What is the difference between Right Intention, Right Action, and Right Effort?

[Anonymous]

I’ve been following the eightfold path for some time now, but I still have some confusion over the way it’s divided. Mainly the “Right Effort” category. If by “effort” we mean “making an effort,” (i.e. trying) then that sounds like Right Intention. On the other hand if by “effort” we mean “making the effort” (acting), then that sounds like Right Action. I don’t understand what Right Effort contains that Right Intention and Right Action do not contain.

Perhaps someone can help me understand this better?

With metta,
Paul

[Khemako BhikkhuMember]

It can be helpful to think of the components of the 8-fold path as falling into 3 sections: sila (morality), samadhi (meditation), and pannya (wisdom). They overlap and interpenetrate each other in many ways, but for the purposes of discussion and understanding this is a very good framework.

Right effort is part of the samadhi section of the path: right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. The term “right” can also be translated “skillful”, and in that sense right effort means meditative effort that leads in the direction you want to go. A contrast would be unskillful effort – e.g. putting energy into stirring up the mind with the delights of sensual indulgence, or mentally cataloguing the details of how awful your neighbor’s dog is. You could spend a lot of time making efforts in ways that lead away from the goal, rather than towards it. Right effort includes sitting down to meditate, directing your attention to the meditation object, resisting mental habits that you know stir up your mind, setting and renewing intentions to be mindful, and so forth. Insofar as they produce the results you’re seeking such efforts are skillful, and therefore “right”.

Right action is part of the morality section of the the path: right speech, right action, right livelihood. ‘Action’ refers to acts of the body, and more specifically how such acts affect other living beings. At its most basic it means refraining from acts motivated by greed (e.g. stealing), hatred (e.g. killing), or delusion (e.g. carelessness leading to harm). On the positive end of the spectrum of action, it means acts motivated by loving-kindness, compassion, and equanimity.

Right intention is part of the wisdom section of the path, the other component being right view. The intention here is defined as intentions of renunciation, of non-ill-will, and of harmlessness or non-cruelty. To quote Ajahn Thanissaro’s translation of the Dvedhavitakka Sutta (MN 19): “Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking & pondering, that becomes the inclination of his awareness. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with renunciation, abandoning thinking imbued with sensuality, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with renunciation.”
And the same for with non-ill will and with harmlessness.

One develops wisdom by, among other things, cultivating right intention – and of course it takes right effort to do that. This in turn naturally leads to right action. All the factors of the path, practiced rightly, support each other and incline the mind towards increasingly wholesome states.

-Khemako

[Anonymous]

Oops! I forgot about writing this post. Thank you Khemako Bhikkhu for your helpful response!

[Author]

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