THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH (NEP)
“… Amazing! Truly Amazing! How it is that all of
these living beings (throughout the universe)
are
replete with the Thus Come One’s (Buddha’s)
wisdom.
Yet
they are ignorant and confused, and do not know
or see it. I should teach them the Holy
Path, to cause them
to
forever separate from false thinking and attachments,
so
that they will see the Thus Come One’s vast wisdom
within themselves, which is no different from
the Buddha,”
so
spoke Gautama when he became completely enlightened. (1)
Subsequently, he was to remark: “Few cross the river of time
and are able to reach NIRVANA. Most of them
run up and down
only
on this side of the river. (2)
“But those who when they know the law follow the path of
the law, they shall reach the other shore
and go beyond the
realm of death.” (3)
The Noble Eightfold Path as taught by
Gautama Buddha, is for the spiritual development and liberation of man.
Enunciated in his very first sermon, it includes Moral Conduct (Sila), Mental
Discipline (Samadhi), and training in the cultivation of Wisdom (Panna/Prajna).
It is the unique Buddhist code of moral, mental, and physical conduct as
well as spiritual training which leads to the end of suffering and despair, to
perfect peace and happiness, to Nibbana (Nirvana). (4) 17..4.2005 2359
“Being established in moral conduct and training the mind, one realizes
the knowledge which leads to (spiritual) deliverance,” the Buddha declared. (5)
The Noble Eightfold Path embraces:
1.
Right understanding ……. Wisdom
(Panna/Prajna)
(samma-ditti)
2.
Right thought (intentions) ……. Wisdom
(samma-samkappa)
3. Right speech (samma-vaca) ,,,,,,,,,, Moral Conduct (Sila)
4. Right
action
…….. Moral Conduct
(samma-kammanta)
5. Right livelihood ……… Moral Conduct
(samma-ajiva)
6. Right
effort .............. Mental Discipline
(samma-vayama) (Samadhi)
7. Right
mindfulness ......... Mental
Discipline
(samma-sati)_
8. Right
concentration .......... Mental
Discipline
(samma-samadhi)
Based on loving-kindness (metta/maitreya) and compassion (karuna), moral
conduct provides the indispensable foundation for all higher spiritual
attainments. And no crowning spiritual fulfillment is possible without this
moral basis. (6) 18.4.2005 0435
(A) Moral Discipline (Sila)
Right speech means abstention
from telling lies; from backbiting, slander and divisive talk that may bring
about hatred, enmity, disunity and disharmony; from harsh, rude, impolite,
malicious and abusive language; and from idle, useless and foolish babble and
gossip.
“Never speak harsh words, for once spoken they may return to you,”
Buddha advised. “Angry words are painful and there may be blows for blows.” (7)
One should not speak carelessly; but, speak at the right time and place.
If one cannot say something useful, one should keep quiet, keep ‘noble silence’
or ‘golden silence.’ Mum’s the word.
Right action is cultivating
compassion and virtue. It is practicing the moral precepts that pave the way
for spiritual development and perfection.
“When a fool does evil work, he forgets that he is lighting a fire
wherein he must burn one day,” said the Buddha. (8)
“There is no fire like lust and no chains like those of hate. There is
no net like illusion, and no rushing torrent like desire.” (9) These three are
known as the major root afflictions, the removing of which constitutes right
action leading to the end of suffering.
“It is easy to do what is wrong, to do what is bad for oneself; but very
difficult to do what is right, to do what is good for oneself,” Gautama
commented. (10)
Right livelihood is
abandoning wrong ways of living which bring harm and suffering to others.
“Five kinds of livelihood are discouraged for Buddhists: trading in
animals for slaughter, slaves, arms, poisons, and intoxicants (drugs and
alcohol),” Dr. Peter Della Santina, a long-time Buddhist practitioner and
scholar, has written. (11)
“These five are not recommended because they contribute to the ills of society
and violate the values of respect for life and for the welfare of others…
“All these trades contribute to insecurity, discord, and suffering in
the world.”
