What Lord Buddha meant by "right effort" (to us)

After laying out the 4 Arya Truths (sometimes called the 4 "Noble" Truths), Lord Buddha gave a teaching known today as the eightfold path.

The sixth of those eight practices is what's called RIGHT EFFORT, which isn't really about effort at all, at least not in the way that we tend to think of it. Right effort is about cultivating positive states of mind and eliminating negative ones, or as a Buddhist would say, doing some of the most important work we can do: working with our minds.

Right effort isn’t about pushing harder. It’s about aiming your energy in the right direction, towards what we can actually work to control: our thoughts, words, and actions. The Buddha taught that we can use our effort to do three simple (but not easy) things: keep unhelpful mental states from arising, uproot the ones that do, and grow what's good to keep it alive.

The practice of right effort is not supposed to push us towards striving or self-improvement mode. It’s caring for our mental habits because we realize that the quality of our mind affects EVERYTHING we experience. (Think about it: even having your favorite slice of cake doesn't do much when you're in a terrible mood, right?) We tend the garden of the mind: pulling weeds, watering what’s wholesome, and trusting \ waiting for the rest to unfold.

When this type of inner effort is balanced with mindfulness and compassion, practice stops feeling like a grind and starts feeling like a flow. Our desire to practice right effort becomes steady, not strained, because it's fueled by wisdom.

As we head into the holiday season, a time when everyone’s juggling plans, pressure, and people, this teaching feels especially relevant. We can let Right Effort guide us. Maybe more important that efforting in the direction of holiday parties, shopping, and social plans, we can put more care into the state of our minds. 🤯

Example: Rather than waiting for a relative to do that thing that ALWAYS annoys us, we can instead make it a practice to look for all the ways they take care of others, in their own way. Rather than beating ourselves up when things go imperfectly, we can practice rejoicing in all we've accomplished. Rather than operating from a space of lack, we can set the intention to move from a space of gratitude and wisdom.

On the mat, this might mean noticing when comparison, judgement, or competitiveness comes up, and instead trying to practice patience, support, and joy. On the meditation cushion, it might mean shining the light of our attention onto our mental habits, with a gentle resolve to diminish the ones that cause us suffering (like greed, anger, delusion).

Then we gently shift our mental energy toward the things that we know uplift us.

Ultimately, this is the only kind of effort that matters.

What kind of mind do YOU want to cultivate? Right effort takes us there, and fortunately, we have yoga and meditation to help us make it happen. ✌️

Love,

Laura

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