The eightfold path might not be the most exciting piece I’ll write this year, but it is an important one if you’re going to understand my ongoing dharma stories. It’s also a continuation of Dukkha: why we are never satisfied so if you haven’t read that one already, go back and take a look.
Even though you’ve read the Dukkha post, we’ll do a quick review of the Four Noble Truth’s anyway (In Buddhism, repetition is very helpful in understanding deeply, and this was the Buddha’s first teaching).
Here we go: you ready?
FIRST TRUTH: To be born is to feel an inherent sense of unsatisfactoriness, like nothing is ever quite right. This is the First Noble Truth.
SECOND TRUTH: We experience this dissatisfaction due to clinging and identification. This is the second Noble Truth. (Don’t know what I’m taking about? Go back and read Dukkha)
THIRD TRUTH: thank goodness it’s not all doom and gloom. Throughout his long life, the Buddha repeatedly said that he teaches suffering, but also the END OF SUFFERING. This is the third noble truth, that there is an end.
FOURTH TRUTH: The fourth noble truth is that there is a way, and that way is the noble eightfold path.
The Noble Eightfold Path
Take a moment to read the list, and see what intuitively comes up for you with each one. Then I’ll explain.
- Right speech (Samma vaca)
- Right action (Samma kammanta)
- Right livelihood (Samma ajiva)
- Right effort (Samma vayama)
- Right mindfulness (Samma sati)
- Right concentration (Samma samadhi)
- Right understanding (Samma ditthi)
- Right thought (Samma sankappa)
Practicing the path
The eight factors of the path are not meant to be practiced in order, rather the cultivation of one results in the cultivation of the other seven. Practiced all together, they synergise and support one another.
You can think of them less like a list and more like a wheel, where there is no beginning and end.
The eightfold path can be divided into three parts; ethical conduct (sila), mental discipline (samadhi) and wisdom (panna).
Ethical Conduct
Right Speech
We refrain from telling lies, backbiting, or gossiping. We avoid harsh, malicious, abusive or idle talk. We strive to speak honestly, usefully and with the right timing. If we cannot do so, we hold “noble silence”. Turns out Grandma was right: If you’ve got nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Take a moment to think about how you use speech. How often would you have to be silent under this guide?
Right Action
We refrain from killing, stealing, drug use, and sexual abuse. We aim to nourish life, give generously, have clarity of mind and engage in loving kind sexual relationships. We take great care with all actions, as if to never hurt another being. Pretty common sense, right? How are your actions?
Right Livelihood
We refrain from choosing a profession or making money via unwholesome means that promote unhelpful speech and action. We strive to earn our living in ways that nourish and support life, truth, and virtue. Are you happy in your job? Is it fulfilling for you and supporting wholesome speech and action?
Mental Discipline
Right effort
Right effort refers to the energetic will we use on the path to encourage wholesome actions, speech and thought, and to let go of the unwholesome. We use wise effort to sustain us during the practices of mindfulness and concentration. It is not easy to truly walk this eightfold path, and there is a constant energetic balance between over-effort-ing and not trying at all. To much effort and we’ll hold ourselves to a standard we can’t keep (and hate ourselves for it), too small and we’ll have to live with regret. Get it?
Right Mindfulness
In the Satthipatthana Sutta, the Buddha taught us how we can cultivate four foundations of mindfulness. This process is to awaken us to every aspect of our lives and to encourage true seeing. How much of your life are you present for? What goes unnoticed?
Right Concentration
The mind is trained and disciplined though the use of concentration, which once sustained allows us to see more clearly in our practice of mindfulness. The Buddha likened an unstable mind to a crazy monkey, swinging from branch to branch and doing whatever it wants. How wild and crazy is your mind?
Wisdom
Right thought
This is the movement away from thoughts of selfish desire, ill-will, hatred, and violence to thoughts of selfless detachment, love and non-violence. The cultivation of right thought leads to the cultivation of the other seven factors, and vice versa.
Right understanding
The Buddha taught that there are two ways to “know”. One is to understand something through information we have gathered. The other is to know the true nature of something through seeing clearly. This is called penetrating. Right understanding is the highest form of wisdom in which we see the ultimate reality of experience. Again, this factor co-arises with the others.
You can’t be wrong or bad
The Buddha was very clear that this path is about love and compassion for all beings, for the betterment of all beings, and for the happiness of all beings. Therefore, it is vital for us westerners is to understand that these are not like the ten commandments in which to follow them means you are good or right, and to not follow them means you are bad or wrong.
There is no concept of “sinning” in the teachings of the Buddha. Rather he taught that there are helpful actions that lead to freedom from suffering, and unhelpful actions that lead to entrenchment in suffering. Along the path we must bring with us an intense and determined compassion and forgiveness for the ways we (and others) fall short.
