The Noble Eightfold Path

The Noble Eightfold Path
AUG/19/ 2023—AUG/20/ 2023

Hello everyone, welcome to our Dharma talk at Dharma Rain Meditation Center.

The Noble Eightfold Path is originally from the 37 bodhakkhiya-dharma. it is an important guide for our cultivation.

What exactly is the Noble Eightfold Path?

Noble Eightfold Path, Sanskrit: Ārya aṣṭāṅga mārgaḥ, in Sanskrit, Ārya (Yalia) is holy, perfect, comprehensive. The meaning of aṣṭa is the number eight, āṅga is the meaning of “item” and mārga is the way of cultivation, so the literally we call it Noble Eightfold Path, which refers to the eight methods for Buddhism cultivation and attaining the Nirvana, so it is also called eight ships, eight boats.It including Right View (Samma-ditthi), Right Thought (Samma-sankappa), Right Speech (Samma-vaca), Right Action (Samma-kammanta), Right Livelihood (Samma-ajiva), Right Effort (Samma-vayama), Right Mindfulness (Samma-sati), and Right Concentration (Samma-samadhi).

First, Right View: when we understand the Four Noble Truth, we have the right knowledge and right view, the anasrava wisdom is the body of it. As everyone knows, the Buddha divides the opinions into three categories: evil view, anasrava right view sasrava right view. Right view is relative to delusion, referring to the correct understanding of Buddhism theories, especially the four noble views of the Buddha’s saying that “everyone should know. In the Noble Eightfold Path, right view is the basic but crucial content;

Second, Right Thought: After seeing the Four Noble Truth, we may have the right thoughts, to make the true wisdom grow, and it is the body of anasrava heart. With the Right Thought, we can go far away from the ignorance of the idiot thoughts, close to the pure wisdom of Buddhism, that is, the second stage of the listening, contemplation and mediation. Keep away from greedy karma, eliminate the anger, rises the compassion, destroy cruelty mind, which is the Right Thought;

Third, Right Speech: to cultivate the speech with true wisdom, do not say irrational words, to use the anasarva precepts as its body, refers to the pure and good speech, in line with the Dharma’s remarks. That is, do not tell lies, no slang, no evil words, no slander words, no loose speech, no violent speech and far from all idle theory.

The characteristics of the Right Speech are: timely, true, soft, beneficial, and loving. The Buddha also taught us that we need to consider three factors to decide to say something or not: whether the words are true, whether they are good for the audience and whether they are loved by the audience. In addition, the Buddha listed two other topics that Buddhist practitioners should avoid and ten topics to be discussed in other sutras. The two types of topics that should be avoided are unprofitable speech and argument. The ten topics that should be discussed include: less desire, contentment, keeping distance from people and world, less bondage, advancement, precept, samadhi, wisdom, relief and the relief theories;

Fourth, Right Action: With true wisdom, we should break all evil activities and all improper behaviours, do something to clean our body and mind; it is the body of anasarva precepts. In other words, people have to keep the five precepts, the monks keep the bhikkhu precepts and so on;

Fifth, the Right Livelihood: seeking a legitimate career and abandoning the evil industry. If a person wants to be prosperous for the sake of good fortune, it is called an evil industry, and it is called evil Livelihood. There are five kinds of evil Livelihood:
(1) Show magic and special things in front of regular people, seeking for fame and profit.
(2) Declaring one’s merits to seek for financial support.
(3) Do fortune-telling to seek for financial support.
(4) Talk tall to cheat people or threaten people, to get frame and profit.
(5) Talking about the benefits that he/she get, to confuse people, to make money.

Sixth, the Right Effort: it is also known as right convenience, which is said that the correct efforts that can stop evil and improve the good, help people far away from evil, close to good and work hard to attain it. Stop the rising of, cut off the currently evil thoughts, rises the goodness, improve the goods and made it perfected.

The opposite of the Effort is dizziness and sleepy. Drowsiness is the weakness or heaviness of the heart, and sleepy means a state of stagnation. Contrary to the Right Effort is the evil effect, the heart of the evilness. The use of true wisdom and diligent cultivate the Nirvana path; nothing is too difficult in the world.

Seventh, the Right Mindfulness: Reminiscent of the right path with true wisdom, and no evil thoughts, with anasarca thoughts as the body. Right Mindfulness means four Mindfulness (Satipatthana), that is, to observe the body, heart, feeling and Dharma. If we can study Dharma through the above stages, start from getting away from the evil thoughts to cultivate the real Dharma, remove the ignorance of the unsatisfactory and idiot thoughts, work hard on the right action, remember Buddha’s teaching, remember the Dharma, never forgot the Buddhism truth;

Eighth, the Right Concentration: Using the true wisdom to attain the anasarva samadhi and take the anasarva samadhi as the body. This is a big samadhi, no matter where you are, no matter what happened in what situation, you are not tempting, not confused. Right Concentration is different from some other meditation teachings; in particular, it requires the cultivator has a strong faith of the Dharma. Thought the study of the Dharma mentioned above stages, the right thoughts rise, naturally, believe the Buddhism Dharma, then concentrate on one Mindfulness, to seek the physically and mentally silent, to attain the Zen samadhi.

Thank you for the listening!