[Buddhism 101] The Eightfold Noble Path.
Friday, February 12th, 2010 11:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
erikaOver time, I've become very interested in Buddhism and am compiling a primer of the basic tenets and beliefs of Buddhists, in order to hopefully become a Buddhist myself. This is the second of a few lessons in what I'm calling Buddhism 101.
(previous: The Four Noble Truths)
The eight basic principles of Buddhism, often shown as a wheel with eight spokes.
The Eightfold Noble Path is generally broken down into three sections under Wisdom, Morality, and Concentration. Wisdom is comprised of Right Understanding and Right Thought (that is, purpose or aspiration). Morality requires Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood. Concentration is reached through Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration (that is, meditation).
It can also be translated as follows (quoted from buddhanet):
1. Samma-Ditthi — Complete or Perfect Vision, also translated as right view or understanding. Vision of the nature of reality and the path of transformation.
2. Samma-Sankappa — Perfected Emotion or Aspiration, also translated as right thought or attitude. Liberating emotional intelligence in your life and acting from love and compassion. An informed heart and feeling mind that are free to practice letting go.
3. Samma-Vaca — Perfected or whole Speech. Also called right speech. Clear, truthful, uplifting and non-harmful communication.
4. Samma-Kammanta — Integral Action. Also called right action. An ethical foundation for life based on the principle of non-exploitation of oneself and others. The five precepts.
5. Samma-Ajiva — Proper Livelihood. Also called right livelihood. This is a livelihood based on correct action: the ethical principal of non-exploitation. The basis of an Ideal society.
6. Samma-Vayama — Complete or Full Effort, Energy or Vitality. Also called right effort or diligence. Consciously directing our life energy to the transformative path of creative and healing action that fosters wholeness. Conscious evolution.
7. Samma-Sati — Complete or Thorough Awareness. Also called "right mindfulness". Developing awareness, "if you hold yourself dear watch yourself well". Levels of Awareness and mindfulness - of things, oneself, feelings, thought, people, and Reality.
8. Samma-Samadhi — Full, Integral or Holistic Samadhi. This is often translated as concentration, meditation, absorption or one-pointedness of mind. None of these translations is adequate. Samadhi literally means to be fixed, absorbed in or established at one point, thus the first level of meaning is concentration when the mind is fixed on a single object. The second level of meaning goes further and represents the establishment, not just of the mind, but also of the whole being in various levels or modes of consciousness and awareness. This is Samadhi in the sense of enlightenment or Buddhahood.
* "The word Samma means 'proper', 'whole', 'thorough', 'integral', 'complete', and 'perfect' - related to English 'summit' - It does not necessarily mean 'right', as opposed to 'wrong'. However it is often translated as "right" which can send a less than accurate message. For instance the opposite of 'Right Awareness' is not necessarily 'Wrong Awareness'. It may simply be incomplete. Use of the word 'right' may make for a neat or consistent list of qualities in translations. The down side is that it can give the impression that the Path is a narrow and moralistic approach to the spiritual life. I use variant interpretations so you consider the depth of meanings."
This Eightfold Noble Path is called the Middle Way, for it avoids, on the one hand, losing oneself in sensual pleasures, and, on the other hand, giving oneself entirely over to asceticism and self-mortification.
The path is a paradox. It is a conditioned thing that is said to help you to the unconditioned. Awakening is not "made" by anything: it is not a product of anything including the Buddha's teachings. Awakening, your true nature is already always present. We are just not awake to this reality. Clinging to limitation, and attempts to control the ceaseless flow of phenomena and process obscures our true nature.
Okay. General thoughts.
First off, the path itself. I think 8 is a good number—perhaps a few too many for people to comfortably hold in their head at the same time, but I'm sure a lot of people have them memorized anyway.
The aspects of the path that concern me the most or that I think I will find the most difficult: all of them—they're all so interrelated it's hard to pick just one or two out!
But I think right mindfulness and right action are going to be the hardest for me to actually live.
Right mindfulness: because it's so integrated with EVERYTHING.
Right action: because sometimes we all just want to do stupid things that we know will bite us in the ass later. Okay, sometimes I want to do stupid things that I know will bite me in the ass later. And usually, I, uh, just do them. And worry/deal with the consequences when they happen. So ... yeah, not exactly right action there.
