The Middle Way and Noble Eightfold Path

The Middle Way and Noble Eightfold Path
AUG/26/ 2023—AUG / 27/ 2023

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

If we divide Dharma cultivation into three parts,it would be precepts, samadhi and wisdom. The purpose of the precepts is to cultivate the concentration of thoughts and mindfulness, helping people attain the samadhi by keeping the precepts. The samadhi’s function is to cultivate the consistency and stability of thought, to accomplish the amend of thoughts, to rise the wisdom beyond the world’s insights, which is finding the own wisdom in samadhi. Therefore, it can be seen from this that the purpose of practising Dharma is not simple for keeping precepts but attaining the wisdom and obtaining real relief. From the aspect of the noble eightfold path, Right Speech (Samma-vaca), Right Action (Samma-kammanta), Right Livelihood (Samma-ajiva) are the parts of the precepts; Right Effort (Samma-vayama), Right Mindfulness (Samma-sati), and Right Concentration (Samma-samadhi) are the samadhi parts; Right View (Samma-ditthi) and Right Thought (Samma-sankappa) are the part of the wisdom.

However, the noble eightfold path is different from the gradual cultivation of “precepts, samadhi and wisdom”. It starts with wisdom, which means we have to get the right view and right thoughts to a certain extent first. This involves the “wisdom root” that people often say, before we get into the cultivation, we should be some basic foundations. Otherwise, there will be many obstacles and hard to get the point. After that we can go to the precepts: language, behaviour, and livelihood must conform to the law and conformity to etiquette; “effect” runs through the entire process of cultivation; Compare with thought and ideology, the idea belongs to the deep psychological category, it is at the stage before the thoughts. As long as the shallow content is standardized, we may control the subtle consciousness, to absorb the wisdom from samadhi and raise the level of the previous cultivation. Therefore, the eight links are mutually influential and mutually reinforcing.

From the perspective of paramita, the offering will antidote the greed; keeping the precepts can avoid hurting people; the Ksanti(patience) will conquer the hate heart; the subtle effect will antidote laziness; the samadhi will dismiss the idiot thoughts; the wisdom will conquer the ignorant. This is the separate application and practice of the noble eightfold path, the reasons are almost the same, but it gives the value of equality and mutual influence. This is also the reason why the paramita become a concept. That is to say, the practice of each “paramita” (method, road) must be the implementation of right thoughts and then assisted by the other six right paths, we may genuinely achieve the paramita.

Therefore, no matter the noble eightfold path or paramita, the primary roads of cultivation are the same; we have to keep the precepts and samadhi and attain wisdom. Only by insisting on the right view and right thoughts, we can enlightenment ourselves and enlightenment others.

Next, we are going to talk about the middle path. The eightfold path is at the heart of the middle way, which turns from extremes, and encourages us to seek the simple approach. Before Prince Siddhartha left his palace, he enjoyed the most joyful life of the world, there was no pain but joy, since he started his cultivation, he went to all the “achievers” in the world to follow them, he tried all kinds of cultivation in the world, of course, most of them are ascetic, sometimes the ascetic even threatened his life, he never gave up, but he could not really attain the real enlightenment. When he was meditating at the Dragon Cave, the Great Brahma Lord turned into a girl. He played the zither from across the river, the Buddha heard the melodious music, it was not slow or quick, it was just right and beautiful, he thought: the string must be not loose or tight, at this moment he understood the middle way.

Maybe you will be confused, the middle way is not extreme, to walk in the central, what does it have to do with the noble eightfold path?

In fact, the noble eightfold path is a way of practising the middle way. This is also why the Buddha’s teachings cannot be surpassed–helping people practice in a way that does not go to extremes and conduct religious life. The Buddha advised his disciple to keep in a middle way, to avoid extreme sensory indulgence and extreme self-torture. The middle way is a legitimate way of life, and this method does not advocate accepting orders from others. A person who keeps his life and cultivation middle path, is not because of the fear of any supernatural agent, is from the intrinsic value caused by following this behaviour. People choose this self-required cultivation; the purpose is to self-purification.

The middle way is a process of planning inner peace and inner progress. A person can achieve real improvement in the right behaviour and right internal view by keeping the middle way, rather than by engaging in external worship or prayer. According to the Buddha’s teachings, anyone who lives by the real Dharma will be guided and protected by the Dharma and naturally be able to live in harmony with the nature rules.

Every Buddhist is encouraged to shape his life according to the Eightfold Path taught by the Buddha. Those who adjust their lives according to this noble way of life will be far from suffering and disaster in this life and in the future and nourish their soul by stopping evil and being right.

The Eightfold Path is like a map, just as a traveler needs a plan to reach his destination, we need the Eightfold Path’s guidance to reach the ultimate goal of human life – Nirvana. In order to achieve the ultimate goal of life, the Eightfold Path is divided into three parts to practice; practitioners must develop moral character (precepts), mental exercise (samadhi) and prajna (wisdom). These three aspects must be developed at the same time; the result of any effort will be different according to individual spirituality. The moral character is the first step that a practitioner must develop, which is to bring benefits to other lives by our language and behaviours. Buddhists can develop moral character by keeping to the five precepts of refrain from destroying living creatures, refrain from taking that which is not given, refrain from inappropriate sexual activity, refrain from incorrect speech, refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to carelessness. With the development of the practitioners’ moral character, our mind becomes more controllable, which will help us discover our samadhi power and eventually with the development of the samadhi power, our own self-nature wisdom will show his face.

With his supreme wisdom, The Buddha understood that not all human beings have the ability and opportunity to achieve a certain level or attain a specific fruit position immediately. Therefore, he explains the Eightfold path practically and encourages the human spiritual life with operable norms, to explore the essence of life, which, is the extraordinary part of the Buddha’s teachings.

Thank you for the listening!