Embracing right speech, right action, and right livelihood, moral
discipline leads toward integration and balance, giving rise to the capacity
for deep concentration. And according to the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan
Buddhism, moral discipline yields five general benefits: diligence, good
reputation, fearlessness, lack of confusion at death, and rebirths in higher
realms. (12)
Moral discipline provides the foundation for
the other two trainings in the Buddhist path of liberation: concentration and
wisdom. 19.4.2005 0531
(B) Mental Discipline (Samadhi)
“The mind is wavering and restless, difficult to guard and restrain: let
the wise man straighten his mind as a maker of arrows makes his arrows
straight,” Buddha counseled. (13)
“The mind is fickle and flighty, it flies after fancies wherever it
likes; it is difficult indeed to restrain. But it is a great good to control
the mind; a mind self-controlled is a source of great joy.” (14)
Buddha recalled: “In days gone by this mind of mine used to stray
wherever selfish desires, lust or pleasure would lead it. To-day this mind does
not stray and is under the harmony of control, even as a wild elephant is
controlled by the trainer.” (15)
Extolling mental discipline, Buddha said: “For he whose mind is well
trained in the ways that lead to light, who surrenders the bondage of
attachments and finds joy in his freedom from bondage, who free from the
darkness of passions, pure in a radiance of light, even in this mortal life he
enjoys the immortal NIRVANA.” (16)
Santina comments: “By strengthening the capacity of the mind and by
attaining control over it, mental development serves as a guarantee of the
observance of the precepts, and at the same time it assists in the real
objective of seeing things as they really are.
“Mental development prepares the mind to achieve wisdom, which opens the
door to freedom and enlightenment. Mental development therefore has a
distinctly important role in the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path…” (17)
Right effort is thus
dedicated to mental purification. It is the persevering endeavour to prevent
the arising of evil and unwholesome thoughts, or to discard such evil thoughts,
and to produce and develop or to promote and maintain good and wholesome
thoughts. It is to be vigilant and check all unhealthy thoughts, and to
cultivate wholesome and pure thoughts.
“By oneself the evil is done, and it is oneself who suffers: by oneself
the evil is not done, and by oneself one becomes pure,” Buddha taught. “The
pure and the impure come from oneself: no man can purify another.” (18)
He added: “Find joy in watchfulness; guard well your mind. Uplift
yourself from your lower self, even as an elephant draws himself out of a muddy
swamp.” (19)
Right mindfulness is to be
diligently aware, mindful and attentive with regard to the activities of the
body (kaya) and of the mind (citta), sensations or feelings (vedana), and
ideas, thoughts, conceptions and things (dhamma). (20)
“The Buddha called mindfulness the one way to the elimination of the
afflictions,” Santina has written. “The Buddha has also said that the mind is
the root of all virtues. The most important practice, therefore, is to
discipline the mind.
“One can also understand the importance of mindfulness from the fact
that mindfulness occurs in five of the seven groups that make up the
thirty-seven factors conducive to enlightenment…” (21)
Right concentration will lead
to pure equanimity and awareness. Its aim is to attain one-pointedness of mind
(or single-mindedness) to gain peace and realization.
Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda has
written: “…Concentration is the practice of developing one-pointedness of the
mind on a 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.” (22)
And, to acquire Buddha’s insight and vision. 19.4.2005 2307
(C) Training in Wisdom (Panna/Prajna)
Right thought
includes thoughts of renunciation (nekkhamma-samkappa), good will
(avyapada-samkappa), and compassion (karuna) or non-harm (avihimsa-samkappa).
These thoughts are to be cultivated and extended to all living beings.
