SIXTH STEP

RIGHT EFFORT

WHAT, now, is Right Effort? There are Four Great Efforts: the effort
to avoid, the effort to overcome, the effort to develop, and the
effort to maintain.
What, now, is the effort to avoid? There, the disciple incites his
mind to avoid the arising of evil, demeritorious things that have
not yet arisen; and he strives, puts forth his energy, strains his
mind and struggles.
Thus, when he perceives a form with the eye, a sound with the ear,
an odor with the nose, a taste with the tongue, a contact with the
body, or an object with the mind, he neither adheres to the whole, nor
to its parts. And he strives to ward off that through which evil and
demeritorious things, greed and sorrow, would arise, if he remained
with unguarded senses; and he watches over his senses, restrains his
senses.
Possessed of this noble "Control over the Senses," he experiences
inwardly a feeling of joy, into which no evil thing can enter. This is
called the effort to avoid.
What, now, is the effort to Overcome? There, the disciple incites
his mind to overcome the evil, demeritorious things that have
already arisen; and he strives, puts forth his energy, strains his
mind and struggles.
He does not retain any thought of sensual lust, ill-will, or
grief, or any other evil and demeritorious states that may have
arisen; he abandons them, dispels them, destroys them, causes them
to disappear.