Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

Search Sangha Live

A Practical Approach to Understanding Right Effort

With Dave Smith recorded on July 22, 2018.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

All schools of Buddhism acknowledge that if we are to “awaken” in this lifetime, our aim is to cultivate and develop the eight-fold path. This path consists of behavioral (sila), meditative (samadhi) and philosophical (panna) dimensions. When skillfully interwoven, this system of training directs us towards a liberation-based lifestyle by embracing the limitations and the possibilities of the human experience.

In recent years, the practice of mindfulness has exploded across the global landscape as a tool for self-improvement. Despite the current trends and hype, mindfulness practice can be limited if it does not have a specific focus or aim.

As a system of mental training, the development of mindfulness must also be supported by the path factors of effort and concentration. When balanced accordingly, these factors lead to the development of wisdom, equanimity and genuine happiness.

During this online teaching session, Dave outlines the role and the goal of establishing the four great efforts, as outlined in the Pali canon.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Catherine McGee – Week of March 6, 2023

    This week’s theme is “Exploring and Developing the Power of a Light Touch”. A light touch can allow our practice to unfold more easefully, make the depths of our hearts more available and create a greater agility in our relationships with the world. With our body as the primary ground for our practice we will explore different ways to cultivate this kind of attention, enjoy the fruits of our efforts and attend to what might hinder this natural capacity

    Read More

  • Shaila Catherine

    Who Knows Best?: Exploring the Judging Mind

    Recorded : July 14, 2024

    In this Sunday Sangha session, we will address the common tendencies to judge and compare. Wise discernment is useful, but excessive comparing and compulsive judging can harm relationships, obscure the clarity of perception, and thwart spiritual development. This session includes practical suggestions for calming a harsh inner critic, while encouraging critical and thoughtful inquiry. (Please…

    Read More

  • Daigan Gaither

    Living by Vow

    Recorded : November 1, 2020

    If we start with the understanding that everyone is living by vow, how can we examine what vows we are following and change to follow the ones that lead to liberation?

    Read More

  • Nirmala Werner

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of March 20 – 24, 2023

    This week’s topic is “The Art of Embodied Listening”. This week is an invitation to explore the skill of true, deep and embodied listening. Living in a culture where people are mainly self-focused, wanting to express themselves, we can look into our capacity to listen. Rather than talking to ourselves we can learn listening with our whole body to others, ourselves and to silence in which all phenomena arises. Creating space to express, really tuning into “what’s going on here?“ enables our stress, worries, fear and insecurities to be unveiled and liberated and is a powerful tool for cultivating insights.

    Read More

  • Norman Blair

    Settling Into Your Body In Meditation

    Recorded : December 11, 2022

    Finding a comfortable body posture when meditating is a crucial element in our practice. We can use our bodies as a way of experiencing change and impermanence. In this session, we will be looking at ways to make our bodies comfortable for meditation – both standing (if appropriate for your body) and sitting. We will examine various postures and do various techniques that can be helpful for meditating.

    Read More

  •

    The freeing of human consciousness: from seeing the world ‘out there’, separate and alien, to directly knowing, feeling, and living the intimacy of all things

    Recorded : February 18, 2018

    The Shurangama Sutra, which points out the foundations of Zen practice, discusses the essential nature of mind as the “primal essence of consciousness that brings forth all conditions.” Implied is the heart-mind (citta) both profoundly intimate with all things while at the same time free and independent of all things. How is it to live…

    Read More