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Noble Eightfold Path

(a) Superior Concentration

1. Correct Meditation. When we practice the dharma it is most important to stabilize our mind. We are human beings and we have this very precious human existence with the wonderful faculty of intelligence. Using that intelligence we can, for instance, see our own thoughts, examine them, and analyze our thinking process so we can determine what are good thoughts and what are bad thoughts. If we look carefully at mind we can see that there are many more bad thoughts than good ones. The same is true with our feelings. We find that sometimes we are happy, sometimes we are sad, and sometimes we are worried, but if we look carefully we will probably find that the happier moments are rarer than those of suffering and worry. To shift the balance so that our thoughts are more positive, and happier, we need to do something and this is where samadhi or meditative concentration comes in, because samadhi is the root for learning how to relax. When our mind is relaxed, we are happier and we are more joyous. The word “samadhi” means “profound absorption.” If we can learn how to achieve samadhi then even if we apply this samadhi to worldly activities, it will benefit us greatly. With samadhi our work will go well and we will find more joy and pleasure in our worldly activities. Of course, if we can use samadhi for dharma, then it will bring about really good results in our life. Some people may have been practicing dharma for some years and might feel they have achieved few results from the practice and think, “Even after all these years that I have been meditating, there is not much to show for it. My mind is still not stable.” This thinking shows us the real need to learn how to develop samadhi or concentration so that samadhi becomes a great support for our meditation. No matter what time we can give to meditation, that time is very well-spent. Often if we do an hour of meditation it doesn’t mean we did one hour of perfect samadhi. Rather it probably means we had a half hour engaged with a lot of thoughts and a half an hour of what we could call good sitting of which about 15 minutes of this was good samadhi. So it is really important to learn how to meditate properly, so our time meditating is most fruitful.

2. Correct Mindfulness. How do we achieve superior concentration? That is where the second factor of correct mindfulness is necessary. It is through mindfulness that we will be able to actually achieve samadhi. When we have mindfulness, we are very clear about what is happening in our meditation. Also between our meditation sessions we shouldn’t lose the thread of meditation, so we should with mindfulness carry this power of the meditation into our daily life. Our mindfulness needs to be very stable, it needs to be clear, and it needs to be the strongest mindfulness so that we can achieve the highest samadhi. In the Moonbeams of Mahamudra by the great Takpo Tashi Namgyal it says, “When one meditates one needs mindfulness which is clear and powerful. It needs to have the quality of clarity and at the same time it needs to be stable.” Mindfulness can be just clear, but if there isn’t enough force to the mindfulness, it won’t be effective. For there to be a change in our post-meditation behaviour, we need to have mindfulness and awareness. Without this clarity of awareness and without the strength of mindfulness, we won’t recognize the subtle thoughts that keep our samadhi from developing. So with these subtle thoughts, we become accustomed to a very superficial kind of meditation that will keep us from progressing. Clear and strong mindfulness, however, will allow us to recognize the obstacle of these subtle thoughts. So, strong and clear mindfulness is very important.

(b) Superior Wisdom

Normally when we speak about wisdom in Buddhism we speak of the three knowledges (Skt. prajnas) of study, contemplation, and meditation. Reading and studying in all sorts of Buddhist books will develop a certain kind of wisdom, but this wisdom is never advanced enough to lead us to enlightenment, or Buddhahood. So, wisdom received from books and contemplating these teachings is limited. To develop superior wisdom that will allow us to become enlightened can only be obtained through meditation. So far we have discussed the excellent training that develops correct samadhi and correct mindfulness. Now we need the most excellent training to develop correct intention and correct view.

3. Correct Intention. Through our meditation, the realization of the true nature of reality will develop. Actually in the meditation itself, when we have a direct awareness of reality, we may wonder, “Is this it? Is this not it? ” We will have all sorts of subtle thoughts and we need to confirm the accurateness, the rightness of the meditation that we are achieving. With time and with the right instruction we will gain confidence and come to know what in meditation is the finest, clearest, highest view of the true nature of phenomena. There will be confidence and conviction in our belief due to primordial wisdom (Skt. jnana). The development of wisdom at this stage is called “the very best philosophical view.” After attaining this state of jnana, our postmeditation sessions will contain wisdom about the relationship of conventional reality which allows us to cultivate the very best intention. These two together make the very best wisdom: one applies to the depth of meditation and the other to the postmeditation state. So we need to develop these and strive whole-heartedly to cultivate these two wisdoms.

