A Zen Approach to the Noble Eightfold Path
SELF-GUIDED STUDY
Class 6 - Right Effort, Mindfulness and Concentration
“Appropriate Concentration is to be aware that awareness is functioning in clearly seeing the nature of ‘what is.’ This is a state of readiness that is soft, free from hindrance; joyous and bright.”
WATCH: Class 6 of The Zen Approach to the Noble Eightfold Path with Ryushin Paul Haller. Recorded 11/21/2022. Or listen to/download the audio file below.
Zazen/Awareness Meditation
Enacting Appropriate Effort, start by noticing as clearly as possible, your physical and mental state and be guided by what you become aware of, call forth the intention and perspective of staying aware of whatever arises.
Right Effort, Mindfulness and Concentration are the final three steps of the Eightfold Path, and can be thought of as collectively addressing the cultivation of consciousness. They can be considered sequentially or as a symbiotic interplay.
Sequentially, as Right Effort is engaged, the purposefulness of attention and open awareness are engaged. Right Effort has two modes of engagement:
Skillfulness with karmic conditions
Experiencing ‘what’s happening now.’
‘Effort’ is a translation of the Pali word, Viriya, whose meaning also ranges through persistence and effort to energy. Collectively they portray the shift that occurs from working through resistance to the harmonious ease of simply experiencing what’s happening.
The traditional admonitions associated with Right Effort are:
To refrain from unwholesome mental states
To let go rather than indulge in unwholesome mental states
To purposefully bring forth and cultivate wholesome mental states
To sustain and abide in wholesome mental states
Together the four admonitions propose abstaining from afflictions and enhancing the capacity for experiencing. These admonitions call for a discerning skillfulness that contrasts with right and wrong, or good and bad. It’s a skillfulness that which fosters awareness.
Mindfulness Foundations
Mindfulness foundations are fourfold. Namely:
Attending to the sensations of body and breath experiencing
The visceral impact of events (feelings, pleasant and unpleasant)
The mental states that arise in relation to karmic constructs or constructs that are not based on a fixed version of what’s happening (fluid without fixed conclusion)
Noting in one’s being the Hindrances, Aggregates, Sense-spheres, 7 Factors of Awakening and the Noble Truths. That is to say, that when the mind is clear and attentive, each experience becomes a teacher, teaching the basic and comprehensive teachings of liberation.
Appropriate Concentration
Appropriate Concentration is to be aware that awareness is functioning in clearly seeing the nature of ‘what is.’ This is a state of readiness that is soft, free from hindrance; joyous and bright.
As mental states move towards a settled unified attention, they acknowledge, become skillful with and transform the unsettled, distracted mental states that are prone to desire and aversion. As they do so, clarity and ease arise.
Right Effort
Several times a day, pause, take three deep breaths and check how your effort is manifesting at that time. Is it mostly physical exertion? Mental efforting? Is there an emotional accompaniment? Ask yourself what effort would be appropriate for the task at hand. Is there any ‘extra’ attitude, disposition or narrative that could appropriately be dropped? Or any shift in attitude or disposition that could be beneficially added? After you've engaged the activity, check your disposition and attitude.
Right Mindfulness
Several times a day, maybe as you explore Right Effort, pause and before you change any aspect of your being, notice your physical experience. Are you holding tight in some way or is your body relaxed? Is your mental and emotional state pleasant or unpleasant or neutral? Before you endeavor to change it, let it register as fully as possible.
Right Concentration
Several times a day, when it's convenient to do so, set up a situation where you can dedicate time to what's happening at that moment, maybe a couple of minutes or 20 minutes, maybe in a pleasant place or with your favorite beverage. As much as possible, set up the situation so that there won't be distractions or interruptions. In an appreciative way, soak up the physical sensations that are occurring. Let your breath happen in a way that's natural for you. Open your senses in an appreciative way. Explore what it is to have continuous contact with whatever arises in awareness. Take note of how things were before and after these moments of presence.
Engage these suggestions as experiments that exemplify the complexity of human consciousness.