216 - Right Effort
2/12/202627 min
In this episode, I explore the concept of skillful effort, also known as right effort, which is the sixth aspect of the Eightfold Path. I explain that skillful effort isn't about "trying harder" but rather about applying energy wisely, much like a gardener tends to their plants. This involves four key tasks: preventing unskillful states from arising, abandoning those that have already arisen, cultivating skillful states that haven't yet appeared, and maintaining the skillful states that are present. I offer practical examples, such as building a "fence" by avoiding triggers like social media first thing in the morning, "weeding"...
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsNoah Rasheta· Host0:00
The Secular Buddhism Podcast is now on eightfoldpath.com with transcripts, AI chat, and more. Visit eightfoldpath.com. Welcome back to another episode of the Secular Buddhism Podcast. I am your host, Noah Rasheta, and today I'm sharing the audio of a live Dharma talk I gave. This is part six of an eight-part series covering the topic of the Eightfold Path. Part six is about wise or skillful effort, also known as right effort. So without further ado, this is the audio of that live Dharma talk. Over the last several weeks, we've been, um, going over each of the aspects of the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path, I like to think of it kind of like a, a practical map or an outline for living more skillfully. And it, it's, it's at the heart of what you could consider the Buddhist practice. And over the past several weeks, we've been exploring the various aspects of the path. So we started with the, the, the territory of the path that we would call, uh, wisdom, and that entails skillful view, skillful intention, um, and that's kind of like getting the map itself. Uh, you have a map now that gives you a better understanding of where you are,