4. Right View. There are many levels of the Buddha’s teachings each which has its own way of describing what the highest view of reality is. There are the Theravada teachings, the Mahayana teachings, the Vajrayana teachings, and the Mahamudra teachings. Each Buddhist tradition has its own way of defining what is the highest view, and whichever view we hold we need to strive in developing the right view during the meditation and to develop right view during post-meditation experience.

(c) Superior Conduct

We definitely need to meditate in order to train our mind. But the training of meditation needs the support of right conduct. The importance of right conduct is not mainly for meditation but to the rest of our life, our interaction with the rest of the world. The importance of right conduct is illustrated by the fact that it has three aspects of its own. Whereas wisdom and meditation concern cultivating the finest understanding of our mind, right conduct concerns the actions of body and speech and our interrelation with other beings around us. It would be an error to think that the mind is the main thing to work on and what we do with our body and speech doesn’t matter much. What we do with our body and speech is very important and that is what the last three paths of the eight-fold path concern themselves. There are many, many ways of explaining right conduct, but the eight-fold path does it through correct speech, correct action, and correct livelihood.

5. Correct Speech. Speech is very important to us. For instance, we can’t see another person’s mind so we judge and are judged by behavior and speech. Speech can also be very powerful. Whether we are addressing 100 or 1,000 people, if the speech is good and beneficial then 100 or 1,000 people will be benefited; but if the speech is harmful then it can hurt 100 or 1000 people, which is much more than we can do physically. So we need to have not just correct speech, but we must train in the very best speech so that when we speak, we know what our speech is doing. Is it harming? Is it benefiting? What techniques can we use to develop this most excellent speech? We can say prayers, such as, “Great Vajradhara, Tilopa, Naropa, Gampopa” and we can recite mantras like Om Mani Pedme Hung. These prayers and mantras show us how to express thoughts which are most noble, which are completely beneficial, pure, and good. Part of our dharma practice is the study, the reciting of texts, prayers and mantras which brings about the very excellent training of the best of speech. All of these activities sow the seeds for the good and right things in our mind which will afterwards become the basis for the expression of what will benefit ourselves and others. This is perhaps even more important today than it was in the past because we have such powerful means of communication. With the telephone we can contact people all over the world. With Internet and faxes the power of speech is really important, so there is even more reason to be mindful, aware, and careful of how we use this tremendous power of communication and speech. We should always be aware of its potential to either benefit or to harm others. So, training in correct speech is the first of the three paths of right conduct.

6. Correct Action. In our busy lives, we need to do many different things and everything we do has a consequence to others and ourselves. So training to engage in the very best actions is to do what will not only bring benefit to oneself but to others. So with an excellent motivation we do excellent actions which benefit ourself and others. We need to therefore analyze the quality of actions and to be able to discern between what is right and what is wrong.

7. Correct Livelihood. Closely connected to right conduct is having a correct livelihood. Of course, livelihood means not just our job, but also all our main daily activities that we do to have food, clothes, a roof over our head and so on. Because we do this day after day and because it involves by its very nature our speech and our physical actions, we need to learn what is a correct and what is a negative livelihood that brings harm to others. We need, of course, to give up anything that harms others and to adopt a livelihood that is beneficial either directly or indirectly for us and for others.

8. Correct Effort. Let us go back to the first spoke of the wheel of dharma—samadhi—that comes through the second spoke of mindfulness. These qualities won’t come by themselves unless there is the greatest effort applied to bring these qualities out. The next three spokes of wisdom, correct view, and correct thought won’t just come about one day by themselves without a great deal of skillful, intelligent, hard work. Then the last three spokes of correct conduct, correct speech, and correct livelihood also need a great deal of effort for these values to come about. So this eighth spoke, best effort or diligence, is a support for all the other spokes. We could say that there are two types of effort. In Tibetan the word for “effort” (tsultrim) has the notion of joy and enthusiasm, while in English “effort” has the notion of drudgery. So there are two kinds of effort. One is a vacillating sort of effort in which we jump into something and then when it becomes more difficult we slack off and the other is a steady, constant sort of effort. The first kind is more with what we associate with “enthusiasm” and the other is more stable and the very best support for the other seven spokes.