What
Buddhists Believe
Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda Maha Thera
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The Noble
Eightfold Path - The Middle Way
This is the Path for leading a
religious life without going to extremes.
An
outstanding aspect of the Buddha's Teaching is the adoption of the
Eightfold Path is the Middle Path. The Buddha advised His followers to
follow this Path so as to avoid the extremes of sensual pleasures and
self-mortification. The Middle Path is a righteous way of life which does
not advocate the acceptance of decrees given by someone outside oneself. A
person practises the Middle Path, the guide for moral conduct, not out of
fear of any supernatural agency, but out of the intrinsic value in
following such an action. He chooses this self-imposed discipline for a
definite end in view: self-purification.
The Middle Path is a
planned course of inward culture and progress. A person can make real
progress in righteousness and insight by following this Path, and not by
engaging in external worship and prayers. According to the Buddha, anyone
who lives in accordance with the Dhamma will be guided and protected by
that very Law. When a person lives according to Dhamma, he will also be
living in harmony with the universal law.
Every Buddhist is
encouraged to mould his life according to the Noble Eightfold Path as
taught by the Buddha. He who adjusts his life according to this noble way
of living will be free from miseries and calamities both in this life-time
and hereafter. He will also be able to develop his mind by restraining
from evil and observing morality.
The Eightfold Path can be
compared to a road map. Just as a traveler will need a map to lead him to
his destination, we all need the Eightfold Path which shows us how to
attain Nibbana, the final goal of human life. To attain the final
goal, there are three aspects of the Eightfold path to be developed by the
devotee. He has to develop Sila (Morality), Samadhi (Mental Culture) and
Panna (Wisdom). While the three must be developed simultaneously, the
intensity with which any one area is to be practised varies according to a
person's own spiritual development. A devotee must first develop his
morality, that is, his actions should bring good to other living beings.
He does this by faithfully adhering to the precepts of abstaining from
killing, slandering, stealing, becoming intoxicated or being lustful. As
he develops his morality, his mind will become more easily controlled,
enabling him to develop his powers of concentration. Finally, with the
development of concentration, wisdom will arise.
Gradual
Development
With His infinite wisdom,
the Buddha knew that not all humans have the same ability to reach
spiritual maturity at once. So He expounded the Noble Eightfold Path for
the gradual development of the spiritual way of life in a practical way.
He knew that not all people can become perfect in one lifetime. He said
that Sila, Samadhi, and Panna, must and can be developed over many
lifetimes with diligent effort. This path finally leads to the attainment
of ultimate peace where there is no more unsatisfactoriness.
Righteous
Life
The Eightfold path
consists of the following eight factors:
|
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
|
Sila - Morality
|
|
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration
|
Samadhi - Mental
culture
|
|
Right
Understanding
Right Thoughts
|
Panna - Wisdom
|
What is Right
Understanding? It is explained as having the knowledge of the Four
Noble Truths. In other words, it is the understanding of things as they
really are. Right Understanding also means that one understands the nature
of what are wholesome kamma (merits) and unwholesome
kamma (demerits), and how they may be performed with the body, speech
and mind. By understanding kamma, a person will learn to avoid evil
and do good, thereby creating favorable outcomes in his life. When a
person has Right Understanding, he also understands the Three
Characteristics of Life (that all compounded things are transient, subject
to suffering, and without a Self) and understands the Law of Dependent
Origination. A person with complete Right Understanding is one who is free
from ignorance, and by the nature of that enlightenment removes the roots
of evil from his mind and becomes liberated. A lofty aim of a practising
Buddhist is to cultivate Wisdom and gain Right Understanding about
himself, life and all phenomena.
When a person has Right
Understanding, he or she develops Right Thought as well. This
factor is sometimes known as 'Right Resolution', 'Right
Aspirations" and 'Right Ideas'. It refers to the mental state which
eliminates wrong ideas or notions and promotes the other moral factors to
be directed to Nibbana. This factor serves a double purpose of
eliminating evil thoughts and developing pure thoughts. Right Thought is
important because it is one's thoughts which either purify or defile a
person.
There are three aspects to
Right Thought. First, a person should maintaining an attitude of
detachment from worldly pleasures rather than being selfishly attached to
them. He should be selfless in his thoughts and think of the welfare of
others. Second, he should maintain loving-kindness, goodwill and
benevolence in his mind, which is opposed to hatred, ill-will or aversion.
Third, he should act with thoughts of harmlessness or compassion to all
beings, which is opposed to cruelty and lack of consideration for others.
As a person progresses along the spiritual path, his thoughts will become
increasingly benevolent, harmless, selfless, and filled with love and
compassion.
Right Understanding
and Right Thought, which are Wisdom factors, will lead to good, moral
conduct. There are three factors under moral conduct: Right Speech, Right
Action and Right Livelihood. Right Speech involves respect for truth and
respect for the welfare for others. It means to avoid lying, to avoid
backbiting or slander, to avoid harsh speech, and to avoid idle talk. We
have often underestimated the power of speech and tend to use little
control over our speech faculty. But we have all been hurt by someone's
words at some time of our life, and similarly we have been encouraged by
the words of another. It is said that a harsh word can wound more deeply
than weapons, where as a gentle word can change the heart and mind of the
most hardened criminal. So to develop a harmonious society, we should
cultivate and use our speech positively. We speak words which are
truthful, bring harmony, kind and meaningful. The Buddha once said 'pleasant
speech is sweet as honey, truthful speech is beautiful like a flower, and
wrong speech is unwholesome like filth'.
