"Right Effort and Wholesome States" with Alex M; 10AM Sunday, 11/24

Dear Community,

Community Practice tomorrow, Sunday, 11/24, at 10AM.

Over the last week, a number of us have been participating in retreat practice. One theme that has been arising for me is around the path factor of Right Effort, and the importance the Buddha places on wholesome states in our journeys to liberation.

Right Effort includes four primary activities: preventing the arising of unwholesome states, abandoning unwholesome states that have arisen, arousing wholesome states not yet arisen, and maintaining and strengthening wholesome states already arisen.

In my own practice, there has often been a tendency to emphasize these first two instructions. I have focused on how to organize my life away from the unwholesome, and often find myself "hunting" for greed, aversion, and delusion in the mind.

However, these efforts constitute only half of the instructions on Right Effort! In the potential space left by abandoning the unwholesome, we are invited to intentionally develop wholesome states such as joy, ease, and equanimity. Our practice of Right Effort cannot develop without attention to what is growing in the mind through the practice.

Join us this Sunday for discussion of the wholesome developments of Right Effort, and anything else that may be arising in your practice. We'll have time for practice, reflection, and community discussion. You can find registration and Zoom info here.

With metta,
Minneapolis Insight