Effort
avoids,
overcomes, develops, & maintains!
The Blessed Buddha once said:
Friends: There are four
right efforts:
the effort to avoid, the effort to
overcome, the effort to develop, and the effort to maintain...
What, friends, is the effort to avoid? In this case, when perceiving
a form with the eye, a sound with the ear, a smell with the nose,
a taste
with the tongue, a touch with the body, a thought of mind,
one neither
fixes to the overall appearance, nor to any of this sensation's details...
One strives to avert the arising of evil and detrimental states, such
as
greed, urge and longing, by remaining guarding these
6 sense-doors!
One watch and notice the senses, keeping
the 6 senses under control ...
This is the effort to avoid!
What, friends, is the effort to overcome? In this case, one does not
accept any thought of sensual lust, ill-will, irritation, or any other
evil
and detrimental state that may have arisen! One dispels them,
destroys
them, causes them to evaporate right there and then, on the very
spot...
This is called the effort to overcome!
What, friends, is the effort to
develop? In this case, one develops
the
7 links enlightenment, which when bent on solitude,
detachment and
ceasing, ends in release, namely: Awareness, Investigation, Energy,
Joy, Tranquillity, Concentration and Equanimity...
This is called the effort to develop!
What, friends, is the effort to maintain? In this case, one keeps the
mind firmly focused on any advantageous object of concentration
that
may have arisen, such as the mental image of a skeleton, of a
festering
corpse infested by worms, of a swollen, decaying corpse,
bluish-black
riddled with pus and
maggots dripping out of any hole and opening...
This is called the effort to maintain!
These are the
four Right Efforts.
Source:
Anguttara
Nikāya. The Numerical Sayings: AN
4:14
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/Canon/Sutta/AN/Index.Numerical.htm
More on Right
Effort
(Sammā-Vāyāma):
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/What_is_Right_Effort.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/Energetic_Effort.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/The_River_of_Energetic_Effort.htm