The next factor under
good, moral conduct is Right Action. Right Action entails respect
for life, respect for property, and respect for personal relationships. It
corresponds to the first three of the Five Precepts to be practised by
every Buddhist, that is, dear to all, and all tremble at punishment, all
fear death and value life. Hence, we should abstain from taking a life
which we ourselves cannot give and we should not harm other sentient
beings. Respect for property means that we should not take what is not
given, by stealing, cheating, or force. Respect for personal relationship
means that we should not commit adultery and avoid sexual misconducts,
which is important for maintaining the love and trust of those we love as
well as making our society a better place to live in.
Right Livelihood is
a factor under moral conduct which refers to how we earn our living in
society. It is an extension of the two other factors of Right Speech and
Right Action which refer to the respect for truth, life, property and
personal relationships.
Right Livelihood means
that we should earn a living without violating these principles of a moral
conduct. Buddhists are discouraged from being engaged in the following
five kinds of livelihood: trading in human beings, trading in weapons,
trading in flesh, trading in intoxicating drinks and drugs, and trading in
poison. Some people may say that they have to do such a business for their
living and, therefore, it is not wrong for them to do so. But this
argument is entirely baseless. If it were valid, then thieves, murderers,
gangsters, thugs, smugglers and swindlers can also just as easily say that
they are also doing such unrighteous acts only for their living and,
therefore, there is nothing wrong with their way of life.
Some people believe that
fishing and hunting animals for pleasure and slaughtering animals for food
are not against the Buddhist precepts. This is another misconception that
arises owing to a lack of knowledge in Dhamma. All these are not decent
actions and bring suffering to other beings. But in all these actions, the
one who is harmed most of all is the one who performs these unwholesome
actions. Maintaining a life through wrong means is not in accordance with
the Buddha's teaching. The Buddha once said, 'Though one should live a
hundred years immorally and unrestrained, yet it would indeed be better to
live one day virtuously and meditatively.' (Dhammapada 103) It is
better to die as a cultured and respected person than to live as a wicked
person.
The remaining three
factors of the Noble Eightfold Path are factors for the development of
wisdom through the purification of the mind. They are Right Effort, Right
Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. These factors, when practised,
enable a person to strengthen and gain control over the mind, thereby
ensuring that his actions will continue to be good and that his mind is
being prepared to realize the Truth, which will open the door to Freedom,
to Enlightenment.
Right Effort means that we
cultivate a positive attitude and have enthusiasm in the things we do,
whether in our career, in our study, or in our practice of the Dhamma.
With such a sustained enthusiasm and cheerful determination, we can
succeed in the things we do. There are four aspects of Right Effort, two
of which refer to evil and the other two to good. First, is the effort to
reject evil that has already arisen; and second, the effort to prevent the
arising of evil. Third, is the effort to develop unarisen good, and
fourth, the effort to maintain the good which has arisen. By applying
Right Effort in our lives, we can reduce and eventually eliminate the
number of unwholesome mental states and increase and firmly establish
wholesome thoughts as a natural part of our mind.
Right Effort is
closely associated with Right Mindfulness. The practice of
mindfulness is important in Buddhism. The Buddha said that mindfulness is
the one way to achieve the end of suffering. Mindfulness can be developed
by being constantly aware of four particular aspects. These are the
application of mindfulness with regard to the body (body postures,
breathing so forth), feelings (whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutrally);
mind(whether the mind is greedy or not, angry, dispersed or deluded or
not); and mind objects (whether there are mental hindrances to
concentration, the Four Noble Truths, and so on). Mindfulness is essential
even in our daily life in which we act in full awareness of our actions,
feelings and thoughts as well as that of our environment. The mind should
always be clear and attentive rather than distracted and clouded.
Whereas Right Mindfulness
is directing our attention to our body, feelings, mind, or mental object
or being sensitive to others, in other words, putting our attention to
where we choose to, Right Concentration is the sustained application of
that attention on the object without the mind being distracted.
Concentration is the practice of developing one-pointedness of the mind on
one single object, either physical or mental. The mind is totally absorbed
in the object without distractions, wavering, anxiety or drowsiness.
Through practice under an experienced teacher, Right Concentration brings
two benefits. Firstly, it leads to mental and physical well-being,
comfort, joy, calm, tranquillity. Secondly, it turns the mind into an
instrument capable of seeing things as they truly are, and prepares the
mind to attain wisdom.
The Noble Eightfold Path
is the fourth important truth taught by the Buddha. As a competent
spiritual physician, the Buddha has identified a disease that afflicts all
forms of life, and this is Dukkha or unsatisfactoriness. He then diagnosed
the cause of the unsatisfactoriness to be selfish greed and craving. He
discovered that there is a cure for the disease, Nibbana, the state
where all unsatisfactoriness ceases. And the prescription is the Noble
Eightfold Path. When a competent doctor treats a patient for a serious
illness, his prescription is not only for physical treatment, but it is
also psychological. The Noble Eightfold path, the path leading to the end
of suffering, is an integrated therapy designed to cure the disease of
Samsara through the cultivation of moral speech and action, the
development of the mind, and the complete transformation of one's level of
understanding and quality of thought. It shows the way to gain spiritual
maturity and be released completely from suffering.
-ooOoo-
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Source: Buddhist
Study and Practice Group, http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Clubs/buddhism/
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Layout: Chan Duc - Nguyen Thao
Update : 01-11-2002
