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[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

The Noble Eightfold Path
The Buddha’s practical instructions to reach the end of suffering
By Walpola Sri Rahula <https://tricycle.org/author/walpolasrirahula/>
Within the fourth noble truth is found the guide to the end of suffering:
the noble eightfold path. The eight parts of the path to liberation are
grouped into three essential elements of Buddhist practice—moral
conduct, mental discipline, and wisdom. The Buddha taught the eightfold
path in virtually all his discourses, and his directions are as clear and
practical to his followers today as they were when he first gave them.
THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH

   1. Right understanding (*Samma ditthi)*
   2. Right thought (*Samma sankappa*)
   3. Right speech (*Samma vaca*)
   <http://tricycle.org/dharmatalks/right-speech/>
   4. Right action (*Samma kammanta*)
   5. Right livelihood (*Samma ajiva*)
   6. Right effort (*Samma vayama*)
   7. Right mindfulness (*Samma sati*)
   8. Right concentration (*Samma samadhi*)

Practically the whole teaching of the Buddha, to which he devoted himself
during 45 years, deals in some way or other with this path. He explained it
in different ways and in different words to different people, according to
the stage of their development and their capacity to understand and follow
him. But the essence of those many thousand discourses scattered in the
Buddhist scriptures is found in the noble eightfold path.
It should not be thought that the eight categories or divisions of the path
should be followed and practiced one after the other in the numerical order
as given in the usual list above. But they are to be developed more or less
simultaneously, as far as possible according to the capacity of each
individual. They are all linked together and each helps the cultivation of
the others.
These eight factors aim at promoting and perfecting the three essentials of
Buddhist training and discipline: namely: (a) ethical conduct (s*ila*), (b)
mental discipline (s*amadhi*) and (c) wisdom (*panna*). It will therefore
be more helpful for a coherent and better understanding of the eight
divisions of the path if we group them and explain them according to these
three heads.
ETHICAL CONDUCT
Ethical conduct (sila) is built on the vast conception of universal love
and compassion for all living beings, on which the Buddha’s teaching is
based. It is regrettable that many scholars forget this great ideal of the
Buddha’s teaching, and indulge in only dry philosophical and metaphysical
divagations when they talk and write about Buddhism. The Buddha gave his
teaching “for the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of
compassion for the world.”
According to Buddhism, for a man to be perfect there are two qualities that
he should develop equally: compassion (*karuna*) on one side, and wisdom
(panna) on the other. Here compassion represents love, charity, kindness,
tolerance, and such noble qualities on the emotional side, or qualities of
the heart, while wisdom would stand for the intellectual side or the
qualities of the mind. If one develops only the emotional, neglecting the
intellectual, one may become a good-hearted fool; while to develop only the
intellectual side [and] neglecting the emotional may turn one into a
hard-hearted intellect without feeling for others. Therefore, to be perfect
one has to develop both equally. That is the aim of the Buddhist way of
life: in it wisdom and compassion are inseparably linked together, as we
shall see later.
Now, in ethical conduct (sila), based on love and compassion, are included
three factors of the noble eightfold path: namely, right speech, right
action, and right livelihood.
RIGHT SPEECH
Right speech means abstention (1) from telling lies, (2) from backbiting
and slander and talk that may bring about hatred, enmity, disunity, and
disharmony among individuals or groups of people, (3) from harsh, rude,
impolite, malicious, and abusive language, and (4) from idle, useless, and
foolish babble and gossip. When one abstains from these forms of wrong and
harmful speech one naturally has to speak the truth, has to use words that
are friendly and benevolent, pleasant and gentle, meaningful, and useful.
One should not speak carelessly: speech should be at the right time and
place. If one cannot say something useful, one should keep “noble silence.”
RIGHT ACTION
Right action aims at promoting moral, honorable, and peaceful conduct. It
admonishes us that we should abstain from destroying life, from stealing,
from dishonest dealings, from illegitimate sexual intercourse, and that we
should also help others to lead a peaceful and honorable life in the right
way.
RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
Right livelihood means that one should abstain from making one’s living
through a profession that brings harm to others, such as trading in arms
and lethal weapons, intoxicating drinks or poisons, killing animals,
cheating, etc., and should live by a profession which is honorable,
blameless, and innocent of harm to others. One can clearly see here that
Buddhism is strongly opposed to any kind of war, when it lays down that
trade in arms and lethal weapons is an evil and unjust means of livelihood.
These three factors (right speech, right action, and right livelihood) of
the eightfold path constitute ethical conduct. It should be realized that
the Buddhist ethical and moral conduct aims at promoting a happy and
harmonious life both for the individual and for society. This moral conduct
is considered as the indispensable foundation for all higher spiritual
attainments. No spiritual development is possible without this moral basis.