“Right Thought is important because it is
one’s thoughts which either purify or defile a person,” Dhammananda, a
Theravada scholar-monk in Malaysia
“There are three aspects to
Right Thought. First, a person should maintain 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…”
Santina has written:
“Right Thought means avoiding attachment and aversion. The causes of suffering
are said to be ignorance, attachment and aversion. While right understanding
removes ignorance, right thought removes attachment and aversion. Therefore,
right understanding and right thought together (wisdom manifest) remove the
causes of suffering.” (24)
Right understanding is the understanding of things as they are.
Right understanding or penetrative wisdom
comes from continued and steady practice of meditation (Dhyana) or careful and
conscientious cultivation of the mind (Bhavana).
Right understanding of the
Four Noble Truths (suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the path leading to
the cessation of suffering) should rightly precede or initiate one’s spiritual
endeavour, but this does not come easily or instantly. Moreover, right
understanding culminates in wisdom.
And, as the Nyingma
school stresses, the purpose of wisdom is to develop full understanding of the
path of liberation. The Prajnaparamita teachings state: “Knowing the nature of
reality by means of wisdom, one becomes fully liberated from the three realms”
(desire, form and formless realms of samsara, subject to suffering). (25)
Vietnamese scholar-monk Thich Nhat Hanh comments: “…Understanding is the
power that can liberate us. It is the key that can unlock the door to the
prison of suffering.
“If we do not practice
understanding, we do not avail ourselves of the most powerful instrument that
can free us and other living beings from suffering…” (26)
To one endowed and empowered with
right understanding, it is impossible to have a clouded view of phenomena, for
he/she is immune to all impurities and has attained the unshakable deliverance
of the mind (akuppa ceto vimutti).
Deliverance means living
experience of the cessation of the three root causes of evil: Greed (lobha),
Hatred (dosa) and Delusion (moha) or Ignorance (avijja), that assail the human
mind. These root causes are eliminated through proper moral conduct, mental
discipline and wisdom. 21.4.2005 0846
Said the Buddha: “Kamma
performed without greed…hatred…delusion…is skillful, praiseworthy; that kamma
has happiness as its fruit, that kamma leads to the ceasing of kamma.” (27)
Said the Buddha: “I have gone
round in vain the cycles of many lives ever striving to find the builder of the
house of life and death. How great is the sorrow of life that must die! But now
I have seen thee, housebuilder: never more shalt thou build this house.
“The rafters of sins are
broken, the ridge-pole of ignorance is destroyed. The fever of craving is past:
for my mortal mind is gone to the joy of the immortal NIRVANA.” (28)
The Noble Eightfold Path provides 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. (29)
The Buddha said: “The
best of the paths is the path of eight (the Noble Eightfold Path). The best of
truths, the four sayings (the Four Noble Truths). The best of men, the one who
sees.
“This is the path. There is no
other that leads to vision. Go on this path, and you will confuse MARA, the
devil of confusion.
“Whoever goes on this path
travels to the end of his sorrow. I showed this path to the world when I found
the roots of sorrow.
22.4.2005 0550 11.7.2005
2217
“It is you who must make the effort. The
Great of the Past only show the way. Those who think and follow the path become
free from the bondage of MARA…” (30)
Notes: The Noble Eightfold Path (NEP)
- Flower Adornment Sutra, chapter 27, quoted in BUDDHISM: A Brief Introduction by Venerable Tripitaka Master
Hsuan Hua, published by Buddhist Text Translation Society,
- BUDDHA’S TEACHINGS, translated from the Pali by Juan Mascaro, published by Penguin, 1995, verse 85, p. 17
- Ibid., verse 86, p. 17
“this side of the river” represents the domain of
samsaric existence which is marked by suffering and impermanence. The “law”
refers to the inexorable and unalterable karmic law of cause and effect
governing all the three main forms of human conduct – those of the body, speech
and mind. The “path of the law” refers to the Dhamma (Dharma in Sanskrit), the
path of deliverance.
- This background paper on the Noble
Eightfold Path is based substantially on a synthesized article
on The Path of
Supreme Bliss in GEMS OF BUDDHIST
WISDOM (published by Buddhist Missionary Society, Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia
Nibbana (in Pali) or Nirvana (Sanskrit) means the
extinction of suffering, supreme bliss, etc.
