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I'm going to record this and upload it as an audio file so my students can see how I want them to handle this topic in their essay assignment. If it works, I'll probably do one for the Dao and Five Pillars assignments, too.
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To prepare you for your essay on the Eightfold Path, I’d like to provide a more in depth outline than the textbook does.
1. Review:
You should have an idea of the story of the life of the Buddha from your textbook. To give a brief review, Siddhartha Gautama, who would later become the Buddha, grew up as a prince, sheltered from the hardships of life. After finally being exposed to the reality of old age, disease, and death, he decided to leave his home and family and take on the life of an itinerant ascetic. After studying with different teachers and trying different methods to gain enlightenment, he realized that the destruction of suffering could only come from a middle ground between extreme asceticism and extreme hedonism.
2. The Four Noble Truths:
I want to start this discussion of the Eightfold Path with a description of the Four Noble Truths. The two teachings are interconnected and it is difficult to understand one without understanding the other.
On the surface, the Four Noble Truths are simple principles. They state that worldly existence is characterized by suffering, and that suffering arises from attachment or desire. However, suffering can be ended if desire is quelled and attachments are severed; the way to do this is by practicing the Middle Way or the Eightfold Path.
To go more in depth, the attachment and desire mentioned in the second Noble Truth include not only attachment to and desire for material objects, wealth, and power, but also attachment to family and friend, the desire for love, comfort, and happiness, and even attachment to a particular religious doctrine such as that espoused by the Buddha. In this view, even good things have a negative side because they are impermanent; even if a person is happy right now with his or her life, something will inevitably change, such as the loss of a loved one, that will bring suffering. I’ll come back to this point and describe it more in depth momentarily.
3. The Eightfold Path:
The Eightfold Path mentioned in the fourth Noble Truth is, obviously, made up of eight component principles. The Eightfold Path shouldn’t be looked at as a step-by-step program due to the interrelated nature of its contents. Each principle is connected to one or more of the others by helping to boost understanding and practice.
The eight principles of the Path can be grouped into three general categories: wisdom, ethical conduct, and mental development. Wisdom consists of right view and right intention; ethical conduct consists of right speech, right action, and right livelihood; and mental development consists of right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. In this context, the word “right” doesn’t refer to a right as a noun, as in the right to free speech or the right to a fair trial. In this case “right” is used as an adjective to express “correct” or “proper”.
3a. Right view:
Right view or right belief is considered the first principle of the Eightfold Path and falls into the category of wisdom. However, it’s more accurate to say that this principle is both the beginning and end of the Path. A person starts with the right view, and in turn right view is developed and augmented through practice of the other seven principles.
What right view teaches is to view as it really is; that is, by Buddhist principles. One must belief in the inherent truth of the Four Noble Truths, in the concept of karma or that all actions have a consequence that may affect one in this life or in another life, as well as in the impermanence of all things. There are other concepts that are important to Buddhist philosophy, such anatta, or the belief that there is no inherent self or soul, but these beliefs tend to vary depending on the kind of Buddhism one practices and are beyond the scope of this assignment and this course.
In applying the worldview inherent in the Four Noble Truths to contemporary life, on the surface, it may seem like a very negative outlook on life. The idea that one has to cut all ties to family and worldly life to achieve enlightenment is alien to many Americans and seems like a depressing way to live. Most would say that the suffering experienced because of the loss of a loved one is made worth it by the relationship with that person up to that point, and that the risk of suffering in the future is made worth it by the happiness of the present.
However, to demonstrate how right view works realistically in a modern context, I first have to dispel the idea that Buddhism is a totally pessimistic religion. If all Buddhists cut ties to people and the world, there wouldn’t be any little Buddhists running around, and the religion would largely die out. On the contrary, unless total enlightenment in this lifetime is a person’s spiritual goal, most Buddhists don’t go this far. Instead, they focus on personal ethical and spiritual development, and on developing compassion in order to ease their own suffering and the suffering of others. One doesn’t have to cut oneself off completely from other people or material goods-one simply has to be aware that nothing lasts forever and prepare oneself for eventual changes and loss. You can see this at work when people prepare themselves for the death of an elderly or ill loved one, for example.
Another example, to draw on current reality TV, can be found in shows like Hoarders, in which a person is often so attached to the memories associated with items, he or she suffers psychological distress when faced with the necessity of getting rid of things, to the point of denying the reality of their situation. Right view can be applied in this case by showing that the extreme attachment to memories and to material items is actually endangering the life of the individual as the items pile up in one’s home and cause suffering for that person and for the people around him or her.
