“Mendicants, all the hard work that gets done depends on the earth and is grounded on the earth. In the same way, a mendicant develops and cultivates the four right efforts depending on and grounded on ethics.

How so? It’s when a mendicant generates enthusiasm, tries, makes an effort, exerts the mind, and strives so that bad, unskillful qualities don’t arise. … so that skillful qualities that have arisen remain, are not lost, but increase, mature, and are completed by development.

That’s how a mendicant develops and cultivates the four right efforts depending on and grounded on ethics.”

(Tell in full as in SN 45.149–160.)

Hard work, seeds, and dragons, 
a tree, a pot, and a spike, 
the atmosphere, and two on clouds, 
a ship, a guest house, and a river.