MENTAL DISCIPLINE
Next comes mental discipline, in which are included three other factors of
the eightfold path: namely, right effort, right mindfulness, and right
concentration. (Nos. 6, 7 and 8 in the list).
RIGHT EFFORT
Right effort is the energetic will (1) to prevent evil and unwholesome
states of mind from arising, and (2) to get rid of such evil and
unwholesome states that have already arisen within a man, and also (3) to
produce, to cause to arise, good, and wholesome states of mind not yet
arisen, and (4) to develop and bring to perfection the good and wholesome
states of mind already present in a man.
RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Right mindfulness is to be diligently aware, mindful, and attentive with
regard to (1) the activities of the body (*kaya*), (2) sensations or
feelings (*vedana*), (3) the activities of the mind (*citta*) and (4)
ideas, thoughts, conceptions, and things (*dhamma*).
The practice of concentration on breathing (*anapanasati*) is one of the
well-known exercises, connected with the body, for mental development.
There are several other ways of developing attentiveness in relation to the
body as modes of meditation.
With regard to sensations and feelings, one should be clearly aware of all
forms of feelings and sensations, pleasant, unpleasant and neutral, of how
they appear and disappear within oneself. Concerning the activities of
mind, one should be aware whether one’s mind is lustful or not, given to
hatred or not, deluded or not, distracted or concentrated, etc. In this way
one should be aware of all movements of mind, how they arise and disappear.
As regards ideas, thoughts, conceptions and things, one should know their
nature, how they appear and disappear, how they are developed, how they are
suppressed, destroyed, and so on.
These four forms of mental culture or meditation are treated in detail in
the *Satipatthana Sutta* (Setting-up of Mindfulness).
RIGHT CONCENTRATION
The third and last factor of mental discipline is right concentration,
leading to the four stages of *Dhyana*, generally called trance or
*recueillement*. In the first stage of Dhyana, passionate desires and
certain unwholesome thoughts like sensuous lust, ill-will, languor, worry,
restlessness, and skeptical doubt are discarded, and feelings of joy and
happiness are maintained, along with certain mental activities. Then, in
the second stage, all intellectual activities are suppressed, tranquillity,
and “one-pointedness” of mind developed, and the feelings of joy and
happiness are still retained. In the third stage, the feeling of joy, which
is an active sensation, also disappears, while the disposition of happiness
still remains in addition to mindful equanimity. Finally, in the fourth
stage of Dhyana, all sensations, even of happiness and unhappiness, of joy
and sorrow, disappear, only pure equanimity and awareness remaining.
Thus the mind is trained and disciplined and developed through right
effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
WISDOM
The remaining two factors, namely right thought and right understanding,
constitute wisdom in the noble eightfold path.
RIGHT THOUGHT
Right thought denotes the thoughts of selfless renunciation or detachment,
thoughts of love and thoughts of non-violence, which are extended to all
beings. It is very interesting and important to note here that thoughts of
selfless detachment, love and non-violence are grouped on the side of
wisdom. This clearly shows that true wisdom is endowed with these noble
qualities, and that all thoughts of selfish desire, ill-will, hatred, and
violence are the result of a lack of wisdom in all spheres of life whether
individual, social, or political.
RIGHT UNDERSTANDING
Right understanding is the understanding of things as they are, and it is the
four noble truths
<http://tricycle.org/magazine/impermanence-and-four-noble-truths/> that
explain things as they really are. Right understanding therefore is
ultimately reduced to the understanding of the four noble truths. This
understanding is the highest wisdom which sees the Ultimate Reality.
According to Buddhism there are two sorts of understanding. What we
generally call “understanding” is knowledge, an accumulated memory, an
intellectual grasping of a subject according to certain given data. This is
called “knowing accordingly” (*anubodha*). It is not very deep. Real deep
understanding or “penetration” (*pativedha*) is seeing a thing in its true
nature, without name and label. This penetration is possible only when the
mind is free from all impurities and is fully developed through meditation.
>From this brief account of the noble eightfold path, one may see that it is
a way of life to be followed, practiced and developed by each individual.
It is self-discipline in body, word, and mind, self-development, and
self-purification. It has nothing to do with belief, prayer, worship, or
ceremony. In that sense, it has nothing which may popularly be called
“religious.” It is a Path leading to the realization of Ultimate Reality,
to complete freedom, happiness, and peace through moral, spiritual, and
intellectual perfection.
Leonard Mlodinow: How to develop an elastic mind - BBC Ideas
https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/how-to-be-more-elastic-
in-your-thinking/p06ctclf

Author Leonard Mlodinow explains how trying new things and talking to new
people can help you be more creative in your thinking.

The extraordinary human brain

The human brain is extraordinarily complex. These videos will help you
understand it a little better...

https://www.bbc.com/ideas/playlists/the-extraordinary-human-brain





-- 
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared