The Noble Eightfold Path

And inspire me that with mindfulness and alertness
Born from thoughts ultimately pure,
I may live in accord with the holy dharma,
The ways leading to personal liberation.
The Foundation of All Perfections

He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in paths of righteousness
for His Name's sake.
-- Psalm 23:

Although the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta lists the elements of the Noble Eightfold Path, it does not provide any information as to the meaning or content of these elements. A more detailed explanation is given in the portion of the Maha-satipatthana Sutta extracted below. There is a lot of information packed into this excerpt, which we will unpack in future posts, but here are just a couple of preliminary things to note:

• I personally prefer the word anguish instead of "stress" or "suffering" to denote the mental and emotional experience of the phenomenon denoted by the Pali word dukkha.
• "Right mindfulness" and "right concentration" are addressed in a slightly different, but not inconsistent, way by the Anapanasati Sutta, part of which we used in A Basic Meditation Technique (the Pali term jhana (Sanskrit dhyana) means "mental absorption").

"And what is the noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress? Just this very noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

"And what is right view? Knowledge with regard to stress, knowledge with regard to the origination of stress, knowledge with regard to the cessation of stress, knowledge with regard to the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: This is called right view.

"And what is right resolve? Aspiring to renunciation, to freedom from ill will, to harmlessness: This is called right resolve.

"And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech.

"And what is right action? Abstaining from taking life, from stealing, & from illicit sex. This is called right action.

"And what is right livelihood? There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones, having abandoned dishonest livelihood, keeps his life going with right livelihood: This is called right livelihood.

"And what is right effort? There is the case where a monk generates desire, endeavors, arouses persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the sake of the non-arising of evil, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen... for the sake of the abandoning of evil, unskillful qualities that have arisen... for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen... (and) for the maintenance, non-confusion, increase, plenitude, development, & culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen: This is called right effort.

"And what is right mindfulness? There is the case where a monk remains focused on the body in & of itself — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world. He remains focused on feelings in & of themselves... the mind in & of itself... mental qualities in & of themselves — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world. This is called right mindfulness.

"And what is right concentration? There is the case where a monk — quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful (mental) qualities — enters & remains in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. With the stilling of directed thoughts & evaluations, he enters & remains in the second jhana: rapture & pleasure born of composure, unification of awareness free from directed thought & evaluation — internal assurance. With the fading of rapture, he remains equanimous, mindful, & alert, and senses pleasure with the body. He enters & remains in the third jhana, of which the Noble Ones declare, 'Equanimous & mindful, he has a pleasant abiding.' With the abandoning of pleasure & pain — as with the earlier disappearance of elation & distress — he enters & remains in the fourth jhana: purity of equanimity & mindfulness, neither pleasure nor pain. This is called right concentration.

"This is called the noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress.

-- from "Maha-satipatthana Sutta: The Great Frames of Reference" (DN 22),
translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Access to Insight, Legacy Edition, 30 November 2013.

The Four Noble Truths

No longer craving fantasy,
a steadfast desire for liberation,
attaining these two is the first breakthrough.
The Three Principles of the Path

Inspire me to realize the shortcomings of samsara
And to give birth to the great wish for blissful freedom.
The Foundation of All Perfections

Praise the LORD!
Happy are those who fear the LORD,
who greatly delight in his commandments....
The wicked see it and are angry;
they gnash their teeth and melt away;
the desire of the wicked comes to nothing.
-- Psalm 112:1,10

The core teachings of Buddhism are found in the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta ("The Sutra of Turning the Wheel of Truth"), which describes the Buddha's first sermon to his disciples in the Deer Park at Varanasi. This begins with a brief description of the Middle Path which avoids addiction to extremes. Then follow the Four Noble Truths, which explain why the path is to be followed.

The literal meaning of the Pali term nibbana (Sanskrit nirvana) is "unbinding", that is, liberation of the mind from its enslavement by the Three Poisons and all the anguish (dukkha, often translated "suffering") that follows from that.

"Monks, these two extremes ought not to be practiced.... There is addiction to indulgence of sense-pleasures, which is low, coarse, the way of ordinary people, unworthy, and unprofitable; and there is addiction to self-mortification, which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable.

"Avoiding both these extremes, the Tathagata [The Perfect One] has realized the Middle Path; it gives vision, gives knowledge, and leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment and to Nibbana.... It is the Noble Eightfold path, and nothing else, namely: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration....

"The Noble Truth of Suffering [dukkha], monks, is this: Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering, association with the unpleasant is suffering, dissociation from the pleasant is suffering, not to receive what one desires is suffering — in brief the five aggregates subject to grasping are suffering.

"The Noble Truth of the Origin [cause] of Suffering is this: It is this craving [thirst] which produces re-becoming (rebirth) accompanied by passionate greed, and finding fresh delight now here, and now there, namely craving for sense pleasure, craving for existence and craving for non-existence (self-annihilation).

"The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering is this: It is the complete cessation of that very craving, giving it up, relinquishing it, liberating oneself from it, and detaching oneself from it.

"The Noble Truth of the Path Leading to the Cessation of Suffering is this: It is the Noble Eightfold Path, and nothing else, namely: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration."

-- from "Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth" (SN 56.11).
Translated from the Pali by Piyadassi Thera.
Access to Insight, 30 November 2013.