First of all, in Buddhism there is not only one goal. Besides the goal of happiness and good fortune, there is also the goal of freedom. If one wants to attain the goal of freedom, the only way that can be achieved is through wisdom. And in order to achieve wisdom one has to purify the mind, develop the mind through meditation. Even for the practice of good conduct, for the observance of moral rules, mental development is necessary. Why? Because it is relatively easy to follow the rules of good conduct when things are going well. If we have a good job, if we live in a stable society, if we earn sufficiently to support ourselves and our families, it is relatively easy to observe the precepts. But when we find ourselves in circumstances of stress, of instability, as for instance when we lose our job, when we find ourselves in a situation where lawlessness prevails, this is the point at which the observance of good conduct comes under attack. In this kind of circumstance, the only thing that can safeguard our practice of good conduct is mental development, strengthening of the mind, attaining control over the mind. In that way, mental development on the one hand serves as a safeguard of our practice and on the other hand it serves to prepare the mind to see things as they really are, to prepare the mind to attain wisdom which will open the door to freedom, to enlightenment. Mental development therefore has an extremely important role in the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path.
There are three steps of the Noble Eightfold Path that are included in this mental development group and they are Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. Together these three steps encourage and enable one to be self reliant, attentive and calm. First of all, in its most general sense Right Effort means cultivating a positive attitude towards our undertakings. We can call Right Effort enthusiasm as well. It means undertaking our tasks with energy, with a will to carry them through. It is said in one text that we ought to embark upon our tasks in the same way as an elephant enters a cool lake during the heat of the midday sun. With this kind of effort, we can then be successful in whatever we plan to do, whether in our career, in our study, or in our practice of the Dharma. In this sense effort is also related to confidence. It is a practical application of confidence. If we fail to put effort into whatever we do, we cannot hope to succeed. But effort must be controlled, must be balanced, and here we can recall what we said regarding the Middle Path, the strings of the lute, the overly tight string and the overly loose string. So effort should never become too tense, too extreme, and similarly, it should not become too slack, should not be abandoned. This is what we mean by Right Effort, a controlled, sustained, enthusiastic, cheerful determination.
Right Effort is defined as four fold. It is the effort to prevent unwholesome thoughts from arising. It is the effort to reject unwholesome thoughts once they have arisen. It is the effort to cultivate wholesome thoughts. It is the effort to maintain wholesome thoughts. This last is particularly important because it is often the case that even when we have succeeded in cultivating wholesome attitudes, all too often these are short-lived. Between them, these four aspects of Right Effort focus the energy of Right Effort upon our mental states in such a way as to reduce and eventually eliminate the number of unwholesome mental states that we entertain in our mind and to increase and firmly establish wholesome thoughts as a natural integral part of our mental states.
The second step of the Noble Eightfold Path that is included in the group of mental development is Right Mindfulness. Right Mindfulness is essential even in our daily life. This Buddhist teaching, in fact I would venture to say all Buddhist teachings, can be explained, can be exemplified with situations that belong to everyday life, that are familiar to all of us. In fact if you look at the Buddha’s own teachings, you will find that He always used examples that were familiar to his audience when teaching the Dharma. So here too in regard to mindfulness, we may do well to look at the importance of mindfulness in our ordinary mundane activities. Mindfulness is awareness or attention, avoiding a distracted and clouded state of mind. There would be many fewer accidents if everyone were mindful. So whether one is driving a car, or crossing a busy street, or doing accounts, whatever one is doing, that task would be more effectively carried out if one is attentive and mindful. It will increase one’s efficiency, productivity, and similarly it will reduce the number of accidents that occur due to inattention, due to the failure to be aware.