In his classic text THE DAWN OF THE DHAMMA (published by Buddhadhamma Foundation, Bangkok
The Buddha has described Nibbana as the Absolute Noble
Truth (paramam ariyasacam), Reality.
Nibbana is Truth, as Walpola Sri Rahula has pointed out in What the Buddha taught (published by Gordon Fraser, London
- Quoted in GEMS OF WISDOM, p. 158
In a discourse on The
Path of the Bodhisattva (Essential
Teachings, published by North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California, 1995, pp.
30-31), the Dalai Lama instructs on mental training the object of which is to
crush the root of moha (illusion):
“…To arrive at a permanent state of well-being, at perfect peace, the root of
illusion must be destroyed.
“The training of the mind helps us in this manner:
Shila protects us, like good armor.
Prajna is the weapon that can defeat our enemies.
Samadhi is the strength necessary to wield the weapon.
“The “enemies” mentioned above are erroneous views,
the illusions that (mis)lead us from beginningless times. We cannot think only
of today, we must foresee that the battle will be long – it will continue
tomorrow, for our entire life, and also other lifetimes. Protected by the
shield of shila, we can develop our powers of prajna and samadhi. Once this
work is done we can take up the (spiritual) fight…”
As explained in Ways
of Enlightenment (a manual on Tibetan Buddhism published by Dharma
Publishing, Nyingma Institute, Berkeley, California, 1993): “Three kinds of
training can transform emotion and confusion and clear away the network of
karmic patterns: sila, discipline of body, speech, and mind; samadhi,
meditative concentration that can open access to higher levels of
consciousness; and sophisticated analysis that leads to prajna or wisdom, the
direct perception of reality… (p. 85)
“The three trainings (training in moral discipline,
training in concentration, and training in wisdom) of the Buddhist path brings
freedom so complete that those who follow this path are said to travel unseen
even by Mara, the lord of illusion and death. The Dhammapada (the best known
collection of the Buddha’s teachings) tells us: “Mara does not know the path of
those who abide in perfect conduct, meditative mindfulness, and genuine
wisdom.” (DP iv14)
“As the Enlightened One says in the Mahasihanada
Sutta: “Kassapa, there is nothing further or more perfect than this perfection
of morality, this perfection of the mind and heart, and this perfection of
wisdom.” (Digha Nikaya VIII).”
Moral discipline provides the foundation for the two
other trainings in the Buddhist path of liberation: concentration and wisdom. (Ways of Enlightenment, p. 87)
- Compassion is the main message of
Mahayana Buddhism, particularly in
practice with devotion to the Buddha Amitabha, the
supreme embodiment of universal great compassion (mahakaruna). His ceaseless
appeal to humanity remains vitally relevant and vibrant in the present era of
the so-called “New Age.” 18.4.2005 0500 27.4.2005 2350
In a recent book (written in the early 1980s, two and
a half millennia after Gautama Buddha) on the growing threat of dehumanization,
Austrian zoologist, founder of ethology, and 1973 Nobel laureate Konrad Lorenz
(1903-89) has urgently called for the awakening of compassion to stem what he
has described as the waning of humaneness.
18.4.2005 0515
In The Waning
of Humaneness (published by Unwin Hyman, London
“Even more important, it seems to me, would be the
awakening in our children (and in ourselves) of sympathy and compassion for all
of our fellow creatures. Compassion motivates that sort of love for everything
there is that lives in which Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965, world-renowned medical
missionary, humanitarian and philosopher, and 1952 Nobel winner) conferred such
moving expression.”
Lorenz has further philosophically noted (pp. 220-221):
“On the grand harmony of the living world compassion plays no real role.