3b. Right intention:
Moving on, next comes right intention, which, like right view, falls under the category of wisdom. Other names for this principle are right aspiration or right thought. While right view involves coming to a personal understanding of the way the world works, right intention involves a cognitive and purposeful decision to think and act according to that world view.
Specifically, this means to make a conscious decision to develop compassion toward and do no harm to other living beings, which includes all animal life, but excludes plant life and non-organic objects. Right intention also involves making a commitment to the mental development required to control one’s thoughts and emotions, and to view things as they really are. This latter aspect of right intention is related to right mindfulness, which I’ll discuss in a few moments.
Applying this principle to life in contemporary society is pretty straightforward. It would involve consistently reminding oneself of how one should behave. For instance, in waking up in the morning, one could resolve to behave compassionately throughout the day, especially if one is aware that something difficult might happen over the course of the day, such as having to confront a co-worker, family member, or friend about something. By exercising right intention, a person in that kind of situation would have made a commitment beforehand to keep his or her behavior respectful and compassionate, and to keep his or her thoughts on the present situation and on helpful solutions to the situation.
3c. Right speech:
Next is right speech, which belongs in the category of ethical development. Right speech is pretty straightforward; it involves speaking kindly and compassionately, not saying anything that might harm another person, telling the truth, and only speaking when necessary, rather than idly to fill in silence.
We can probably all agree that words can be very powerful, and there are many available examples to illustrate this. With the presidential election coming up next year, you may have noticed just how much of an impact candidates have on the views of the people, not only because of what they actually say, but the way in which they say it. On a more day to day level, one can look at workplace gossip and rumors and see just how much of an impact they can have on the feelings of the person targeted, as well as on that person’s reputation. Finally, those of you who have children may have seen how big an impact words and tone can have on the very young and how they think about themselves and other people.
Lying is almost universally seen to be a harmful practice. Right speech even denies the value of what we call white lies by rationalizing that, if one were to find out the truth behind what seems like a harmless lie meant to spare one’s feeling, one would still be hurt, if only because whoever spoke the lie didn’t respect the person he or she lied to to tell the truth. Furthermore, Buddhist philosophy teaches that by learning to kindly communicate unpleasant truths rather than tell lies to spare another person’s feelings, one develops compassion and learns to better interact with and care for other people. In this way, the act of speaking thoughtfully helps to form more positive thought habits.
When it comes to speaking only when necessary, I’ll use a cliché and posit the example of the boy who cried wolf: when a person speaks frivolously, his or her words tend to lose impact and people don’t pay attention to them. Speaking unnecessarily also encourages saying things that either have no meaning or that one hasn’t thought out beforehand, which in turn can lead to one accidentally saying something hurtful.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Buddhists take vows of silence-the Buddha himself is said to have seen no value in such vows, because by not speaking at all, one can’t teach or learn, which are of utmost importance in building right view in oneself and others. However, like speech, silence does have great value when timed correctly, and can contribute to practicing other principles of the Eightfold Path, such as right mindfulness and right concentration, which I’ll get to shortly.
3d. Right action:
Right action or right conduct applies the principles of right speech to all bodily actions, which is to say that it is an injunction to Buddhists to act with compassion and to avoid actions that might be harmful to other beings. Actions that are to be avoided include taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, and killing or committing violence. Each of these can be further broken down.
For instance, taking what is not given not only includes stealing and robbery, but also fraud, cheating, and other physical forms of dishonesty. Forging another person’s signature or glancing at another person’s test paper during an exam would fall under taking what is not given just as much as shoplifting would. Alternatively, selling a defective item by representing it as something that works perfectly is also taking what is not given, in the form of money that the item isn’t worth. Anything one gets, whether it’s physical or abstract, goods or currency, should be gotten legally and with the express and full knowledge of both parties. In turn, this means that one must follow all contracts whether they’re express or implied.
Moving on, sexual misconduct encompasses raped and other unwanted sexual activity, as well as any sexual affairs that would harm any person, whether they are involved in the affair or not. For instance, extramarital affairs would fall under the latter distinction, even if both participating parties are consenting, because it might harm their spouses. Whether or not sexual conduct includes premarital sex is dictated by cultural and personal values.
