Dharma

Sixth step – The Right Effort

There are Four Great Efforts, the effort to avoid, the effort to overcome, the effort to develop and the effort to maintain.

What is the effort to avoid?

There, the disciple incites his to avoid the arising of evil, demeritorious things that have not yet arisen; and he strives, puts forth his energy, strains his mind and struggles.

Thus, when he perceives a form with the eye, a sound with the ear, an odor with the nose, a taste with the tongue, a contact with the , or an object with the mind, he neither adheres to the whole, nor to its parts.

And he strives to ward off that through which evil and demeritorious things, and, sorrow, would arise if he remained with unguarded senses; and he watches over his senses, restrains his senses.

Possessed of this noble “Control over the Senses,” he experiences inwardly a feeling of , into which no evil thing can enter. This is called the effort to avoid.

What is the effort to Overcome?

There, the disciple incites his mind to overcome the evil, demeritorious things that have already arisen; and he strives, puts forth his energy, strains his mind and struggles.

He does not retain any thought of sensual lust, ill-will, or grief, or any other evil and demeritorious states that may have arisen; he abandons them, dispels them, destroys them, causes them to disappear.

Methods of expelling evil thoughts

If, whilst regarding a certain object, there arise in the disciple, on account of it, evil and demeritorious connected with greed, , and delusion, then the disciple should, by means of this object, gain another and wholesome object.

Or, he should reflect on the misery of these thoughts: “Unwholesome, truly, are these thoughts! Blameable are these thoughts!

Or painful result are these thoughts!”

Or, he should pay no attention to these thoughts.

Or, he should consider the compound nature of these thoughts.

Or, with teeth clenched and tongue pressed against the gums, he should, with his mind, restrain, suppress and root out these thoughts; and in doing so, these evil and demeritorious thoughts of greed, anger, and delusion will dissolve and disappear; and the mind will inwardly become settled and , composed and concentrated.

This is called the effort to overcome.

What is the effort to Develop?

There the disciple incites his will to arouse meritorious conditions that have not yet arisen; and he strives, puts forth his energy, strains his mind and struggles.

Thus he develops the “ of ,” bent on solitude, on detachment, on extinction, and ending in deliverance, namely:

This is called the effort to develop.

What is the effort to Maintain?

There, the disciple incites his will to maintain the meritorious conditions that have already arisen, and not to let them disappear, but to bring them to growth, to maturity and to the full perfection of development; and he strives, puts forth his energy, strains his mind and struggles.

Thus, for example, he keeps firmly in his mind a favorable object of concentration that has arisen, as the mental image of a skeleton, of a corpse infested by worms, of a corpse blue-black in color, of a festering corpse, of a corpse riddled with holes, of a corpse swollen up.

This is called the effort to maintain. Truly, the disciple who is possessed of faith and has penetrated the of the , he is filled with the thought:

“May rather , sinews, and bones wither away, may the flesh and blood of my body dry up: I shall not give up my efforts so long as I have not attained whatever is attainable by manly perseverance, energy, and endeavor!”

This is called .

The effort of Avoiding, Overcoming, Of Developing and Maintaining: These four great efforts have been shown By him, the scion of the . And he who firmly clings to them, May put an end to all the pain.

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About sadiksha

Namaste! I am a Nepali Art Dealer specialized in Mandala and Thangka paintings. I love to write articles about the monastic culture of the Himalayas.

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