Journey Down The Eight-Fold Path

First of all, I want to make sure to emphasize that I have not been on this journey for an extremely long period of time. Also, it should be noted that putting the objects of my studies onto text in my own words is primarily a tool that I am using to enhance my own understanding of these teachings, but in sharing my journey through learning, it is my hope that I can be of some assistance to others who are seeking to find their way down the same path that I am currently traveling.

In my previous blog about the Four Noble Truths I briefly mentioned the path that will liberate us from suffering, the Eight Fold Path, and promised to go into this topic in greater detail at a later date. True to my word, here is my next educational entry titled "Journey Down the Eight-Fold Path."

The Path can be divided into three basic divisions. Wisdom, ethical conduct, & concentration. 

• Wisdom

• Right View - Other translations: Perfect/complete vision, right understanding
  

• Right Intention -  Other translations: right thought/attitude/resolve/conception, perfect emotion

• Ethical Conduct

• Right Speech - Other translations: Perfect/whole speech
• Right Action - Other translations: right conduct, integral action
• Right Livelihood -  Or proper livelihood (how you earn a living)

• Concentration

• Right Effort - Other translations: right endeavor/diligence, complete/full effort
• Right Mindfulness - Other translations: right awareness/attention, complete/thorough awareness
• Right Concentration - Other translations: mindfulness, absorption, concentration, meditation.

Lets start from the beginning with Right View. I personally prefer the term right understanding. At the beginning of the path it is necessary to establish an unclouded view of reality. Taking this to heart, I began to think deeply about the impermanence of all worldly things - people, belongings, jobs, relationships, life. I pondered over suffering, and have started to see suffering as something that "just is." The world is what we make it, and so are the situations we are in. Along with studying and incorporating right view into my life I also began to study Karma, which I will also go into at a later date. 

The second stop along The Path is Right Intention. This stop on the path, or step, involves being committed to the ethical improvements of the mind. In order to have the right intention one must act with good will - resisting feelings of aversion and anger, restrain oneself from the pulls of desire. Also it is necessary to abstain from acts that cause harm - cruel/violent/aggressive acts. In place of these feelings we are to develop compassion and love.  Personally, I felt like eating meat would be considered wrong intention, because we do not need to eat meat to survive, and eating meat causes unnecessary suffering and harm to animals. 

Right Speech, the first part of the Path dealing with ethical conduct, is the section that I personally have the hardest time with. I have always been a talker. I talk too much, have the tendency to come off rude, and am constantly "putting my foot in my mouth." Right Speech includes speaking only truth, and abstaining from negative speech about others. Also, when practicing right speech, one must use caution not to speak with harsh words that offend or hurt others, and (my weakness) abstaining from idle chatter. Idle chatter is referred to as meaningless conversation that has no reason or depth. For me, learning to talk only when necessary has been difficult, so I have been telling myself, "Shut up, listen more." Eventually I hope that these ways of speech become natural to me, but in the meantime I am always attempting to be mindful. 

Right Action is categorized as actions carried out by our physical bodies. If we carry out negative, or unwholesome, actions our minds cannot be pure, because our actions have the ability to taint our minds."Wrong Actions" would be killing, harming others - intentionally or unintentionally, stealing - taking what is not given, and sexual misconduct (rape, predatory sexual attitudes, & lust) keeping sexual relationships harmless to others. Right Action is also tied into the Precepts, which is another blog that I will owe in the future.

Having the Right Livelihood means earning your living in a righteous manor. There are four very specific activities that Shakyamuni Buddha mentioned that cause harm, and because of this should be avoided. Dealing with weapons, dealing living beings (slavery, prostitution, and raising animals for slaughter) and selling poisons and intoxicants (alcohol & drugs).

Right Effort, the first section of the path that falls into the category of Concentration, is often seen as a prerequisite for other areas of the path. If you are not willing to make an effort, than nothing else can be achieved. It is important to examine the reasons for your efforts, because misguided efforts are not Right Efforts. Right Effort has four main aspects. Effort to prevent the arising of anger, greed, and ignorance. Effort to rid negative qualities that already exist. The Effort to grow skillful and wholesome qualities such as loving kindness, wisdom, and generosity. Lastly the Effort to cultivate and strengthen the qualities mentioned above that have already arisen. 

Right Mindfulness comes from a the ability to see things as they really are. When one achieves Right Mindfulness one is able to observe our thoughts and control the way we interpret them, almost as if from an exterior point of view. Four foundations for mindfulness laid out by Buddha were: mindfulness of body, mindfulness of feelings/sensations (attractions, dislikes, or neutral), mindfulness of mind/mental processes (state of mind), and mindfulness of mental objects or qualities. 

The finally we come to Right Concentration. Concentration is defined, in this context, as one pointedness of mind. Single focus on wholesome thoughts and actions. In Buddhism, meditation is the vehicle for achieving this. 

Words Spilling onto Virtual Paper

Pretty words on paper. Ideas dancing and swirling in my mind like music. The melody working itself out on my keyboard, my fingers keeping time, clicking away each key stroke its own unique pitch.

Typing is like therapy. Watching the words appear on the page, one letter at a time, as if a magical force is transferring the ideas in my head onto the screen.

I can blog from almost anywhere, always free to plunge, deeply, into the seductions of the written word. 

The internet really is wondrous creation. It tempts and entices, providing endless possibilities for the acquisition of knowledge. With only a few swirls and clicks anyone can virtually navigate and address the globe. 