Killing and committing violence is a little more straightforward, at least on the surface. A strict interpretation of the injunction against killing or harming a living being includes killing oneself, euthanasia, abortion, war, eating meat products, or exterminating pests. Just as for people of other faiths, however, this can become an ethically gray area for Buddhists. For instance, it’s a common belief that if a household pet is suffering, it should be euthanized; this is considered humane by the mainstream. However, a Buddhist must consider the following: is the suffering the animal is going through now greater the suffering it will experience in death? In cases of abortion, is carrying a fetus to term worth risking the health and life of the mother? Is capital punishment, if it is justly and humanely carried out, worth the ease of worldly suffering that person might have caused if allowed to live? Is the suffering of a prison inmate justified by stopping the suffering he or she would have caused, if free? Is killing a bee okay if one is deathly allergic to bee stings? Is violence in self-defense permissible? The list goes on.
The answers to these questions are as varied for Buddhists as they are for any other demographic and they’re often decided on a case by case basis depending on the situation, the persons involved, and the cultural values at work in the time and place. I’ve personally heard Buddhists joke that by swatting mosquitoes, they are helping the creature reach its next rebirth more quickly. Many Buddhists eat meat, often justifying it by saying that they didn’t personally kill the animal, or by performing meritorious actions to offset any karma created in doing so. On the same subject, most Buddhists monks will eat meat given to them as long as the meat wasn’t prepared specifically for them; it would be prideful and demanding to do otherwise.
3e. Right livelihood:
Right livelihood is the final component of ethical conduct. This principle instructs Buddhists to make a living in a way that is ethical, that isn’t harmful to other beings, and that follows Buddhist principles. The Buddha mentioned four specific occupations that should be avoided. These are dealing in intoxicants and poisons, dealing in weapons, dealing in living beings (which includes prostitution and slavery), and dealing in butchery and the meat industry.
On its face, right livelihood is straightforward, but if one takes a hard line stance on it, the number of jobs available dwindles. For instance, one might feel uncomfortable working in any store that sells alcohol or butchered meat. Working as a vet tech or veterinarian may seem to be in line with Buddhists principles because these people help alleviate the suffering of animals; however, if one considers euthanasia to violate right action, this occupation isn’t ideal. Even working in a call center might violate right livelihood if the parent company engages in unethical employment practices overseas, or for a manufacturing plant that provides components for military equipment.
On the other hand, as long as the individual isn’t personally violating this principle, he or she might be content working for a company that does. Whether or not one takes such a job may also be dependent more on one’s economic situation than on ethical concerns. Many Buddhists would find this acceptable, and might try to offset it by performing meritorious acts in other areas of their lives.
In a broad sense, the ethical values of right speech, right action, and right livelihood put into practice the cognitive values of right view and right intention. One is taking the Buddhist philosophical worldview and enacting it in the concrete world and in the interpersonal relationships that help to connect the individual to society and the world.
3f. Right effort:
Right effort is the first principle in the category of mental development, but it can also be considered to be the beginning of any attempt to carry out any of the principles of the Eightfold Path. Effort is just that: it’s the mental energy and dedication to putting the Eightfold Path into practice. As such, it’s inherently linked to right intention; right intention is the decision to change one’s thoughts and actions, while right effort is the energy invested in doing so.
However, the wrong kind of effort can be detrimental to spiritual progress. I’m sure many of you have heard the saying “practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.” The same is true of effort. For this reason, there are four types of endeavors effort should be put into. These are, 1) to prevent unwholesome states from arising, 2) to abandon unwholesome states that exist, 3) to work toward the arising of wholesome states that do not yet exist, and 4) to maintain wholesome states that have already arisen.
An example of this might be to actively work to overcome some personal prejudice one might have against another person or a group of people and to replace it with an attitude of tolerance. Another example is in learning to meditate: it takes time to develop the levels of concentration involved in deep meditation, but over time, one can develop meditative skills to the point where one can concentrate deeply even outside of meditation.
Changing one’s mindset has a direct impact on one’s actions and vice versa. If one behaves in a compassionate manner even when one doesn’t feel like it or doesn’t want to, eventually, one may find that one’s thoughts have fallen in line with one’s actions. This is a little like the idea “fake ‘till you make it”. The reverse is also true: by cultivating a state of mind that is positive and wholesome, one is more likely to exhibit behaviors that are positive and wholesome. This makes it apparent that right effort, even though it is an internal process, has very real consequences on external actions and relationships.
