Item 6 in Noble Eightfold Path

Right Effort

Prevent and abandon harmful mental states while cultivating and maintaining beneficial ones.

Position
6
Form
Step in a path
Obligation
Recommended
Wording status
Editorial paraphrase
Intended audience
Buddhist practitioners, with interpretations adapted to monastic and lay life
Last reviewed
28 June 2026

Names and terminology

Canonical name: Right Effort

Original term: Sammā-vāyāma

Source wording

Editorial paraphrase: Prevent and abandon harmful mental states while cultivating and maintaining beneficial ones.

Editorial paraphrase

Literal meaning

Prevent and abandon harmful mental states while cultivating and maintaining beneficial ones.

Broader interpretation

Interpretation depends on the framework's historical purpose, intended audience and relationship to its other principles.

Ethical purpose

To make ethical and mental development an active practice rather than a passive wish.

Modern application

Modern application requires attention to consent, rights, evidence, foreseeable harm and changing social conditions.

Criticism and difficult cases

Application can become difficult when this principle conflicts with another duty, when harm is indirect, or when ancient social assumptions do not fit modern conditions.

Truth By Reason analysis

Truth By Reason assesses this principle according to evidence, rights, intentions, foreseeable consequences and consistency with the treatment of all affected beings.

Ethical themes

  • Wisdom
  • Self-control

Sources