When the Buddha spoke about right joyous effort in the context of the Eightfold Noble Path, he talked about four ways of practising it. The first is when negative or harmful mental states have arisen, apply the antidote and subdue them. The second is to prevent negative mental states from arising. That comes through habituating ourselves with positive ways of looking at things. When we do that, our whole way of interpreting things is transformed. This automatically results in mental afflictions not arising as much or as intensely.

The third aspect of right joyous effort is to lengthen and enrich the constructive mental states that have already arisen. When we have constructive thoughts, we rejoice in them, encourage ourselves and continue contemplating in that way. The fourth aspect is to arise in our mind the constructive mental states that have not yet arisen. This comes very much from continuing with our practice and developing those mental states, deepening our understanding of the path, and developing wisdom and compassion.

In all this discussion about constructive and destructive, positive and negative, it is very helpful not to categorise everything as either black or white. We do need to have discriminating wisdom and discernment to tell these different things apart, so we do not get them all confused. But let us not make everything so rigid that we get very uptight. That is not helpful.

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