Effort in Buddhist practice

Right Effort is one of the 8 paths of the Eightfold Path Gautama Buddha taught.

All Buddhist traditions without fail encourage effort and practice. To reach the destination one walks. One who does not do the work and imagines they are there, sits only in a mirage, a mirage which breaks as easily as one has created it.

Peace,

JL

Theravada:

"Energy (viriya), the mental factor behind right effort, can appear in either wholesome or unwholesome forms. The same factor fuels desire, aggression, violence, and ambition on the one hand, and generosity, self-discipline, kindness, concentration, and understanding on the other. The exertion involved in right effort is a wholesome form of energy, but it is something more specific, namely, the energy in wholesome states of consciousness directed to liberation from suffering. This last qualifying phrase is especially important. For wholesome energy to become a contributor to the path it has to be guided by right view and right intention, and to work in association with the other path factors. Otherwise, as the energy in ordinary wholesome states of mind, it merely engenders an accumulation of merit that ripens within the round of birth and death; it does not issue in liberation from the round.

Time and again the Buddha has stressed the need for effort, for diligence, exertion, and unflagging perseverance. The reason why effort is so crucial is that each person has to work out his or her own deliverance. The Buddha does what he can by pointing out the path to liberation; the rest involves putting the path into practice, a task that demands energy."

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/...amo/index.html

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by janielee

Theravada:

"Energy (viriya), the mental factor behind right effort, can appear in either wholesome or unwholesome forms. The same factor fuels desire, aggression, violence, and ambition on the one hand, and generosity, self-discipline, kindness, concentration, and understanding on the other. The exertion involved in right effort is a wholesome form of energy, but it is something more specific, namely, the energy in wholesome states of consciousness directed to liberation from suffering. This last qualifying phrase is especially important. For wholesome energy to become a contributor to the path it has to be guided by right view and right intention, and to work in association with the other path factors. Otherwise, as the energy in ordinary wholesome states of mind, it merely engenders an accumulation of merit that ripens within the round of birth and death; it does not issue in liberation from the round.

Time and again the Buddha has stressed the need for effort, for diligence, exertion, and unflagging perseverance. The reason why effort is so crucial is that each person has to work out his or her own deliverance. The Buddha does what he can by pointing out the path to liberation; the rest involves putting the path into practice, a task that demands energy."

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/...amo/index.html

It’s just all so effortless imo..

Such demands, such deliverance..

And here you are delivering..

Originally Posted by JustBe

It’s just all so effortless imo..

It's subtle - it is effortless effort. And the one who doesn't put in the effort to know is drinking from the waterhole that is weak.

Your perception, I feel, is because all you do is feel and say that is all there is

JL

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by janielee

It's subtle - it is effortless effort. And the one who doesn't put in the effort to know is drinking from the waterhole that is weak.

Your perception, I feel, is because all you do is feel and say that is all there is

JL

Your waterhole is flooding over..

I just say.

The rest is just your noitanigami

[Gem]

Originally Posted by JustBe

It’s just all so effortless imo..

Such demands, such deliverance..

And here you are delivering..

I think we need to start with the basic 'right effort': to remove unskillful mind states and cultivate skillful ones.


Because this involves recognising mindstates, it requires attention rather than unconsciousness.


As this relates to meditation, the effort in question is in recognising all the unintended volitions of habitual, unskilled mind rather than 'trying to do something'.


In sitting meditation discomfort comes in the body, and your effort is to 'not react', 'not distract', which is cessation of that sort of unskillfulness, while recognising 'this is how I generate suffering'.



In this way, no-effort relates to stop doing what you realise you have been doing 'unskillfully' and unconsciously, and effort relates to the attention it requires to achieve that, how hard it is to stop doing, and all the ego dilemmas associated with cessation of volition.

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by Gem

I think we need to start with the basic 'right effort': to remove unskillful mind states and cultivate skillful ones.


Because this involves recognising mindstates, it requires attention rather than unconsciousness.


As this relates to meditation, the effort in question is in recognising all the unintended volitions of habitual, unskilled mind rather than 'trying to do something'.


In sitting meditation discomfort comes in the body, and your effort is to 'not react', 'not distract', which is cessation of that sort of unskillfulness, while recognising 'this is how I generate suffering'.



