On “The Noble Eightfold Path” (505 words)

Living is no simple task. No matter what you mat do, unavoidably, life has its ups and downs. Many credit this school of thought to the stoics of places and times like ancient Greece and ancient Rome. While this is a reasonable assumption, this is a common misunderstanding. The first person to popularize this idea wasn’t even from the west: it was the Buddha.

“The four noble truths” refers to the four ideas which Buddha saw as axioms of human nature, and it was in the first of these four axioms that he put it most plainly yet most effectively: “Life is suffering.” He goes on to support his claim by explaining that suffering takes place in all five aggregates that make up the human: the physical form, the feelings, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.

The second noble truth is that suffering is a product of having desires. Because all things are impermanent, they are unattainable, and therefore lead to suffering.

The third and fourth noble truths deal with the ending of suffering. The Buddha posits in the third noble truth that it is possible for one to bring their suffering to an end if one is able to cast away the cause. The fourth noble truth then acts as a guide for how to do so via what the Buddha calls “the Eightfold Path”

The Eightfold Path identifies 8 “steps” or practices by which one can remove suffering from their lives. Those practices being:

1. Right understanding: “seeing a thing in its true nature, without name and label”
2. Right thought: state of mind characterized by thoughts of love, nonviolence, and the welfare of those around you
3. Right speech: the use of one’s power of speech to say constructive, meaningful things
4. Right action: the maintenance of a good moral conduct
5. Right livelihood: making one’s living through ethical practices which do not harm anyone or anything else
6. Right effort: the ability to cultivate a good state of mind
7. Right mindfulness: the ability to be constantly aware of everything happening with respect to one’s own body and mind
8. Right concentration: the ability to put oneself into a state of trance in which all that remain are “equanimity and awareness”

Out of these eight practices, the one which comes least easily to me is likely right effort. Often times I feel as though I have trouble maintaining a clear, level headed mindset, and as consequence, my decision making skills are inhibited and I suffer. For example, sometimes I wake up in a bad mood, and that bad mood stays with me for the entire day. Not due to a lack of trying, it proves to be very hard to maintain good spirits on these days, and it is even harder to try to cultivate a good mindset.

Right action would, in theory, lead to less suffering. Conceptually, if everyone were to look out for one another and promote what is considered to be morally correct conduct, then every individual, even society as a whole, would likely feel the positive effects.