Four Kinds of Right Effort: Prevent, Abandon, Cultivate, Sustain

Studying right effort starts with a reading question: what is this passage asking you to do? Keep the source open while identifying the task and the quality it concerns.

Identify the four tasks

Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu presents this formula in The Wings to Awakening, alongside translations of SN 49:1 and AN 4:14:

1. Prevent unskillful qualities that have not arisen.
2. Abandon unskillful qualities that have arisen.
3. Develop skillful qualities that have not arisen.
4. Sustain and further develop skillful qualities already present. [1]

He explains that cultivation may also help abandonment. The effort must itself be skillful, with its kind and intensity suited to the person and situation. [1]

Keep the two distinctions visible in your notes: skillful or unskillful, and arisen or not yet arisen. If you are unsure where a passage belongs, write down its wording before trying to assign it to one of the four tasks.

Read the Tibetan presentation in its setting

Patrul Rinpoche's A Brief Guide to the Stages and Paths of the Bodhisattvas calls this set the four correct abandonments. He places them at the intermediate stage of the path of accumulation. The first two prevent and eliminate non-virtuous tendencies; the next two cultivate new virtue and increase virtue already developed. [2]

His explanation includes both non-virtue and obstacles to cultivating virtue under what is abandoned. He says the set mainly concerns conduct through body, speech and mind. Thus the title includes constructive cultivation within its scope. [2]

Preserve each author's terms when comparing the passages. In your notes, label one column “right exertions” and the other “correct abandonments,” with the source title above each. Ask your teacher how the presentations relate within the course of study you are following.

Our guide to the four applications of mindfulness discusses another set in Patrul Rinpoche's account. His guide places those applications at the lesser stage of accumulation, before the intermediate-stage discussion used here. [2]

Use an example to prepare a question

The following is an example supplied by this site for a study conversation. Suppose you are preparing to reply to a message that annoyed you. You might ask about preventing a harsh response before typing it, or about abandoning hostility after noticing it. A separate question could concern developing a helpful intention and sustaining it through the exchange.

Bring the example to a teacher instead of treating your first classification as settled. Ask what the relevant skillful or unskillful quality would be, and what conduct the teaching addresses. Keep the answer tied to the passage you are studying.

The example is a way to ask about the four tasks. It is not a meditation instruction or a claim that one conversational choice establishes a stage of the path. If the teacher corrects the example, add the correction to your notes rather than forcing the passage to fit it.

Ask about the method as well as the aim

Ṭhānissaro warns against worsening a problem through unskillful effort, such as meeting hatred with hatred. Appropriate effort involves mindfulness and discernment. [1]

That gives you a precise question to bring forward: “How should I work with this quality in the practice you have assigned me?” Include what you were instructed to do and where you became uncertain. Ask how to recognize when the response needs adjusting.

For related reading, our article on diligence and moderation examines effort in another teaching framework. Keep that framework's explanation alongside its source rather than assuming every use of “effort” gives the same instruction.

Review the passage with four questions

• Which quality does the passage identify?
• Does it describe that quality as already present or not yet arisen?
• What is the intended task: prevention, abandonment, cultivation or maintenance?
• What method does the teacher recommend in this context?

Save the title, translator, section and your question together. A short, accurately located question is enough to begin the next discussion.

Sources and further reading

1. The Four Right Exertions. Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, The Wings to Awakening, section II.C; commentary and translated passages SN 49:1 and AN 4:14.
2. A Brief Guide to the Stages and Paths of the Bodhisattvas. Patrul Rinpoche; translated by Adam Pearcey, 2007, edited by Phillippa Sison. Lotsawa House, version 1.5, March 18, 2024.

Sources checked October 31, 2026. Written with AI assistance and checked against the linked texts. The examples and brief review are supplied by this site; they do not replace instruction from a qualified teacher.