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6. Right Endeavour

What, now, is right endeavour?

AN 4.13-14 There are these four right endeavours: restraint, abandonment, development, preservation.

The Endeavour of Restraint​

And what is the endeavour of restraint? When you see an object, you do not let yourself get sucked in by any characteristics or features that generate defilements. If you left the faculty of sight unrestrained, unskilful states of wanting and aversion would afflict you. Instead, you practise wisdom when seeing, you guard the faculty of sight, and you undertake the restraint of sight.

Having heard a sound … Having noticed a smell … Having sensed a taste … Having felt a bodily feeling … Having cognised something in the mind, you do not let yourself get sucked in by any characteristics or features that generate defilements. If you left the mind faculty unrestrained, unskilful states of wanting and aversion would afflict you. Instead, you practise wisdom with the mind, you guard the mind, and you undertake the restraint of the mind. This is called the endeavour to restrain.

The Endeavour to Abandon​

And what is the endeavour to abandon? Here, you do not maintain an arisen motivation of wanting; you abandon it, let it go, renounce it, and bring it to cessation.

You do not indulge an arisen motivation of aversion … an arisen motivation of harming … whenever bad motivations arise, you abandon them, let them go, renounce them, and bring them to cessation.

This is called the endeavour to abandon.

MN 20 When you are mindful of some object, and there arise in you afflicting unwholesome motivations connected with desire, aversion and delusion, then:

  1. You should give attention to some other object that generates wholesome mind states. Thus, unwholesome states are abandoned and subside. With their disappearance, your mind becomes internally steady, settled, unified and still.
  2. You should examine the danger in those unwholesome motives…
  3. You should try to ignore those unwholesome motives and not give attention to them …
  4. You should give attention to stilling the causes of those motives…
  5. You should clench your teeth with your tongue pressed against the roof of your mouth, and beat down, constrain and crush any such afflicting unwholesome motives. With the disappearance of them, your mind becomes internally steady, settled, unified and still.

The Endeavour to Develop​

AN 4.13-14 And what is the endeavour to develop?

Here, you develop:

  1. the awakening factor of mindfulness …
  2. the awakening factor of exploring the Dhamma …
  3. the awakening factor of energy …
  4. the awakening factor of rapture …
  5. the awakening factor of tranquillity …
  6. the awakening factor of stillness …
  7. the awakening factor of equanimity …

every one of which is based upon seclusion (physical and mental), fading away, and cessation, maturing in release.

This is called the endeavour to develop.

The Endeavour to Maintain​

And what is the endeavour to maintain?

Here, you keep in mind an arisen meditation object that generates stillness (samādhi nimitta), such as the perception of a skeleton or corpse … [or recollecting the Buddha, the Dhamma or the Saṅgha, loving-kindness, or the breath].

This is called the endeavour to maintain.

AN 4.14 Restraining and abandoning, developing and maintaining,
These four endeavours were taught by the Buddha.
By these means a diligent meditator, in this very life,
Can attain the destruction of suffering.