danieLion wrote:
Doesn't "judgment-free awareness" suffer from the same defects that Locke's tabula rasa and Rousseau's noble savage/state of nature theories do? Perhaps it's more helpful to just distinguish between skilful judging and unskilful judging, via ardency, alertness, mindfulness, setting aside greed and distress with regard to the world and yoniso manasikara?
Kindly,
Hi ya DL
We should be safe, as long as we bear in mind that the definition of mindfulness includes
vineyya loke abhijjhādomanassaṃ - giving up/to give up grief and hankering with regard to the world. So, what is the
loka/world if not the 4 - ie body, feelings, mind and states? We are supposed to stop fretting over states, which the suttas would include the Hindrances.
One of the odd things about Right Effort is that MN 117 paints it as having a role only in view, resolve, speech, action and livelihood. It's not mentioned in connection with mindfulness or concentration. Is it too coarse for the Concentration Aggregate?
Take a look at the definition of Right Effort in SN 45.8 -
And what, monks, is right effort? (i) There is the case where a monk generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the sake of the non-arising of evil, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen. (ii) He generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the sake of the abandonment of evil, unskillful qualities that have arisen. (iii) He generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen. (iv) He generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the maintenance, non-confusion, increase, plenitude, development, & culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen: This, monks, is called right effort.
The problem I find with most interpretations or applications of Right Effort is that they focus on the words in red. If you read the Pali, the sequence is somewhat different -
Katamo ca bhikkhave, sammāvāyāmo: idha bhikkhave, bhikkhu anuppannānaṃ pāpakānaṃ akusalānaṃ dhammānaṃ anuppādāya chandaṃ janeti vāyamati viriyaṃ ārabhati cittaṃ paggaṇhāti padahati. Uppannānaṃ pāpakānaṃ akusalānaṃ dhammānaṃ pahānāya chandaṃ janeti vāyamati viriyaṃ ārabhati cittaṃ paggaṇhāti padahati. Anuppannānaṃ kusalānaṃ dhammānaṃ uppādāya chandaṃ janeti vāyamati viriyaṃ ārabhati cittaṃ paggaṇhāti padahati. Uppannānaṃ kusalānaṃ dhammānaṃ ṭhitiyā asammosāya bhiyyobhāvāya vepullāya bhāvanāya pāripūriyā chandaṃ janeti vāyamati viriyaṃ ārabhati cittaṃ paggaṇhāti padahati, ayaṃ vuccati bhikkhave, sammāvāyāmo.
Do you see how the sequence is reversed in the Pali to read "For the sake of ABC, he verb, verb, verb, verb." While the standard translations into idiomatic English is perfect, the loss of the Pali structure in translation hides the emphasis. The "For the sake of ABC" is the subordinate clause in Pali, while the principal clause concerns the verbs "he generates desire/
chandaṃ janeti" etc etc. Right Effort is not so much concerned with how one suppresses defilements, but is primarily with the development of the motivation and desire. How one principally defeats the defilements in
satipaṭṭhāna is not Right Effort (which is the precursor) but more importantly the role of the Wisdom Aggregate.