In this way, no-effort relates to stop doing what you realise you have been doing 'unskillfully' and unconsciously, and effort relates to the attention it requires to achieve that, how hard it is to stop doing, and all the ego dilemmas associated with cessation of volition.

I agree.

It’s rather silly going out into the world aware of your anger or unkind ways and not put any effort as your more beginning/ basic starter point. If you intend to put the effort in, in the real life experience, where you can notice and place effort on being conscious of yourself in this way, that kind of effort can instigate a move towards changing the old ways of being. With right effort awareness, one can be attentive to those triggers.

And of course Over time, as I mentioned, it can become a natural way of being, calmer less contained by your anger, or unkind manner, because your making conscious effort to be present with yourself instead. Letting it all move through you.

Less sterile and robotic about it and more ‘running on rich fertile foundations!’ You can feel someone faking all the same. So it doesn’t quite feel right at times when one is practising in this way, but you know deep down there a walking time bomb!! Dem ones try as they may, probably do need to put more effort in!

[Gem]

Originally Posted by JustBe

I agree.

It’s rather silly going out into the world aware of your anger or unkind ways and not put any effort as your more beginning/ basic starter point. If you intend to put the effort in, in the real life experience, where you can notice and place effort on being conscious of yourself in this way, that kind of effort can instigate a move towards changing the old ways of being. With right effort awareness, one can be attentive to those triggers.

And of course Over time, as I mentioned, it can become a natural way of being, calmer less contained by your anger, or unkind manner, because your making conscious effort to be present with yourself instead. Letting it all move through you.

Less sterile and robotic about it and more ‘running on rich fertile foundations!’ You can feel someone faking all the same. So it doesn’t quite feel right at times when one is practising in this way, but you know deep down there a walking time bomb!! Dem ones try as they may, probably do need to put more effort in!

Sounds a lot like me

Tibetan:

“The sudden flash is a key to all Buddhist meditation, from the level of basic mindfulness to the highest levels of tantra. But it is not enough just to hope that a flash will come to us; there must be a background of discipline.”

"The next foundation of mindfulness is mindfulness of effort. The idea of effort is apparently problematical. Effort would seem to be at odds with the sense of being that arises from mindfulness of body. Also, pushing of any kind does not have an obvious place in the touch-and-go technique of the mindfulness of life.

In either case, deliberate, heavy-handed effort would seem to endanger the open precision of the process of mindfulness. Still we cannot expect proper mindfulness to develop without some kind of exertion on our part. Effort is necessary. But the Buddhist notion of right effort is quite different from conventional definitions of effort.

The traditional Buddhist analogy for right effort is the walk of an elephant or tortoise. The elephant moves along surely, unstoppably, with great dignity. Like the worm, it is not excitable, but unlike the worm, it has a panoramic view of the ground it is treading on. Though it is serious and slow, because of the elephant’s ability to survey the ground there is a sense of playfulness and intelligence in its movement.

In the case of meditation, trying to develop an inspiration that is based on wanting to forget one’s pain and on trying to make one’s practice thrive on a sense of continual accomplishment is quite immature. On the other hand, too much solemnity and dutifulness creates a lifeless and narrow outlook and a stale psychological environment. The style of right effort, as taught by the Buddha, is serious but not too serious. It takes advantage of the natural flow of instinct to bring the wandering mind constantly back to the mindfulness of breathing."

https://www.lionsroar.com/the-four-f...f-mindfulness/

Zen:

The most important point in our practice is to have right effort. The right effort which is directed to right direction is necessary. Usually our effort is making towards wrong direction. Especially, if your effort is making -- your effort is directed towards wrong direction without knowing it means so-called deluded effort. Our effort in our practice should be directed from being to non-being, from achievement to non-achievement. Usually when you do something you want to achieve something but in our practice from achievement to non-achievement means to get rid of some evil result of the effort. Whether or not whether you make your effort you have good quality. So if you do something that is enough but when you make some special effort to achieve something, some excessive quality or element is involved in it. So you should get rid of some excessive things. If you -- when your practice is good, without being aware of it you will become proud of it. That is something extra. Pride is extra. What you do is good but something more is added to it. So you should get rid of that something which is extra. This point is very, very important. But usually we are not subtle enough to realize that. And you are going to wrong direction. So this kind of effort to get rid of something extra is very important point and that is the effort we make.

http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/zenmind.pdf