The Four Right Efforts Are a Key Criterion for Practice

The Observation Practice of Eighty-Two Mouths: Usually, one feels empty inside, rootless, and flavorless, paying more attention inward and less outward. The sense of concern for sentient beings is not as strong as before; one speaks less in daily life. Although one still enjoys studying the Dharma teachings, there is not much interest in dialectical discussions about them. When discussing issues with others, one often loses the desire to speak halfway through. Previously, encountering troubles in work or life would cause insomnia; now, one eats when it's time to eat, sleeps when it's time to sleep, and forgets things as soon as they are mentioned. Sometimes during meditation, a thought might arise and cause a slight disturbance, but then it is forgotten again. When the mental faculty stirs, one can feel the beginning of mental fabrication. The most obvious sign of the mental faculty stirring is the arising of greed and anger; one must observe this carefully. Before engaging in any action, the mental faculty moves first.

Comment: When meditative concentration arises and observation practice keeps pace, the mind undergoes changes. The difference between having meditative concentration and not having it is significant. With meditative concentration, external grasping decreases, attention to trivial matters lessens, and interest in many things diminishes. Afflictions lessen, attachments decrease, and wisdom gradually arises. The benefits of meditative concentration are inexhaustible. If one does not cultivate meditative concentration, then one is not truly practicing; studying Buddhism becomes mere empty talk without actual realization. Only with meditative concentration can one engage in observation practice; only then can observation be meticulous and thorough, enabling one to focus on major matters and let go of minor ones, abandoning many unnecessary things. One also becomes more adaptable and skillful, with reduced stubbornness, lighter anger, and diminished greed.

After attaining meditative concentration and cultivating observation practice, one can turn inward to introspect. Afflictions within the mind can be detected promptly and subdued at any time. Unwholesome thoughts become fewer and fewer, while wholesome thoughts and equanimity increase. The Four Right Efforts are thus cultivated: unarisen wholesome states arise; arisen wholesome states increase; unarisen unwholesome states do not arise; arisen unwholesome states are eradicated. If some people still have heavy afflictions, with minds harboring few wholesome thoughts and many unwholesome ones, then the Four Right Efforts are not well-cultivated, the mind's nature remains unchanged, and there is no hope for realizing the fruit of severing the view of self.

Therefore, realizing the first fruition (Sotāpanna) requires eliminating coarse and heavy afflictions; the mind's nature has already become that of a sage. If someone claims to have severed the view of self or to have attained enlightenment, yet their afflictions still appear heavy, their fundamental nature unchanged—filled with greed, anger, jealousy, constant contention, and impurity in body, speech, and mind—such a person only presumes to have realized the fruit or attained enlightenment; the Tathāgatagarbha does not acknowledge it. Anyone who has not cultivated precepts and meditative concentration, who has not engaged in proper observation practice, who has not cultivated the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Four Right Efforts, and so forth, cannot possibly attain any level of path-realization in either the Mahayana or Hinayana. Therefore, the Four Right Efforts and the Thirty-Seven Aids to Enlightenment are the practical indicators of genuine cultivation.

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