Four Right Exertions

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

Also known as the Four Right Efforts

The four activities included in this set show how effort can be applied to developing skillful qualities in the mind.  The basic formula runs as follows :

• There is the case where a monk generates desire, endeavors, arouses persistence, upholds and exerts his intent for the sake of the non-arising of evil, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen.
• There is the case where a monk generates desire, endeavors, arouses persistence, upholds and exerts his intent for the sake of the abandoning of evil, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen.
• There is the case where a monk generates desire, endeavors, arouses persistence, upholds and exerts his intent for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen.
• There is the case where a monk generates desire, endeavors, arouses persistence, upholds and exerts his intent for the maintenance, non-confusion, increase, plenitude, development, and culmination of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen.

These four aspects of effort are also termed guarding, abandoning, developing, and maintaining'.  All four play a necessary role in bringing the mind to awakening, although in some cases they are simply four sides to a single process.  The abandoning of unskillful mental qualities can frequently be accomplished simply by focusing on the development of skillful onces, such as mindfulness. The same principle can also act in reverse: in the skillful eradication of unskillful qualities, the skillfulness of the eradication is in and of itself the development of mindful discernment.

See also :

• Right Effort

Reference

• The Wings to Awakening by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Dhamma Dana Publications