The Noble Eightfold Path
(previous: The Four Noble Truths)
The eight basic principles of Buddhism, often shown as a wheel with eight spokes.
The Eightfold Noble Path is generally broken down into three sections under Wisdom, Morality, and Concentration. Wisdom is comprised of Right Understanding and Right Thought (that is, purpose or aspiration). Morality requires Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood. Concentration is reached through Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration (that is, meditation).
It can also be translated as follows (quoted from buddhanet):
1. Samma-Ditthi — Complete or Perfect Vision, also translated as right view or understanding. Vision of the nature of reality and the path of transformation.
My thoughts: Hopefully this "vision of the nature of reality and the path of transformation" is not expected of me right now, because if you asked me to describe the nature of reality right now I'd feel like I'd been put in the Total Perspective Vortex and no, I would not like a piece of fairy cake afterwards.
However, if you say "Complete Understanding" it makes a lot more sense to me. It's taught in Buddhism that in order to gain real understanding you need to see for yourself that Buddhist teachings are true—the first (and only?) EMPIRICAL religion. I love it! So basically apply the teachings to my life and see whether it makes things better. I can get down with that.
2. Samma-Sankappa — Perfected Emotion or Aspiration, also translated as right thought or attitude. Liberating emotional intelligence in your life and acting from love and compassion. An informed heart and feeling mind that are free to practice letting go.
(Emphasis mine.)
I like this one, a lot. It has a lot to do with what I'm working on in therapy and it calls to me. It reminds me of what Dialectic Behavioral Therapy calls "wise mind" which is your logical/rational mind and your emotional mind working together, which is ideally where you want to make all your decisions and eventually, live your life.
3. Samma-Vaca — Perfected or whole Speech. Also called right speech. Clear, truthful, uplifting and non-harmful communication.
Obviously if you're going to act from love and compassion, hurtful words or falsehoods are the antithesis of your purpose. This seems pretty simple, but devastatingly so—the kind of simple that can really change your life.
4. Samma-Kammanta — Integral Action. Also called right action. An ethical foundation for life based on the principle of non-exploitation of oneself and others. The five precepts.
Ethical foundation for life... sounds... heavy, dude. I'll go over the five precepts in my next post, I think.
5. Samma-Ajiva — Proper Livelihood. Also called right livelihood. This is a livelihood based on correct action: the ethical principal of non-exploitation. The basis of an Ideal society.
I need to research this more but I think my life's choice is compatible with this—being a psychiatric nurse seems very non-exploitative to me. Granted, there are those who think psychiatry as a whole is an exploitation of mental illness, but seeing as I don't fall into that camp, I find it hard to give them much credence.
6. Samma-Vayama — Complete or Full Effort, Energy or Vitality. Also called right effort or diligence. Consciously directing our life energy to the transformative path of creative and healing action that fosters wholeness. Conscious evolution.
I like the idea that we can consciously direct our energies to where they are most needed. I think this is a vital part of living a mindful life, which leads us to...
7. Samma-Sati — Complete or Thorough Awareness. Also called "right mindfulness". Developing awareness, "if you hold yourself dear watch yourself well". Levels of Awareness and mindfulness - of things, oneself, feelings, thought, people, and Reality.
Mindfulness! $DEITY, I deal with this one every day.
Basically, mindfulness is defined as the state of being attentive to and aware of what is taking place in the present moment. This is another one of those devastatingly simple concepts that can completely change your life—how many of us drive home from work every day on autopilot? Get dressed on autopilot? Console our children/pet our animals on autopilot? Even fucking our SO(s) on autopilot?
Never really stopping to think about the impression that we're making or the tasks that we're doing, instead drifting off into our own little worlds—maybe full of anxiety, depression, sadness, anger... when being in the moment would serve us far better, and allow us to really focus on the joy of being alive.
This step also really relates to all the other steps, in that if you cultivate a thorough awareness of what you are doing during the day, you wouldn't want to lie to others, act inhumanely/without compassion, et cetera. At least I wouldn't want to, because I'm not a sociopath.
8. Samma-Samadhi — Full, Integral or Holistic Samadhi. This is often translated as concentration, meditation, absorption or one-pointedness of mind. None of these translations is adequate. Samadhi literally means to be fixed, absorbed in or established at one point, thus the first level of meaning is concentration when the mind is fixed on a single object. The second level of meaning goes further and represents the establishment, not just of the mind, but also of the whole being in various levels or modes of consciousness and awareness. This is Samadhi in the sense of enlightenment or Buddhahood.