3g. Right mindfulness:
The sort of mental work involved in right effort ties in closely with the next principle, right mindfulness. Right mindfulness is one of the trickier principles of the Eightfold Path, but at its most basic, what it means is to learn to be aware of one’s thoughts and the things that affect them. Put another way, it means to see things clearly and simply as they are, without bias.
Here’s an example I usually use when describing how right mindfulness can be put into action. Say you’re driving on the freeway, going home after a stressful day at work, and someone cuts you off in traffic. For most people, the immediate reaction is anxiety, anger, or something along those lines. You might think the other driver is irresponsible or rude, that he or she isn’t paying attention, is a bad driver, or is just inconsiderate.
With right mindfulness, you can look at the situation and your reaction, and by dissecting it, see what really happened. For starters, there’s almost no way for you to know if the other driver is in fact unskilled or rude, or for that matter if he or she is in a hurry, is excited, is upset, and so on. Maybe the other driver just got a raise and wants to hurry home to tell her family. Maybe his child got hurt at school and he’s rushing to the hospital. Maybe there was something in the road that he had to swerve to get around. Maybe he just didn’t see your car and it was an honest mistake. There’s no way for you to know.
On the other hand, you would also look at your own mindset. Did you have a bad day? Do you have a bad headache or indigestion? Maybe you had previously been in accident where someone cut you off in traffic, you rear ended them, and your insurance rate went up. Your previous experiences and your current emotions will affect the way you respond to the situation. If, for instance, you were having a great day or you can remember times when you’ve done the same thing without meaning to, you might be more forgiving than if you were stressed out and nearly ended up rear ending the person who cut you off.
This process of dissecting the situation and identifying the factors that cause certain thoughts to arise is at its core a conceptualization exercise based on four foundations of mindfulness. These are contemplation of one’s body, one’s state of mind, one’s feelings toward the situation (that is, if you find it attractive, repulsive, or neutral), and of outside phenomena. These four foundations will affect one’s perception of the situation and subsequently affect how one thinks about and how one reacts to it.
What all of this comes down to is that we as human beings see things through a number of filters and when those filters are removed, we are able to not see things clearly, but to gain better control of our emotions and thoughts. This is where right effort comes into play: at first, it would an arduous task to examine every thought and feeling that crosses one’s mind, but over time it would become automatic. And as with right effort, the relationship between one’s thoughts and one’s actions should be apparent.
3h. Right concentration:
Right concentration or right meditation is the last principle of the Eightfold Path, and arguably the most time consuming. While the other principles of the Eightfold Path can be practiced in day to day situations, right concentration, at least at first, is something one must set aside time to do.
What right concentration comes down to is using meditation one helpful and wholesome topics in order to develop a one-pointedness of mind. What I mean by this, is the ability to focus all of one’s mental faculty and energy on one topic for an extended period of time. This usually occurs gradually by setting aside time to meditate on a regular basis and working to intensify and sustain heightened levels of concentration. Over time, one can develop meditative skill to the point where it becomes natural to apply heightened levels of concentration to every day situations and tasks.
There are many styles of meditation used by many religions, and not all of them involve sitting in the lotus position. For instance, yoga and tai chi are physical style of meditation focusing on the movement of the body. On the other hand, some Buddhists may use mandala, mantra, or mudra as meditative aids, giving them an image, sound, or movement to help them focus their minds. The purpose of meditation also varies, even within Buddhism. For some, it’s as simple as trying to debrief and clear the mind after a long day. It can be a method of developing right mindfulness, or an exercise to help them understand the Buddhist world view and concepts such as karma or the Four Noble Truths. For others, hours spend in meditation are hours spent striving for enlightenment.
4. Conclusion:
Now that I’ve covered each principle of the Eightfold Path, I’d like to you to think specifically about the examples I provided for how these principles can be applied in real, day to day situations. They aren’t such lofty ideals that they can’t be practiced in contemporary society, though some may be harder to perfect or find time for than others. And, just like the tenets of any of the major world religions, the principles of the Eightfold Path can be and often are interpreted at varying levels of severity depending on the situation, the culture, and on the individual. Religious principles aren’t just theories or ideals, they’re things that people must be able to practice in day to day life. If they aren’t, the religion won’t survive.