The Noble Eight-Fold Path is integral to the Buddha’s teachings and I’ll present a series of eight, no surprise here, entries talking about each of these in practical terms.

I was talking about “effort” this morning and that inspired the idea to write about these. A little context first. The Eight-fold path fulfills the fourth of the Four Noble Truths. From my chapter in The Everything Buddhism Book, I list them as follows (the order on this list may be different from other lists you have seen or will see):

1. Right Speech
2. Right Action
3. Right Livelihood
4. Right Effort
5. Right Mindfulness
6. Right Concentration
7. Right View
8. Right Resolve

“Right” could be substituted by “skillful” or “wise” and these terms carries less judgment. It’s not right in the sense of right or wrong, but right in the sense of what works. 

Let’s talk about effort today. While meditating effort has a different connotation than effort during, let’s say, vigorous exercise. It takes effort to meditate. We need to plan our day and get our butt on the cushion and keep it there. That’s effort. 

The crucial effort is returning our attention from fantasy to reality. Each time the mind moves into anticipation of the future, remembrance of the past, or commentary upon the present we are using our imagination. Mindfulness is the effort of returning our attention to what is happening now — the sensory-perceptual experience of now. It’s a tiny little effort — that shift in attention — yet crucial.

The effort of mindfulness is NOT to keep attention from moving away in the first place. The effort is not suppression of thoughts. I can’t emphasize this enough. Our job is to return not to stay put. The implication here is that there is no wrong way to do the practice as long as you are making this “right effort.”

The distinction is subtle and it creates freedom to practice, relieving the pressure that agendas, expectations, and rules impose on meditation. Just come back, over and over again. That’s Wise Effort.