Suffering is comparably much older than is commiseration with suffering;
suffering came into the world when creatures became capable of subjective
experience and with their realization of the inevitable death that awaits each
individual – many millions of years before compassion became a part of
consciousness…
“Originally sympathy was most certainly present only
when one individual was bonded to another by love. Love for what lives is an
important, indispensable emotion. This emotion is what places the burden of
responsibility for all life on our planet squarely upon humans who are
sovereign over all of it. The responsible human being may not push aside or
repress awareness of the suffering endured by other creatures and least of all
the suffering endured by fellow humans. With this responsibility the human is
confronted by a most difficult task…”
18.4.2005 1009
- BUDDHA’S TEACHINGS, verse 133, p. 27
- Ibid., verse 136, p. 28
Right action includes keeping the moral precepts. For
the Buddhist laity, the five precepts to observe are to abstain from killing,
stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and using intoxicants.
- Ibid., verse 251, p. 49
Lust (desire), hatred and illusion (ignorance) are the
major afflictions, the eradication of which leads to enlightenment.
- Ibid., verse 163, p. 33
- The Tree of Enlightenment, published by Chico Dharma Study Foundation,
- Ways of Enlightenment, p. 87
- BUDDHA’S TEACHINGS, verse 33, p. 8
- Ibid., verse 35, p. 8
- Ibid., verse 326, p. 61
It is said in the Ratnamegha Sutra: “If control is gained over the mind alone,
control will be
gained over everything.”
And in the Dharmasangiti
Sutra: “Everything is dependent on the mind.”
The two quotations above are quoted in NOTES to A GUIDE TO THE BODHISATTVA’S WAY OF LIFE
by Acharya Shantideva, translated by Stephen Batchelor, published by Library of
Tibetan Works & Archives, India, 1985, p. 160. Shantideva (AD 687-763) was
a great Indian Buddhist scholar and meditation master.
- BUDDHA’S TEACHINGS, verse 89, p. 18
- The Tree of Enlightenment, p. 57
Santina further comments: “Buddhism’s emphasis on the
importance of mental development is not surprising when we remember the
importance of mind in the Buddhist conception of experience. Mind is the single
most important factor in the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path. The Buddha
himself put this very clearly when he said that the mind is the source of all
things and that all things are created by the mind. Similarly, it has been said
that the mind is the source of all virtues and other beneficial qualities.
“To obtain these virtues and qualities, you must
discipline the mind. The mind is the key to changing the nature of experience.”
- BUDDHA’S TEACHINGS, verse 165, p. 33
- Ibid., verse 327, p. 64
- In Bodhicharyavatara (an important teaching text in Tibetan
Buddhism), Shantideva said: “I ask of you, with my two hands joined, that
in all your actions be awake and attentive.”
This appeal by the great Indian Dharma master and
bodhisattva was quoted by the Dalai Lama in Essential Teachings, p. 78. Also refer to Note (15) above.
- The Tree of Enlightenment, p. 342
In For A Future
To Be Possible (published by Parallax Press, Berkeley, California
In Pure Land practice, chanting or reciting the Name
of Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light and Infinite Life, engages the three
disciplines of mental cultivation and discipline – right effort
(chanting/reciting the Buddha’s name with sincerity and zeal), right
mindfulness of the Buddha Amitabha who has the strongest affinity with human
beings and who has vowed to save all of them who have faith in him, and right
concentration with the diligent and earnest practice of chanting/reciting the
Buddha’s name to the point of single-mindedness (samadhi) – to return to the
original purity of mind and become one with the Buddha within. 19.4.2005 2244
- What Buddhists Believe, published by Buddhist Missionary Society,
- Ibid., p. 81
- The Tree of Enlightenment, p. 73
- Ways of Enlightenment, p. 90
In THE NOBLE
EIGHTFOLD PATH (first published in 1984 by Buddhist Publication Society, Sri Lanka Malaysia
26.
