The second step of Right Action is to abandon the unwholesome. This is our second week of practicing Right Action. As you recall, the first step is to prevent the unwholesome in the first place. Just keep it in check. But sometimes, despite our best efforts, that negative stuff comes up and starts living in our house. Other times, we feel so attached to it that we put it in a big fancy frame and put it on our walls. Neither is good for us in the long run. That stuff is not living room material. So the second step is to do some housecleaning and get it back in the basement where it belongs.

The Buddha said a disciple on this second step “makes effort, stirs up his energy, exerts his mind, and strives.” Again, this is where that good energy we whip up in Right Action comes into play. And it’s a different kind of energy, slightly, than the kind we use to prevent the unwholesome. Now that the unwholesome is out and about, the disciple “abandons them, dispels them, destroys them, causes them to disappear.”

But…how?

The Buddha suggests five ways we can replace an unwholesome thought with a better one. Like a carpenter hammers out a rotten peg and replaces it with a new one, we hammer out those thoughts that send us into wrong action. (I’ve blogged about this teaching before.)

When desire plagues us, we can focus instead on impermanence. So, for example, if you objectify someone with your gaze and feel lust, imagine their body decomposing. Visualize their skeleton. (Effective, right?!)

If you’re feeling hatred or ill will toward someone, practice metta meditation or simple compassion. (I reference metta meditation in that post I linked above.) Instead of wishing them ill, you choose to wish them well.

If the unwholesome state is lethargy, laziness, drowsiness, etc., imagine a ball of bright light moving all around your body. Or, get up and go for a nice brisk walk. Rouse the energy, in other words.

When you’re feeling anxious or fearful or worried, focus on your breathing and find some calm.

These five examples offer us some helpful ideas in what it might mean to abandon an unwholesome thought and bring up some positive energy instead.

Bhante Gunaratana adds that we can also choose to ignore it. And it helps to remember that everything changes and this doesn’t have to be your pattern forever. It’s YOUR living room, after all.

Lastly, there are some times when we need to bring the proverbial hammer down. Sometimes we need to just crush a thought. The Buddha said we simply choose not to let it win. And we don’t give up until we prevail.

This week, what do you need to abandon? Where is some housecleaning called for?

This post belongs to my series on practicing the Eightfold Path. You can read all my posts on Right Action here.