by Arnie Kozak
The Fourth Noble Truth
To get to nirvana, you must traverse the Noble Eightfold Path. This path can be divided into three sections: wisdom and insight (prajna; right view, right resolve); morality (sila; right speech, right action, right livelihood); and meditation (samadhi; right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration). This is an entirely self-sufficient path. No outside intercessor is required. Indeed, the gauntlet is thrown down for you to work out your own salvation.
Buddhism is religion in action rather than belief. It is also practical rather than intellectual, as is reflected in the metaphor the Buddha used of the man shot by an arrow. Humanity is like the man wounded by an arrow, and the arrow is dukkha. Intellectual pursuits over practical application would be akin to hesitating to withdraw the arrow before you find out what kind of wood it was made from, who shot the arrow, and at what angle the arrow entered your body. What matters most in that moment is getting medical help—the healing dharma found through meditation—not philosophical speculation.
The fifth-century Buddhist teacher Buddhoghosa calls morality and meditation the two “legs” upon which wisdom leading to liberation stand. Morality is the foundation for meditation, and meditation is the foundation for wisdom. Each builds on the other and you can’t get to wisdom without the other two.
This is known as the Middle Way. It does not promote excessive sensual pleasure or excessive self-denial. It is a moderate path that avoids extremes.
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“This, O Monks, is the Truth of the Path which leads to the cessation of suffering. It is this Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of (1) Right View, (2) Right Resolve, (3) Right Speech, (4) Right Action, (5) Right Livelihood, (6) Right Effort, (7) Right Mindfulness, (8) Right Meditation.”
—The Truth of the Path (Magga)
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The Middle Way, or the Noble Eightfold Path, is a plan of action for realizing nirvana and the roadmap for Buddhist living. There are three sections of the Path that contain the eight “right” or “wise” ways to be, and each section is a platform for the next in a continuous process. Each of the eight aspects supports and interacts with the others. As the name implies, they are folded into one another as a field manual for a meaningful spiritual life.
What is meant by the word right? The Buddha uses the word right in the way we would say something is appropriate. You could just as well substitute wise for right. If you look at the list that follows, you will see that the Buddha is not prescribing or proscribing specific actions, because appropriate action depends on context. Even the moral foundations are not commandments for behavior. Instead, these right or wise approaches stem from directly experiencing which actions lead to happiness and which actions lead to misery. The goal is to transcend dualistic notions of right and wrong. Remember, the Buddha said, “I preach suffering and the end of suffering.”
THE PATH
Here is the Noble Eightfold Path:
1. Right View
2. Right Resolve
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration
The Three Divisions of the Path
The Noble Eightfold Path can be divided into three different categories. The Pali word for each category appears in parentheses. They are as follows:
1. Wisdom (prajna)
2. Morality (sila)
3. Meditation (samadhi)
All the steps in the Noble Eightfold Path fall into one of these categories. Wisdom is comprised of numbers one and two: right view and right resolve. Morality includes numbers three, four, and five: right speech, right action, and right livelihood. Meditation is made up of the final three steps (six, seven, and eight): right effort, mindfulness, and concentration. These may appear in different orders and in different descriptions. The order isn’t critical because the process is not linear; each part of the Path interacts with every other part.
Wisdom, Morality, and Meditation
Wisdom is made of right view and right resolve, and these two can be considered the hardest practices to master on the Noble Eightfold Path. Wisdom is gained through the practical experiences and insights that you have as a direct result of meditation practice. It is not gained solely through intellect, reading texts, or through rituals.
Morality or ethical conduct is comprised of right speech, right action, and right livelihood. All three of these elements have as their core a spirit of lovingkindness and compassion. Morality in Buddhist practice comes from a compassionate heart and mind and is expressed through the things you say, the things you do, and the occupations you choose. Finally, meditation consists of your mental disciplines of right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
Practicing
The eight steps are not meant to be done sequentially but are to be practiced all the time, simultaneously, each and every one. Every day is an opportunity to practice. The Middle Way is a program of action. You can picture these steps as spokes of a wheel. In order for this Dharma Wheel to turn, all the spokes must be in good working order. Once you have understood what each step means, and have undertaken an attempt to practice the steps in your daily life, the Dharma Wheel starts rolling and you are headed down the path toward a happier life.
RIGHT VIEW, RIGHT RESOLVE
The Wisdom Steps
Right view means to have a total comprehension of the Four Noble Truths. Right resolve means a detachment from hatred (and cruelty). These factors are unique to the Buddha’s teachings. The culmination of these views, based on morality and meditation, is the experience of prajna (wisdom or insight into the ultimate reality of things).
