The sixth branch of the Eightfold Path is Right Effort, the effort to put into Practice the links of the Path within our life… to keep on keepin’ on. We should be diligent, and stick with it.

We persevere, even those times when we just don’t feel like making the effort. Right Intention is the aspiration to do so, while Right Effort is the will to make the day-by-day slog… But we also learn that, as “Just Sitting” Shikantaza, effort can be effortless, that we move ahead with nowhere to go… that every step of a steep climb is one step, and one step, and one step … a total arriving …