Four Noble Efforts

In Buddhist psychology, there are three application of effort. The first one is instigativeeffort. This is always present and is the effort of the mind to go to an object. Itinitiates attention and behavioral responses. It can be wholesome or unwholesome. Thesecond is sustained effort. This is also ever-present and is the effort of the mind tosustain awareness on an object to examine it. Along with sustained effort is thepotential for becoming attached to the object being examined, and this isunwholesome-it is a root cause of suffering. These two forms of effort operate intandem.By far, the most frequent occurrence of these two forms of effort isunwholesome, that is, conditioned by greed, ill-will or ignorance/delusional thinking.The third form of effort is noble effort, or, as it is termed in the Noble Eightfold Path discourse.The following represent these efforts:The Noble Effort of noticing the arisen unwholesome thought and renouncing it. Thisreflects the effort to notice and interrupt thoughts generated by greed, hatred orignorance.The Noble Effort of noticing unarisen unwholesome thoughts and prevent their arising.This effort is more sophisticated, requiring deeper mindfulness that notices thepotential arising of greed, hatred or ignorance, interrupting the developing cycle beforethe unwholesome thought is attached to or identified with.The Noble Effort to notice unarisen wholesome thoughts and support their arising. Thiseffort uses mindfulness to allow the antidotes to greed, hatred or ignorance to arise,those being generosity, lovingkindness and wisdom, in all their manifestations.The Noble Effort to notice already arisen wholesome thoughts and sustain their arising.This effort is also a challenge, as it requires ongoing mindfulness, a vigilance that simply registers what has arisen without craving and clinging; and ongoing flow of just beingwith the moment. This final wholesome effort is what leads to liberation fromsuffering.