The Buddhist scholar Todd Lewis puts it succinctly about prajna, “a faculty that enables one unfailingly to see reality clearly amid the constant flow of human experience.” This kind of seeing is existential (aware of the finite limits on life) without becoming morbid. This insight shows you the preciousness of life and the pervasiveness of suffering, not only for yourself but also for everyone. This naturally leads to a feeling of compassion (karuna) for all beings, and a wish to help them arises.
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“All experience is preceded by mind, led by mind, made by mind.”
—The Buddha
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Right view is the ability to experience things beyond conditioned experience. It removes the biasing filters of past experience and allows you to experience reality closer to the way it actually is. It requires letting go of preconceptions, judgments, and reactivity developed over a lifetime of habit. Meditation (and its constituents, right effort, mindfulness, and concentration) will help you to identify your preconceptions, judgments, and reactivity and to see how they are active in your experience.
Right view is understanding dukkha, the causes of dukkha, how to stop it, and how to engage in a lifestyle that will address it. The goal is to live life well by minimizing harm to yourself, others, and the world. The goal is to experience things as they are without adding any preconditions, biases, or distortions. It is to find a natural happiness that is always available but obscured from your gaze in the way the sun is always there but sometimes obscured by clouds. Being in the moment is practicing right view.
The Eight Hooks
In the Pathamalokadhamma Sutta, the Buddha said,
Among humans, these things, namely,
Gain, loss, status, disrepute, blame, praise, pleasure, and pain
Naturally are impermanent, uncertain, and liable to change,
The wise, ever mindful, understand these things,
And contemplate them as always shifting and changing
Thus, delightful things cannot oppress their minds,
They have no reaction to disagreeable things,
They have abandoned all liking and disliking (for worldly concerns).
Further, they know the path of nirvana, dust-free and without sorrow,
The Buddha warns about the eight worldly things to avoid. These four pairs of opposites are reflected in the preceding sutra.
• Taking delight in money, materials possession; feeling distress when separated from these things
• Taking delight in praise and things that boost the ego; feeling distress when receiving criticism or disapproval
• Taking delight in maintaining a good reputation or personal image; feeling distress when image and reputation are diminished
• Taking delight when making contact with pleasurable things; feeling distress when making contact with unpleasurable things
These are eight hooks for the mind and are thusly eight attitudes that make you vulnerable to dukkha (suffering; pervasive dissatisfaction, and so forth). The Buddha is cautioning against basing your self-worth, happiness, and well-being on their occurrence.
All things mentioned here are either not in your direct control (that is, it is something someone else does to us) or they cannot be controlled because they are always changing (that is, the fundamental truth of impermanence). He is not saying don’t enjoy things but he is saying that enjoyment might be a double-edged sword if not tempered by wisdom of impermanence. He is saying don’t take yourself so seriously. He is saying don't invest so much energy into self-protection. Don’t base your self-worth on what other people think of you. In fact, spend less time on figuring out your self-worth and more time on paying attention to your experience (and while you’re at it, why not focus on helping others, or at least not doing harm to others).
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“It is very interesting and important to note here that thoughts of selfless detachment, love, and nonviolence are grouped on the side of wisdom. This clearly shows that true wisdom is endowed with these noble qualities, and that all thought of selfish desire, ill-will, hatred, and violence are the result of a lack of wisdom . . .”
—Walpola Rahula
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Gain, loss, status, disrepute, blame, praise, pleasure, and pain are eight hooks to avoid and they may beset you constantly. Inevitably you may succumb to them on a regular basis. Alternatively, each moment is an opportunity to recognize the hook and to disentangle yourself from its barbed grasp. Mindfulness practice helps you to disentangle. To be mindful is to see how you are hooked and allowing fear to overtake you.
RIGHT RESOLVE
Right resolve involves intentions. The spirit in which you approach everything—a spirit of kindness, compassion, and harmlessness to your fellow beings—is essential to right resolve. The goal is to move away from the ego-related concerns of “me” and “mine,” toward a lifestyle of service where your motivations are not ego-driven but more selfless.
A NOBLE PROCESS
The Noble Eightfold Path is a process. Don’t worry about getting it perfectly at every moment. Do not expect that you will automatically wake up one morning with a wonderful loving feeling toward everyone that you express through tireless works of selflessness. It took many years to become conditioned the way you are and it will take some time to make changes. The Path provides the methods to accomplish this.
One of the biggest illusions people maintain is the illusion of separation. That is, the “me” as being separate from “you” and not just people, everything. The traditional belief, now supported by quantum physics, is that there is an interconnection amongst everything. And what we experience as solid objects are mostly empty space.
If you know that everything is interconnected you will behave differently in the world. Not only is everything interconnected it is also in flux—constantly changing. Wisdom invites you to recognize this and to enjoy the ride. Reality is a process not a collection of things. The world, including your body, is a ceaseless dance of energy and matter, interdependent and impersonal. It only becomes personal through the process of attachment and identification through language—“me and mine.” The process of the Four Noble Truths can give you a direct experience of this truth. When interdependence is experienced, compassion for others and the earth arises naturally.
