Four Noble Efforts

In Buddhist psychology, there are three application of effort. The first one is instigative
effort. This is always present and is the effort of the mind to go to an object. It
initiates attention and behavioral responses. It can be wholesome or unwholesome. The
second is sustained effort. This is also ever-present and is the effort of the mind to
sustain awareness on an object to examine it. Along with sustained effort is the
potential for becoming attached to the object being examined, and this is
unwholesome-it is a root cause of suffering. These two forms of effort operate in
tandem.By far, the most frequent occurrence of these two forms of effort is
unwholesome, that is, conditioned by greed, ill-will or ignorance/delusional thinking.
The third form of effort is noble effort, or, as it is termed in the Noble Eightfold Path discourse.The following represent these efforts:

The Noble Effort of noticing the arisen unwholesome thought and renouncing it. This
reflects the effort to notice and interrupt thoughts generated by greed, hatred or
ignorance.

The Noble Effort of noticing unarisen unwholesome thoughts and prevent their arising.
This effort is more sophisticated, requiring deeper mindfulness that notices the
potential arising of greed, hatred or ignorance, interrupting the developing cycle before
the unwholesome thought is attached to or identified with.

The Noble Effort to notice unarisen wholesome thoughts and support their arising. This
effort uses mindfulness to allow the antidotes to greed, hatred or ignorance to arise,
those being generosity, lovingkindness and wisdom, in all their manifestations.

The Noble Effort to notice already arisen wholesome thoughts and sustain their arising.
This effort is also a challenge, as it requires ongoing mindfulness, a vigilance that simply registers what has arisen without craving and clinging; and ongoing flow of just being
with the moment. This final wholesome effort is what leads to liberation from
suffering.