So basically meditation in order to achieve Enlightment. Okay, I probably need to start meditating more than once a week then. New goal: meditate every day for five minutes. We'll start there.
* "The word Samma means 'proper', 'whole', 'thorough', 'integral', 'complete', and 'perfect' - related to English 'summit' - It does not necessarily mean 'right', as opposed to 'wrong'. However it is often translated as "right" which can send a less than accurate message. For instance the opposite of 'Right Awareness' is not necessarily 'Wrong Awareness'. It may simply be incomplete. Use of the word 'right' may make for a neat or consistent list of qualities in translations. The down side is that it can give the impression that the Path is a narrow and moralistic approach to the spiritual life. I use variant interpretations so you consider the depth of meanings."
This Eightfold Noble Path is called the Middle Way, for it avoids, on the one hand, losing oneself in sensual pleasures, and, on the other hand, giving oneself entirely over to asceticism and self-mortification.
My thoughts: Right. It doesn't ask you to stop doing anything that isn't harmful to other beings—no victimless crimes in Buddhism. No flagellation or confession, no guilt. On the other hand, don't just mindlessly roll around in opium all day. Moderation. Ugh. I'm not so good at that, but ... I'd like to be.
The path is a paradox. It is a conditioned thing that is said to help you to the unconditioned. Awakening is not "made" by anything: it is not a product of anything including the Buddha's teachings. Awakening, your true nature is already always present. We are just not awake to this reality. Clinging to limitation, and attempts to control the ceaseless flow of phenomena and process obscures our true nature.
My thoughts: Wow. That's a hell of a lot to take in, so let's break it down. First off, yes, the path is a conditioning. To help me to the unconditioned state of Enlightenment. Okay, makes sense, if I accept that Enlightenment exists. Which I'm not quite sure I do yet.
But accepting that Enlightenment exists makes sense of the rest of the paragraph, which I paraphrase to state "enlightenment is already within us, we are just not aware of this because we unconsciously believe it is too powerful for us to control. Where the error comes in is thinking that we need to HAVE control. We cling to our limits and attempt to control this amazing flow of phenomenon which only obscures our true nature, which is without limits."
Do I believe this? I'm not sure yet. It's definitely something to think about, however. First off, I'm not really sure that Enlightenment exists, although I would say there are certainly people in this world who behave in a much more enlightened state of consciousness. Are they bodhisattvas (enlightened beings who teach the rest of us)—that I'm not prepared to state, again because I'm not sure Enlightenment exists.
I do think it's possible for someone to be partially enlightened or briefly enlightened—partial enlightenment, for example, by being a good Buddhist you're probably acting a lot more enlightened than the general population. Brief enlightenment might come about from near death experiences or traumatic events—a lot of times you hear people saying "I acted with complete clarity while my house was burning down, it was only later that I had any second thoughts." So was that a brief period of complete Enlightenment—maybe! I don't know!
I don't know, and that's probably my biggest problem with Buddhism—they're asking me to accept that this state of complete Enlightenment exists and is therefore worth striving for, when I'm not even sure it exists.
Okay. General thoughts.
First off, the path itself. I think 8 is a good number—perhaps a few too many for people to comfortably hold in their head at the same time, but I'm sure a lot of people have them memorized anyway.
The aspects of the path that concern me the most or that I think I will find the most difficult: all of them—they're all so interrelated it's hard to pick just one or two out!
But I think right mindfulness and right action are going to be the hardest for me to actually live.
Right mindfulness: because it's so integrated with EVERYTHING.
Right action: because sometimes we all just want to do stupid things that we know will bite us in the ass later. Okay, sometimes I want to do stupid things that I know will bite me in the ass later. And usually, I, uh, just do them. And worry/deal with the consequences when they happen. So ... yeah, not exactly right action there.
Much of this was reworded
or taken directly from various pages at
the basic Buddhism guide @ Buddhanet.
Other resources: Buddhism for Busy People by David Michie, also
Turning the Wheel by Sandy Boucher.
or taken directly from various pages at
the basic Buddhism guide @ Buddhanet.
Other resources: Buddhism for Busy People by David Michie, also
Turning the Wheel by Sandy Boucher.
