The Eightfold Path, Part Six (an introduction to Buddhism…as I understand it)

Wisdom

1. Right View

2. Right Intention

Ethical Conduct:

3. Right Speech

4. Right Action

5. Right Livelihood

Mental Development

6. Right Effort

7. Right Mindfulness

8. Right Concentration

Mental energy can be either wholesome (generosity, compassion, willpower, and empathy) or unwholesome (craving, aggression, and violence). Wholesome energy evolves from right effort; and, to be precise, right effort engages wholesome states of awareness that are guided by right view and right intention (aimed at liberation from dukkha). The Buddha provided the path and assured us that anyone can be successful, but the practitioner must apply energy in a persistent effort to transform his/her mind into a liberated state.

There are four endeavors associated with Right Effort:

  1. To prevent the emergence of unwholesome states;
  2. To discard unwholesome states that have already arisen;
  3. To awaken wholesome states that have not yet arisen;
  4. To preserve and perfect wholesome states already arisen.

There are also five hindrances associated with Right Effort (the first two are the most difficult and poison the mind to a greater extent; the others are less toxic, but are obstacles nonetheless):

  1. Craving (greed) for sensual pleasures (agreeable sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches), opulence, power, position, fame…
  2. Ill-will (aversion): hatred, anger, bitterness, and revulsion (directed towards other people, oneself, objects, or situations).
  3. Dullness (mental apathy), and Drowsiness (mental sinking, heaviness of mind, or extreme tendency to sleep)
  4. Restlessness (agitation or excitement), and Worry (regret of mistakes and angst regarding possible negative consequences of the mistake).
  5. Doubt: chronic indecisiveness.

The Buddha revealed remedies for the hindrances (some of which are applicable to all five, while others are useful for a specific hindrance); and, in important discourses, he described techniques for eliminating distracting thoughts and cultivating wholesome states of mind.

That’s all I wanted to say as an introduction, but there is much more information available about Right Effort; and, of course, it is intertwined within the other ‘steps’ on the eightfold path.