get more contentment. You've heard me say that before. What do you get after you get contentment? You get joy. What do you get after you get contentment and joy? What do I always say? Energy. Contentment and joy bring Energy.