Luang Por Liem: The Ways of the Peaceful - Wat Pah Nanachat

Applying effort means living in a way that is not careless. Just
that. When we relate to external objects in our lives we relate to
them as someone who has mindfulness and wisdom. In the same
way we relate to conventions. This leads to peace and enables one
to experience happiness. This happiness is not dependent on
worldly or material things, but on the application of energy and
effort.
Since we live as a society or group we have to take on
agreements and a variety of duties for our living together.
Whatever is communal activity we should not hesitate to help
each other with, especially concerning the application of effort in
meditation. Each day there should be an occasion of putting forth
effort together in order to build up strength and energy. We don’t
always sit meditation together, only at certain times. In the
language of the Buddha, building up strength and energy together
like this is called sangha-anubhava (the power of the Sangha). If
we do something we do it through the power of the Sangha. The
sitting meditation we do all together. In any activity which
supports the development of communal harmony we try to do our
part, but if nature (i.e. one’s health) isn’t supportive, one has to
accept that it is too much, going beyond one’s ability. An example
of this is related in the vinaya. It concerns our use of the requisites
to cover ourselves, the robes. The Buddha forbade us to be
without the three robes, even for one night, but he did allow us to
be without them if our body and our form-elements are in a state
of deterioration. This is about nature and the fact that it is beyond
the range of one’s control. But if one is still in a healthy state, the
Buddha advised us not to be careless, and to live in a way where
we put our hearts into looking after and protecting our requisites –
for the purpose of developing ourselves. We need to have things
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