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.

               FIVE METHODS OF EXPELLING EVIL THOUGHTS

  If, whilst regarding a certain object, there arise in the

disciple, on account of it, evil and demeritorious thoughts

connected with greed, anger and delusion, then the disciple should, by

means of this object, gain another and wholesome object. Or, he should

reflect on the misery of these thoughts: "Unwholesome, truly, are

these thoughts! Blameable are these thoughts! Of painful result are

these thoughts!" Or, he should pay no attention to these thoughts. Or,

he should consider the compound nature of these thoughts. Or, with

teeth clenched and tongue pressed against the gums, he should, with

his mind, restrain, suppress and root out these thoughts; and in doing

so, these evil and demeritorious thoughts of greed, anger and delusion

will dissolve and disappear; and the mind will inwardly become settled

and calm, composed and concentrated.

  This is called the effort to overcome.

  What, now, is the effort to Develop? There the disciple incites

his will to arouse meritorious conditions that have not yet arisen;

and he strives, puts forth his energy, strains his mind and struggles.

  Thus he develops the "Elements of Enlightenment," bent on

solitude, on detachment, on extinction, and ending in deliverance,

namely: Attentiveness, Investigation of the Law, Energy, Rapture,

Tranquility, Concentration, and Equanimity. This is called the

effort to develop.

  What, now, is the effort to Maintain? There, the disciple incites

his will to maintain the meritorious conditions that have already

arisen, and not to let them disappear, but to bring them to growth, to

maturity and to the full perfection of development; and he strives,

puts forth his energy, strains his mind and struggles.

  Thus, for example, he keeps firmly in his mind a favorable object of

concentration that has arisen, as the mental image of a skeleton, of a

corpse infested by worms, of a corpse blue-black in color, of a

festering corpse, of a corpse riddled with holes, of a corpse

swollen up.

  This is called the effort to maintain.

  Truly, the disciple who is possessed of faith and has penetrated the

Teaching of the Master, he is filled with the thought: "May rather

skin, sinews and bones wither away, may the flesh and blood of my body

dry up: I shall not give up my efforts so long as I have not

attained whatever is attainable by manly perseverance, energy and

endeavor!"

  This is called right effort.

          The effort of Avoiding, Overcoming,

          Of Developing and Maintaining:

          These four great efforts have been shown

          By him, the scion of the sun.

          And he who firmly clings to them,

          May put an end to all the pain.