The eight Buddhist practices in the Noble Eightfold Path are:
- Right View: our actions have consequences, death is not the end, and our actions and beliefs have consequences after death. The Buddha followed and taught a successful path out of this world and the other world (heaven and underworld/hell).[31][32][33][web 1] Later on, right view came to explicitly include karma and rebirth, and the importance of the Four Noble Truths, when "insight" became central to Buddhist soteriology, especially in Theravada Buddhism.[34][35]
- Right Resolve or Intention: the giving up of home and adopting the life of a religious mendicant in order to follow the path; this concept aims at peaceful renunciation, into an environment of non-sensuality, non-ill-will (to loving kindness), away from cruelty (to compassion).[36] Such an environment aids contemplation of impermanence, suffering, and non-Self.[36]
- Right Speech: no lying, no rude speech, no telling one person what another says about him to cause discord or harm their relationship.[37]
- Right Conduct or Action: no killing or injuring, no taking what is not given, no sexual misconduct, no material desires.
- Right Livelihood: no trading in weapons, living beings, meat, liquor, and poisons.
- Right Effort: preventing the arising of unwholesome states, and generating wholesome states, the bojjhagā (Seven Factors of Awakening). This includes indriya-samvara, "guarding the sense-doors", restraint of the sense faculties.[38][36]
- Right Mindfulness (sati; Satipatthana; Sampajañña): a quality that guards or watches over the mind;[39] the stronger it becomes, the weaker unwholesome states of mind become, weakening their power "to take over and dominate thought, word and deed."[40][note 2] In the vipassana movement, sati is interpreted as "bare attention": never be absent minded, being conscious of what one is doing; this encourages the awareness of the impermanence of body, feeling and mind, as well as to experience the five aggregates (skandhas), the five hindrances, the four True Realities and seven factors of awakening.[36]
- Right samadhi (passaddhi; ekaggata; sampasadana): practicing four stages of dhyāna ("meditation"), which includes samadhi proper in the second stage, and reinforces the development of the bojjhagā, culminating into upekkha (equanimity) and mindfulness.[42] In the Theravada tradition and the vipassana movement, this is interpreted as ekaggata, concentration or one-pointedness of the mind, and supplemented with vipassana meditation, which aims at insight.
The Noble Eightfold Path
The Noble Eightfold Path enables us to overcome our “I”, feel greater harmony with the world around us and eventually eliminate the pain we often experience. In this path, the Wheel, symbol of Dhamma, is presented with eight rays depicting the following eight principles:
- Right View
- Right Thought
- Right Speech
- Right Action
- Right Livelihood
- Right Effort
- Right Mindfulness
- Right Concentration
Right View is the first and most important step on the path because we must first understand the truth of the Four Noble Truths in order to begin our journey.
Right Thought follows immediately. “Right” in this case means “according to the facts”. In other words, it suggests that we see things as they are and not as we would like them to be.
Right Speech, Action and Livelihood include moral barriers that prevent lying, stealing, committing violent acts, and making a living in a way that harms others. These moral barriers not only help to achieve general social harmony, but also help us to control and eliminate our sense of “I”.
Right Effort is important, because the “I” thrives on inaction and the wrong effort. Inactivity because if we do not try to practice them we cannot hope to achieve anything at any level in life and in the “wrong endeavor” because the greatest crimes have been committed by very active people. Therefore, the effort must be made and must be consistent with the teaching and with the effort to eliminate our “I”.
The last two steps of the path are the Right Mindfulness and the Right Concentration. These two stages represent the path towards liberation from pain.
Being awake and aware at all times, is fundamental to a good life. This can be achieved in many ways, but in the West the formal practice is called “meditation” and is the way to achieve Right Awareness and Concentration.
The Eightfold Path
Study – Cultivating Wisdom
1. Right Understanding – a person becomes acquainted with the basic principles of Dhamma, the Buddha’s teachings, and enters the path, gradually awakening an understanding of the wisdom he or she can attain at the end.
2. Right Intention – One contemplates the desire for all beings to be happy and free from suffering. One cultivates goodwill, harmlessness and non-attachment, avoiding tendencies towards greed, hatred and harm.
Ethical Conduct – Developing Moral Conduct
3. Right Speech – I will refrain from false speech – not only lying or slandering, but gossip, cursing, swearing or meaningless babble. I will communicate in kind, gentle and direct speech.
4. Right Action – there are 5 precepts of non-harming (ahimsa) – these are ideals that one vows to live by: to refrain from harming sentient beings; to refrain from taking what is not offered; to refrain from sexual misconduct; to refrain from false speech; to refrain from stupefying drink.
5. Right Livelihood – to earn a living in a way that benefits humanity.
Mental Development – Disciplining the Mind
By “Mind” the Buddha meant the totality of thoughts, sensations,
feeling and consciousness, that are experienced at each moment. The mind
has great potential, but the undeveloped mind is like a wild horse:
difficult to stay attentive, it craves stimulation, jumping from thought
to thought, dwelling in the past or in the future, with thoughts that
often cause anxiety or fear. When this undisciplined mind does pay
attention to the present, it does so with opinions and emotional
reactions rather than being in the present. To bring the mind under control is necessary, but it requires patience, skill, and persistent training.
6. Right Effort – since deluded thinking hinders the ability to understand the world, the student pays deliberate attention to developing positive thoughts that alleviate suffering and to letting go negative ones, he or she practices generosity and patience.
7. Right Mindfulness – taking meditative awareness into everyday life. Doing so can restrain the mind’s proclivity to make immediate judgments, reduce its tendency to need stimulation, and sharpen its awareness in the present moment.
8. Right Concentration – it is necessary to take time each day to practice meditative awareness.
These eight elements are symbolized by a wheel and practiced simultaneously, since the practice of one supports the practice of the others. The Buddha maintained that one could develop the virtues described as one would develop any skill, with regular practice.
