A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Saturday, January 13, 2024
Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Developing Unarisen Healthy States
Whatever a person frequently
thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their
mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders healthy states, one has
abandoned unhealthy states to cultivate healthy states, and then one’s
mind inclines to healthy states. (MN 19)
Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts
the mind, and strives to develop the arising of unarisen healthy mental
states. One develops the unarisen investigation of states awakening
factor. (MN 141)
Reflection
Here right
effort is defined as actively encouraging the better aspects of our
character to emerge from unconscious potential to conscious embodiment.
We are all capable of kindness, for example. Why not try more often to
be kind? We are capable of wisdom; let’s actively try to encourage it.
This suggests that happiness—the regular manifestation of healthy mental
and emotional states—is something we can make happen through effort.
Daily Practice
The positive
mental state singled out in this passage is the second factor of
awakening, called the investigation of states. When mindfulness is
present, it is natural that the mind takes great interest in experience
and investigates its mental and emotional states carefully. See what it
feels like to be curious about the detailed textures of your experience
and see what you can do to evoke and support this sense of regularly
looking closely at your mental states.
Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna One week from today: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
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