LIVING BUDDHA, LIVING CHRIST,
published by Riverhead Books, New
York
27. Anguttara Nikaya: (I), Threes, 108
28. BUDDHA’S
TEACHINGS, verses 153-154,
p. 31
In his translation of the Dhammapada (published for free distribution by Sukhi Hotu, Malaysia),
Venerable Acharya Buddharakkhita has noted (p. 270) that these immortal verses
are the Buddha’s “Song of Victory”: his first utterance after attaining
enlightenment. The house-builder is craving, the house is samsaric existence
(in the form of the human body or that of a sentient being). Rafters are
passions, and the ridgepole is ignorance.
29. Book 32 of the Avatamsaka Sutra (Chinese version), one of the major scriptures in
the
Mahayana canon, relates that the Buddha teaches
sentient beings “how to practice the eightfold noble path, and then abandon
false, erroneous, and contrary views. Having abandoned contrary views, they
(are able to) see the wisdom of a tathagata (buddha), they become equal to
buddhas, and (are able to) benefit (other) sentient beings…” (translated and
quoted by Luis Gomez, in BUDDHISM IN
PRACTICE, published by Princeton University Press, New Jersey
In Buddhist
Reflections (translated by Maurice Walshe and published by Samuel Weiser,
Maine, 1991, pp. 14-15), Lama Anagarika Govinda, a distinguished German
Buddhist scholar and practitioner, has commented: “Human salvation, according
to Buddhism, consists in awakening to reality – to completeness – by the
conquest of greed, hatred and delusion. Delusion consists of an erroneous
belief in a separate “I-ness” which, in the struggle for self-preservation,
hates everything that opposes it and craves for whatever gives it pleasure or
serves its selfish ends.
“Only insight into the potential universality of being
(and into the laws of all life) can deliver us from this false belief and its
painful consequences. This insight can be gained by the triple path of
world-experience, world-transformation and world-conquest. The path of
world-experience culminates in the recognition of suffering and its causes; the
path of world-conquest reaches its peak when the causes of suffering are
removed by overcoming of self; the path of world-transformation ends in the
realization of that totality in which the duality of world and ego are removed.
These are not three different and separate paths, they are three phases or aspects
of the same path (to deliverance), and can be regarded as occurring either
successively or simultaneously…”
30. BUDDHA’S
TEACHINGS, verses 273-276,
p. 54
In the Amitabha
Sutra (Amito-jing), one of the main Pure Land Pure Land
In THE DAWN OF
THE DHAMMA, Venerable Sucitto comments (p. 89): “…The first thing that Mara
attacks is the faith that there is a Way and the confidence to keep practicing
it. Without faith the energy of aspiration dies, there’s no mindfulness, no
concentration and no insight.
“The enlightened response to this voice of Mara is to
say. “I know you, Mara – I know this is just a delusion.” This is the
unshakeable confidence in the power of mindfulness that the Bodhisattva
(spiritual aspirant) demonstrates by remaining cool and unmoving in the midst
of the demon host. Even after his enlightenment, the Buddha was assailed
(unsuccessfully) by Mara…”
Sucitto further comments, insightfully (p. 108):
“…Faith is the quality that sustains the heart without the need to have
something else to hold on to. It is akin to courage or the willingness to try
something out. Dhamma practice has to begin with this; otherwise there is no
real giving of oneself, and no personal inquiry.
“With one moment of faith, we practice one moment of
letting go. But one moment of Dhamma has a furthering quality. The practice is one
moment at a time, and yet very firm and supportive (until a cultivator succeeds
in attaining concentration, insight, and realization for liberation, to quote
the Buddha in the Anguttara Nikaya)…”
And to quote the Buddha again (Anguttara Nikaya: (IV), Eights, 11): “Just as the great ocean has
only one taste, that of salt, even so has the teaching and discipline only one
taste, the taste of liberation.”
In THE NOBLE
EIGHTFOLD PATH (p. 116), Bhikkhu Bodhi concludes: “Liberation is the
inevitable fruit of the (Noble Eightfold) path and is bound to blossom forth
when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for
reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue (until success). If
these requirements are met there is no doubt that the goal will be attained.
This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.”
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