Saturday, November 01, 2008

Right effort questions

Ayya Khema in her book Be An Island, asks questions, to question oneself if they are giving right effort: "Have I really tried today? Have I extended myself to my personal limit, or did I take it as easy as I could today? Did I try to increase my self-discipline a little more than yesterday? Did I try to get up five minutes earlier? Did I try to remember two more lines of the teaching? Did I try to sit longer in one position or concentrate a little longer? Did I have fewer negative thoughts today?" (p. 73).

What would my questions be to test my right effort? What are yours? Would you write different questions? Perhaps memorizing text isn't as important to you, but maybe being kinder is, so how would you ask that? Shoot me a comment to let me know if you have different right effort questions for yourself.

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