It becomes my my lover. It calls to me, offering endless knowledge. Page after page, vigorously searching, I become a seeker on an endless quest always craving more.

Free thinking

I have always been a learner and a thinker, searching for knowledge, spending countless hours of my childhood with my nose buried in an encyclopedia. 

"Little Me" - the young me, in my earliest years, just out of diapers - loved the word "why". I asked this question constantly, even when being told what to do by my mother and other adults.

This was not a term intended to imply disrespect, although it was often taken that way. I would have always been happy to comply with the requests of my elders, but it has never been in my nature to follow blindly. 

Although the desire to know the meaning behind actions caused me a great deal of trouble growing up, this inquisitive nature has served me well as an adult. 

I still prefer to make decisions and choices with as much information as possible, because even a very small piece of information can sometimes completely change the required that is required.

At my very heart, "Now Me" is not a great deal changed from who Little Me was. Yes, I have evolved and grown in many ways, but when you strip away the illusions that  modern American society provided as I grew up, I am still an eager mind seeking growth and knowledge.

Now Me is still asking Little Me's favorite question - "Why?"

Adopting a New Way of Life Through the Four Noble Truths

Traditional texts say that Siddhartha reached enlightenment in a mere six years at the age of thirty five. With the intent o freeing humanity from suffering, the Buddha or enlightened one, spent the rest of his life spreading the knowledge that he had gained.

The Buddha gave instructions in his teachings, often called the Middle Way or the Dhamma, for ending our worldly suffering. Two core teachings that were  given early in Buddhist history are the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path

Once I had made a conscious decision to incorporate Buddhist teachings in my day to day life - though I feel as if I would have been brought to this path some day no matter what - I started with these building blocks, these most basic teachings.

The Four Noble - Truths

1. The truth of suffering (dukkha)
2. The truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya)
3. The truth of the end of suffering (nirhodha)
4. The truth of the path that frees us from suffering (magga)

At a glance, this fist teaching can seem dark. "Suffering, suffering, and more suffering." I feel like there is a lot that the English language is not doing justice to in this very basic translation.

The First Truth - Suffering

Life has suffering. Every human being goes through suffering - Sickness, getting old, death, fear, frustration, sorrow, loneliness, and anger.  This cannot be argued.

The Second Truth- Cause of Suffering

Suffering is caused by things we can control - ego, expectations, cravings. If we can change the things that we want - desire - so that we no longer desire so much than we can escape the cause of suffering.

The Third Truth - End Of Suffering

Finally some good news. Are you ready for it? Suffering can be overcome and we all have the ability to reach true happiness. Give up useless cravings and live life one day at a time. Do not live in the past, or worry over a preconceived imaginary future.

The Fourth Truth - The Path

The Eightfold Path, which I mentioned earlier, is the path that has the ability to free us from suffering.

Please "stay tuned" for my next entry on the Eightfold Path.

Journey into Buddhism

Turning to Buddhism, for me, has been a very natural transition. As facts started to present themselves to me, through research and digging, I have begun to feel at home. The teachings correspond with beliefs that have been deep within me in my earliest stages of life.

Embarking down on this path has been  natural to me, as if I am called into it, or born into it. Finding my way home, and becoming aware of my true self. 

Studying the Buddha's teachings has lead me to truly examined myself, on a very deep personal level. In the cultivation of this knowledge I have proceeded in traveling down the path in the direction of an awakening.

This is not at all to say that I have been "fully awakened" but rather my eyes are in the process of being opened. Realizations have arisen in me, and I am aware that, that for along time, I was a in incomplete human being - shallow and distracted by illusions.

I never thought that I would ever become a "religious" person, even though I grew up attending regular church services. I was never able to think theistically. As a young person, I tried for years to get behind the all knowing, and punishing being that commanded obedience, for fear of the eternal  damnation that was reserved for the nonbelievers.

Even at a young age, I remember questioning the things that we were told in church, and feeling as if there was something wrong with me due to my inability to blindly follow what could not be proven to my young mind.
Eventually, in my teenage years, finding the act tiresome, I gave up the façade, much to my mothers dismay. My lack of religion and openness about the, unjustified, bitterness that I had for the Christian church put an immense strain on my relationship with my mother, who expected me to continue attending regular services.

I was stupid, and prideful. A teenage rebelling, but my dislike for church was not just something I used to irritate my mother. Deep down, everything about church made me uncomfortable.


Mind you that this is, in no way, a reflection of my current feelings about the church or Christianity. Through my own journey, into Buddhist teachings, I have learned a great respect, and even a fondness for true followers of Christ.

These teachings are still not for me, but they do not have to be. There are many paths to salvation, and I do not believe that any one path is better than any other. We are blessed with a planet filled with many cultures and religions, and each person's own religion is their own salvation.

Any religion that teaches the values of honesty, love, compassion, and  kindness is a benefit to the world and its people.The Dali Lama, when asked about his own religion, does not claim to be a Buddhist. Instead he has been quoted as saying, "my religion is kindness."

This journey is endless, as I am always growing, and learning. Following the path, picking up lessons, like stones, along the way.

Once filed with a deep darkness, and hatred, I am now transcending my old ways. That void - an enormous, dark, hole - is now gone, and I have filled it with the one and only thing that could ever be big enough to fill such a space - love.