RIGHT SPEECH, RIGHT ACTION, RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
The Morality Steps
These three disciplines relate to morality and ethical conduct, and have a spirit of lovingkindness and compassion at their core.
RIGHT SPEECH
Speech is a powerful force and can be used for good or for harm. To practice right speech, you must speak the truth and avoid unnecessary communications such as gossip. While you might not always be certain of the right thing to say, you probably know the wrong things to say. Here are some examples of speech you might want to avoid when practicing right speech:
• Lies
• Slander
• Cursing or abusive language
• Raising one’s voice unnecessarily
• Harsh words
• Speaking too much (rattling on)
• Gossip
• Creating enmity
Think before you speak and try to restrain your tongue.
RIGHT ACTION
Right action can be understood through the directive: “Do no harm,” at least not intentionally. Where do you draw line? Is eating animals causing harm? Is wearing animal products causing harm? In the time of the Buddha, monks would eat whatever was placed in their begging bowls unless it was intentionally killed for them. The Dalai Lama eats meat for medical reasons. Does eating plants cause harm? In the Mahayana schools there is more emphasis on vegetarianism to minimize the risk of harm. The Theravada monastic code does not prohibit the consumption of meat. Right action is similar to right speech. Your actions should be harmonious with your environment, leading to peace rather than ill will. Try to do nothing that will cause harm to others. Obviously harmful acts include the following:
• Stealing
• Taking of life, human and otherwise
• Destruction of person or property or peacefulness
• Overindulging
Right action includes sexual responsibility—no adultery or prostitution. It also includes abstaining from using alcohol and recreational drugs in harmful ways.
RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
Right livelihood means to avoid harm through your work in the world. The monks in the Buddha’s time addressed this issue by taking vows of poverty. Monks then and now renounce material possessions, except for a robe, a begging bowl, and few other items. Just as with sensory perceptions of the body, the goal is not renunciation, but rather a lack of attachment. There is no prohibition against the accumulation of wealth or of having luxurious possessions. It all depends on the relationship you have to these things. In fact, in the traditional view, great wealth may be a sign of good karma. Whatever the status of your karma, material wealth provides an opportunity to help others through generosity.
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“The Eightfold Path is thus a path of self-transformation: an intellectual, emotional, and moral restructuring in which a person is reoriented from selfish, limited objectives towards a horizon of possibilities and opportunities for fulfillment.”
—Buddhist scholar Damien Keown
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Right livelihood asks you to look at your choices for work and decide if what you are doing to put food on the table is causing harm to anyone or anything else. Even more than not doing harm, right livelihood goes a step further and encourages you to do work that is helpful to others. It requests that you live an honorable life.
In today’s world right livelihood can cause some confusion. You want to occupy yourself with activities that promote harmlessness and peace and cause no injury to others. Is being a bartender practicing right livelihood? That is up to you. How does your vocation affect your meditation practice? Is it helping or hindering? Can you practice harmlessness and drill oil? Can you work with nuclear weapons and maintain serenity for yourself and others? Right livelihood asks that you examine your occupation. Can you spend your work time,
energy, and effort practicing peacefulness and kindness in the world?
It also should be noted that the Buddha considered no war a just war. Therefore, a profession in the military would not be considered right livelihood. Acts of violence were clearly against the Buddha’s teaching.
RIGHT EFFORT, RIGHT MINDFULNESS, RIGHT CONCENTRATION
The Meditation Steps
The next three disciplines are all mental disciplines and directly relate to meditation practices.
RIGHT EFFORT
All this practice takes quite a bit of effort, so now you need to make sure you are using the appropriate level of effort, somewhere in between the extremes of laziness and overdoing it. Right effort also means getting rid of improper attitudes and thoughts. When unproductive or unsavory thoughts arise you must expend the necessary level to return your attention to what is happening in the present moment.
Remember how the Buddha expended great effort to realize enlightenment. He sat through the armies of Mara and did not move until he had accomplished what he set out to accomplish. You can think of Buddha sitting serenely when you are feeling restless during meditation to renew your resolve. To benefit from the Buddha’s teachings, effort must be expended. There are no shortcuts.
RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Right mindfulness requires a foundation of right concentration. While practicing mindfulness meditation (vipassana) you will have a direct experience of the three marks of existence. By paying attention to, for instance, the rising and falling of your breathing or the arising and fading away of sensations in the body, you will have a direct experience of impermanence (anicca). When you see how your mind engages with painful stories or identifies with themes of loss or deprivation, you have a direct experience of suffering (dukkha).