In this post, I want to return to the First Great Effort, and consider awareness as a primary method for making this type of effort. Somewhat recently, I posted a more general description and consideration of the first great effort, which forms part of the path-factor of Skillful Effort. In that post (link below), it was said that “the most basic and general practical method for preventing unskillful states is the continuous application of Skillful Mindfulness.” However, there was little further explanation of that practice. Here is the beginning of some further inquiry into what that method might mean and consist of in the context of making the first great effort.

Skillful Effort: The First Great Effort

To begin, the First Great Effort is: to prevent unskillful states of mind from arising. One key thing to consider, I think, is the matter of just what “preventing” and “arising” may mean in this case. And although it may sound very all-or-nothing, it turns out that “preventing from arising” is not as all-or-nothing as it might sound.

Ever Present Unskillful States

For one thing, unskillful states are always present at some level. Yes, there is the exception, or possible exception (depending on your view), of fully awakened beings, or perhaps in Stoic terms a fully realized sage. But let us set that aside, not because it is irrelevant (it isn’t), but to help focus the discussion, and to keep it more immediately practical to what I assume are our currently unawakened, unsagely respective conditions.

Sayadaw U Tejaniya writes of this ever-present-ness in When Awareness Becomes Natural: “I put the defilement level on a scale of zero to ten,” he says. (“Defilements” is a name for unskillful states.) “For most of us, when it gets to a level of two, it feels like there is no defilement there at all, and the yogi concludes he or she is free of defilements. Wrong!”

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana makes a similar point with reference the “ten fetters” (which are a specific list of unskillful states): “All ten fetters,” he writes, “remain in the mind of an unenlightened person, at least in a dormant way, all the time.” (In Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness.)

Subtle to Strong

Unskillful states range in strength from very subtle to very strong. When an unskillful state is very strong, it can be called a hindrance. When an unskillful state falls anywhere within the range of very subtle to moderately strong, it can be called a fetter.

It isn’t necessary to remember and use those names, but it can be helpful, particularly as some teachers and authors will use the terms. Again though, the key point is that an unskillful state may be present in an extremely subtle way, or in an extremely strong and obvious way, or anywhere in between.

A Domain of Arising and Preventing

Again, short of entering into stages of awakening, the very subtle unskillful states cannot be prevented from arising. They will always be present at least in a temporarily dormant or very subtle way. Until mindfulness and wisdom reach a certain level of development, the subtlest levels of unskillful states cannot even be perceived.

Even so, subtle unskillful states can, potentially, be prevented from developing into stronger and less subtle form. They can, to some extent, be prevented from gaining in strength.

The first great effort is therefore not an absolute prevention, but a progressive exercise in relative prevention. One directs effort toward preventing a very subtle state from growing into a less subtle state, a less subtle state from developing into a moderately strong state, and so forth.

This understanding provides a basis for considering how mindfulness can be used, and what the goal of its uses may be, in practicing the first great effort of seeking to prevent unskillful states from arising. I’ll start to consider more actual practice methods in one or more follow up posts.

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SeekerFive is collecting and developing resources to help people with philosophical practice and study at philosophicadvising.com.