Page 127 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

specific Perfect Effort. Though the sixth stage of the Buddha's

Noble Eightfold Path is specifically concerned with Perfect Effort,
some degree of effort is needed at all stages of the Path. We

should not think that, just because one particular stage is
labelled Perfect Effort, you can traverse the preceding stages
without any effort at all. That is not the impression that is

intended to be conveyed. Some element of effort or striving is
necessary from the very beginning, and this is what is meant by

general Perfect Effort.

The Four Exertions

Specific Perfect Effort, which is Perfect Effort as represented by
the sixth stage of the Path, consists of a set of exercises that are

to be practised at this stage. These exercises are known as the
Four Exertions, and it is these we have to study if we want to
know what Perfect Effort is all about. The Four Perfect Exertions

— as they are also called — consist, respectively, in (a)
Preventing, (b) Eradicating, (c) Developing, and (d) Maintaining,

and their common object is good and bad thoughts or, as we say
in Buddhism, skillful and unskillful thoughts.

The effort which consists in Preventing means the effort to
prevent the arising in our minds of those unskillful thoughts or

mental states which have not yet arisen. Similarly, Eradicating
.means eradicating from our minds those unskillful states which
are already present therein. Developing means developing

within our minds those skillful states which are not there
already, while Maintaining means maintaining within our minds

those skillful states which already exist there. Thus Perfect Effort
is primarily a psychological thing.

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