A Method

Right Effort , or The Four Supreme Efforts, as I remember anyway, the formula,

First , to abandon an unwholesome state that has already arisen.

Second, to not let unwholesome state arise that has not yet arisen.

Third, to arouse a wholesome state that has not yet arisen.

Fourth, to maintain a wholesome state that has already arisen.

This practice, one of which I deem very important I want to explain a little deeper, and possibly edit more in later.

The Four Supreme Effort formula, when I first started examining and implementing it, first I remember I had to keep trying to remember it.  Like, "Now, what was the next step, again?"  And, "What the heck was the third thingy?"  So, anyways, first I had to remember the formula, then recognize an unwholesome state, thought, mood, whatever, and then proceed.  I think this falls under Pariyatti, learning and studying the Dhamma.  Cuz, if one does not know what to practice, how can one proceed?  Much, less why or how, that comes even later.

So, anyway, The Four Supreme Efforts goes deeper than just surface thoughts and intellectualizing.

The real treasures and benefits are to be found at the deeper psyco-somatic level.  The internal alchemizing of ill will into Metta, judgement into compassion, jealousy into Mudita, shared Joy.  All that.  It is kind of a smooth flowing recognize,  abandon,  arouse, then maintain.  And, once practiced this can all happen in a flash of mind moments.

I think a fault, flaw , and danger in personal practice is that sometimes one will recognize an unwholesome feeling and even have the skill to abandon and let go of the unwholesome feeling, but then stop.  Practicing like that is like digging in a mud pit, shovel out the mud, and it works, for a little bit, but then the mud slides back in and backfills any progress, and the practioner stalls out and the practice stagnates.  Just becomes an endless shoveling of mud.  

Perhaps, Sisyphus is a better metaphor, constantly rolling the stone up the great hill, only to watch it roll back down again.

But , with the practice of the Four Supreme Efforts, the stone is chocked off, blocking the stone from rolling back down the hill, and the fourth step, maintaining the Wholesome States acts as a continuous applied force to either keep the stone in forward progress, or has enough force to prevent the stone from rolling back down the hill.

This is not to say that everything is always easy or anything, by no means at all, Life is Struggle, there is Dukkha.  Practice requires constant effort.  A constant and balanced effort that is, one can only push so hard , and so fast.  Patience is also needed.

Psi

Method

The Anger Games

So, Anger, Ill Will.  Ill Will, funny, actually willing dis-ease, willing illness, well not funny , funny.

So, here is the Game, and what it did for me.

Finally I got tired of getting angry, and decided to put a stop to it.  So, I made it a game, basically the goal was to go 24 hours without having any kind of anger or ill will.

When I first started I would start the 24 hour timer in the morning when I got up and go as long as I could, usually about 10 to fifteen minutes.  I know right?  Then I felt as if the rest of the day was ruined and what was the point, it was hopeless.

So, then I change the plan, the new plan was to go 24 hours without anger or ill will, and if I got angry or had ill will, I would abandon it asap, and start the timer from that point forward.  That is all anyone can do, move on from this point forward.  The sooner anger or ill will was abandoned the sooner the clock cold be reset.  I did not actually have a stopwatch or anything, I just noted the time in my mind.

Again, same thing , the day would start, anger or ill will would arise, now ill will an anger counts if it is even just at the thought stage for this game, very important, this is no just about external actions, it definitely includes internal thoughts, wishes and judgements.

So, this process was kept rolling along, ill will would get triggered, I would recognize it, abandon it, and start again anew from that moment forward.  On and on, all day , every minute, ill will arising over and over, being abandoned over and over, for days, the days turned into weeks, the weeks into months, the progress was slow, the months turned into years, I had alot of anger triggers you see.

Eventually, one day I did notice, Hey, I do not really know when I was angry last.  Is that true?  I reviewed, yes it was true. Edit, so as to not misrepresent or be misunderstood.  Anger does still arise, but usually due to biological threats, continued lack of sleep, extreme unexpected pain.  But, anger of that sort is usually a shorter type of outlashing, and fades pretty quickly, i.e. moments and minutes. Though there were and still are irritations.  Irritations are like baby angers, they arise weakly and are easlily dismissed.

 Irritations can be wiped away like the windshield wipers wipe away raindrops on the car windshield.  But, it is also true that some irritations are likenend to bird shit, they do not exactly get wiped away cleanly with one pass of the wipers, but over time they become weakend also, and can eventually be removed.

Now, I am only saying that this method works for normal anger triggers and normal ill will triggers, in normal daily living.  I am unsure about not having anger arise if one is subjected by some Mad Scientist on a Torture Rack.  But, I am trying to deal with the reality of normal daily life , and normal pragmatic solutions.  

Psi

p.s. there are time when normal daily life can be as bad or worse than a torture rack, which, I believe lends sanity and all the more reason to practice now, while we are able, to better deal with reality as it arises moment to moment

Edit as noted above