AudioDharma: Gil Fronsdal's most recent dharma talks
Aug 28, 2026 · 31 min · 10 segments
This talk was given by Gil Fronsdal on 2026.08.28 at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA. Video of this talk is available at: https://www.youtube.com/live/3Vvpd7GhKd0. A machine…
Gil FronsdalHost
But the explicit topic is I want to talk about what's called in Buddhism the Four Noble Efforts, the Four Right Efforts.
And it's usually presented very simplistically, partly because the way that it's worded, the ancient teachings on these four efforts, it's co-convoluted with double negatives and kind of repeating a lot of words.
Like how do you make sense of these sentences almost? At least that's how it was for me when I was first introduced to them.
But it's sometimes presented very simplistically by the tradition, maybe to make it easier for people.
But the simplistic way of teaching it maybe contributes to the idea that there's a lot of shoulds.
And you should not do this, and you should do this, and you better get on with it.
And it just feels kind of like jarring almost sometimes, this kind of attitude of That's how it's taken in.
So it's said that whatever is unwholesome, whatever is unskillful, whatever is unhealthy to do, prevent yourself from doing it.
The whole orientation around this, the way the original, this complicated way is taught, at the heart of it is something very beautiful, very profound.
It's knowing that something, knowing there's a treasure, knowing there's something really beautiful and profound here that we want to protect, we want to enhance, we want to support.
But the explicit topic is I want to talk about what's called in Buddhism the Four Noble Efforts, the Four Right Efforts.
And it's usually presented very simplistically, partly because the way that it's worded, the ancient teachings on these four efforts, it's co-convoluted with double negatives and kind of repeating a lot of words.
Like how do you make sense of these sentences almost? At least that's how it was for me when I was first introduced to them.
But it's sometimes presented very simplistically by the tradition, maybe to make it easier for people.
But the simplistic way of teaching it maybe contributes to the idea that there's a lot of shoulds.
And you should not do this, and you should do this, and you better get on with it.
And it just feels kind of like jarring almost sometimes, this kind of attitude of That's how it's taken in.
So it's said that whatever is unwholesome, whatever is unskillful, whatever is unhealthy to do, prevent yourself from doing it.
The whole orientation around this, the way the original, this complicated way is taught, at the heart of it is something very beautiful, very profound.
It's knowing that something, knowing there's a treasure, knowing there's something really beautiful and profound here that we want to protect, we want to enhance, we want to support.
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