As a newcomer to Buddhist teachings, I was rather wary of “right effort.” A first-generation Latinx American steeped in success overdrive, I’d quite enough of implicit performance standards that exhausted and oppressed. No matter how hard I strived, I still struggled with pain, grief, and lack of fulfillment. I didn’t want a new rule book. I wanted to be happy and not to suffer, simple as that.
Luckily, I soon learned that how we respond to our doubts is a crucial point of practice. Engaging the teachings with curiosity—neither dismissing them reactively nor swallowing them indiscriminately—is a vital portal to, the precise knowledge that discerns things as they are, without ignorance and projections getting in the way. The resulting open-minded, supple attitude empowers experiential analysis of the buddhadharma, starting right where we are. Over twenty years later, this integrative approach has never failed to revolutionize my practice and life in marvelous ways.
