January 04, 2021

Buddhist Practice: Day 6 - Right Effort (Special Episode & Series)

24 minutes

Day 6: Right Effort

"Though one should live a hundred years lazy of little effort. Yet better is life for a single day strongly making effort." ~ The Buddha (Dhammapada 112)

Next in the Noble Eightfold Path is discipline. All the other steps will wither away if you do not have the discipline to continue practicing and practicing correctly! During the pandemic, we will face many obstacles to discipline such as fear, uncertainty, confusion, and anxiety. However, some other ones can easily creep in such as boredom, distractions (binge watching TV shows, for instance), and the difficulties of social distancing which make Mara more powerful in your mind.

Today, you will begin to practice Right Effort, which means you care about the Dharma/Dhamma, and want to practice it with all your might. Today it is a pandemic, months from now it can be a new TV show. Some are extreme, some are not. What you can focus on is your own diligence!

Focus

The four right efforts are: 1) prevent unwholesome states that have not yet arisen, 2) end unwholesome states that have arisen, 3) develop wholesome states that have not yet arisen, and 4) strengthen wholesome states that have arisen.

Based on the four right efforts, you can see it is a battle with Mara you are conducting who is fueling the three fires. By preventing and ending unwholesome states, and developing and strengthening wholesome states, you are suffocating the fuel that feeds the three fires.

What have you done to practice right effort today? Have you been meditating? Have you practiced right thinking and speech? Are you turning off the TV and instead reading the Buddha’s teachings and applying them? Are you practicing good hygiene, so you do not infect other people or yourself? Only you oversee your effort!

Practice

Continue to recite the Five Remembrances.

Continue to Meditate, at least once a day, starting with being mindful of the breath. For today, start focusing on a teaching of the Buddha or a Buddhist concept. Impermanence is a good Buddhist concept you can focus on and will also appear at the end of our 14 days.

New Practice: Begin reading Buddhist teachings. This does not necessarily have to be Sutras/Suttas, as you can begin with teachings from authors such as Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama, Bhikkhu Bodhi, and Ven. Master Hsing Yun.

Additionally, practice good hygiene: Cough into your elbow, wash your hands, etc. Lessen the changes of you, and others, of getting sick. This takes effort as our habits are hard to break!

Learn more about the Eightfold Path: https://alanpeto.com/buddhism/understanding-eightfold-path/

Free 14 Day Buddhist Planner for Buddhists: https://gum.co/BuddhistPlannerCOVID

View all 14 days on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BxlqwF6P6GE

More on Alan Peto: https://alanpeto.com/about

More on Sanathavihari Bhikkhu: https://www.casadebhavana.com/

#Buddhism #BuddhistTeachings #Dharma #Buddhist #COVID #COVID19 #buddhistwisdom #Buddhists #buddhismteachings

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By Alan Peto

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