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Originally Posted by Gem
You know I'm not interested in cut and pastes because the person who wrote it is not here for me talk to, and if they were here we could have a back and forth which is about the subject rather than pretending that there are answers. For example, to know what your hand feels like you just feel you hand, but it doesn't give you an answer as to what hands feel like. IOW, you have to pay attention right now attention to know.
The four truths are simply facts. There is suffering, it has a cause, it can be resolved and there is a way to resolve it. Indeed, the cause is said to be 'craving', which is the reactive dynamic between desire and aversion.
The right effort basically involves noticing unwholesome states and ceasing to generate them, not because you are adverse toward them and desire wholesome states, but because unwholesome states arise from delusion and create the conditions for harm. It is the insight into how unwholesome states generate misery and wholesome states generate happiness that enables one to recognise the delusion and futility of generating unwholesome states of mind. It is not the aversion toward unwholsome states and desire for wholesome states that constiture 'right effort', because such a state of desire and aversion is, itself, unwholesome. Rather, it is ardency for the truth. One can be factual as in, 'I see this is an unwholesome state' without any aversion toward it, nor desire for wholeness, and similarly, recognise wholesomeness as, 'this is a wholesome state' without the slightest desire or clinging involved. As one becomes more acutely aware of what their mind is doing, and less distracted, they can recognise that their unwholesomeness is function of desire and aversion - craving - and rather than trying to generate wholesomeness per-se, cease the root cause of desire and aversion that generates unwholemeness. That is done by being aware of the actual state you are in as a pure plain fact without any judgment of aversion toward it nor desire for a different state. Taking out that root 'craving' is the basis of right effort, and it's very hard to do. It requires honesty, commitment, diligence, persistence, determination and an unrelenting ardency for the truth.
The tricky part is the aversion to craving, which is the complex we are in, the aversion to aversion, the desire for desire, the craving for craving... that's a real loop right there...
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