The Analysis of Effort

A wise spiritual genius practices effort by understanding its essence and its full range of effects.

Effort is true enthusiasm for virtue — a joyful readiness to act for what is wholesome, free from the excitements of ambition or the feverish striving of those who chase liberation without wisdom. It is the natural eagerness that arises when the heart recognizes what heals and moves toward it without hesitation.

Its cause lies in faith and will.
Faith gives confidence in the path;
will directs that confidence into movement.
From these two comes the strength to continue, even when circumstances are harsh or progress seems slow.

Its result is the growth of excellences, such as mindfulness, concentration, clarity, and steadiness. Where effort is applied, all virtues expand like fire fed with clean fuel.

Its activity is to act as the remedy for addictive tendencies.
Effort interrupts inertia.
It cuts through old patterns.
It uproots dullness, complacency, lethargy, and all the habits that pull the mind into contraction.

A person who lives with effort becomes untroubled by the momentum of their own past, for sustained, joyful striving dissolves the residue of unwholesome tendencies.

Its endowment is the presence of virtues such as nongreed, nonhatred, and nondelusion — the natural companions of collected energy. When the heart is fully engaged in cultivating good, there is no room for tightening, aversion, or confusion.

Its function is said to be sevenfold, operating through the energetic occupation of both body and mind in the three great educations: the discipline of morality, the stabilizing power of contemplative absorption, and the penetrating clarity of wisdom. Effort threads through all of them, enlivening every stage of the path.

Effort is not strain.
It is the inner fire that refuses to abandon beings,
and refuses to abandon awakening.

It is the movement of a mind that knows its aim
and goes there with unwavering joy.