The Way — Noble Eightfold Path

Related to The Way to Buddhahood verse: no. 79

Verse 79

That which can eliminate suffering and accumulation 

Is only the way of the One Vehicle. 

The three studies and the eightfold right path 

Can lead to Nirvāṇa.

Article Reading: 

(1) The Noble Eightfold Path by Walpola Sri Rahula

(2) The Noble Eightfold Path of Organic Gardening by Wendy Johnson

* suggestion: read both articles, start with the article by Ven. Rahula for definition of Eightfold Path, then only follow by the sharing by Wendy, see how she applies the Eightfold Path in daily living.

Food for thought:

How do you perform the Eightfold Path in your daily life or work?

Questions on Jan 17th (replied on 2021-01-23):

1. How do the 3 poisons (greed, hate, ignorance) contribute to each step on the noble eightfold path?

~> any kind of poison can ruin our Path in whole. However, we still can analyze them separately:

~> ignorance mainly affects our Right Understanding and Right Thought (we can’t get a clear understanding and right thinking because of ignorance or wrong views)

~> hate will influence our Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood (we normally out of control verbally and physically when we were angry, and those misbehavior will affect our livelihood in certain scale)

~> greed typically affects our Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration (when we irrationally “attach to” and “crave for” something or someone, our focusing mind will become weak due to the distractions)

2. How can we apply "right livelihood" in the modern world when everything is so interconnected?

~> You are definitely right that nowadays we are so interconnected, compared to the living style in the past which was not so complicated.

~> To overcome this dilemma, my suggestion is do our best to avoid below situations while we make money for living :

(1) the resources that related to killing people or human trafficking

(2) the resources that related to stealing or fraudulence 

(3) the resources that related to debauchery, especially things that destroy the harmonious family life of others

(4) the resources that related to false speeches mainly on the issues that involved lawsuits and will put people into prison.

~> in short, do our best to decrease the harm to oneself and others

3. What is meant by "Idle chatter" ? We talked about how during the pandemic older people and lonely people just need to be heard.

~> accompanying older people and lonely people during the pandemic and listening to them, even telling jokes to make them happy and laugh occasionally, I don’t think those are “idle chatter". 

~> “idle chatters” are something purposeless, useless and innutrition; however, talk to older people and lonely people, we have an obvious purpose which at least for maintaining their health physically and mentally.

4. Right effort seems to be categorized differently by different masters mainly how it relates to the different factors? Can you explain why this would be so and how we should view it?

~> Since there are three essential elements of Buddhist practice—moral conduct, mental discipline, and wisdom, when Right Effort is put into the practice of moral conduct, then this Right Effort will definitely be related to Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood.

~> Similarly, when we focus our Right Effort on Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration, then it will definitely can be categorized into the group of Mental Disciplines (the focused mind)

~> And that’s why different masters will relate it to the different factors.

5. Is right understanding the same as "Right View"?

~> Yes.

Questions on Jan 31st (replied on 2021-02-02):

1. What are the pratyekabuddhas? we understand that they are on the Mahayana path.

I see that they are talked about in detail in Chapter 5. Should we go there next?

When we talk about “the ultimate spiritual achievements” in Buddhism, there are four different categories, which are: śrāvaka 聲聞, pratyekabuddha 緣覺, bodhisattva 菩薩 and Buddha 佛

And, they all are enlightened beings, regardless of the school of Theravāda or Mahāyāna. 

The characteristic of pratyekabuddhas are :

(1) solitary realizer, which means their realization needs nobody to guide them, they can achieve enlightenment by themselves. Hence, they usually appeared in the period when the world didn't have any Buddha. And, that’s why sometime we translate pratyekabuddhas as 獨覺in Chinese. The first character 獨 means solitary, and the second character 覺 is enlightenment (or realize).

(2) self-enlightened one, who lives apart from others and attains enlightenment alone, or for himself, making a contrast with the altruism of the bodhisattva.

(3) they usually enlightened through contemplation of dependent arising, especially as defined in the twelve dependent origination, so one of the Chinese translation for pratyekabuddhas is 緣覺. The first character 緣 is dependent origination, and the second character 覺 is enlightenment.

2. What is meant by one vehicle?---is it the only way to practice? Some of us agreed with this statement while others wondered. Maybe the question is ...Is the only way to practice the Bodhisattva path? even for different capacities?

First of all, the idea of “vehicle（乘）” is a cart literally. A transportation that takes people to an ultimate place, which is the ultimate spiritual achievement, the so-called Nibbana / Nirvana, the goal of the Buddhist Path.

Sometime, we saw “lesser vehicle” and “great vehicle” in the doctrines, there should be no demeaning to any party, because both can achieve enlightenment. However, lesser vehicle can just bring one person to the goal, while the great vehicle is like a big coach or big cruise that can bring many people to the ultimate destination in one time.

When the “vehicle (乘）” refers to “path”, then it means the Buddhist Way. There are many combinations to say the way/path. Sometimes, we call the Buddhist Way as Middle Path, and here you have learned the phrase “One Vehicle”, it is just as same as the Only Path or the One Way.

Either Only Path, the One Way or the One Vehicle here, is referred to the practices which will bring us to achieve the ultimate spiritual achievement.

If we still ask, “what's that Only Path?” We can say that the Noble Eightfold Path is that so-called The Only Path. We also can say that, all the practices mentioned in the book (The Way to Buddhahood) is that so-called The Only Path. This is because all the practices mentioned in the book are interrelated with the Noble Eightfold Path.

Lastly, can we say that “the three essential elements of Buddhist practice—moral conduct, mental discipline, and wisdom” as “The Only Path / One Vehicle”? Absolutely, because when we expand the practices, they are also related to the Noble Eightfold Path.

3. Is Accumulation referring to the 12 links of dependent origination?

~ In short, Yes. 

~ The 12 links of Dependent Origination is actually pointed out as “the cause of suffering”, which means it explains “the reasons why we have all sorts of suffering”.

~ “the cause(s)”, and “the reason(s)” are the factors that make us suffer, or we can say it the other way round, we accumulate all sorts of suffering from those  “the cause(s)” and “the reason(s)” .

~ All  “the cause(s)” and “the reason(s)” here, we usually translate into “Accumulation” in English, and it is actually “the Second Noble Truth” in the Four Noble Truth.

Questions on February 7th (replied on 2021-02-10):

In the article the author says:

RIGHT VIEW is to have no fixed view of what a garden is and to allow the voice of the uncultivated watershed to guide the design.

How should we interact in our daily life with no fixed view? While practicing right/view?

~> RIGHT VIEW is to have "No fixed view on something or somebody”, is a casual way to highlight “the view of impermanence” and “the  view of no-self”.

~> In daily life, we do our best to make sure everything runs smoothly, then we will easily fall into the view of “I must get this outcome”, “I should get that as consequences” etc. We assume that everything/everyone will go our way, that is the so-called “fixed view” and tend to leave behind the Right View teachings.

~> The author suggests “No Fixed View” for us to cultivate our Right View. Once we do our best in all aspects of our life, and the rest is just to be ready to accept all the possible results. Be grateful for everything that turns out great, and learn to accept and improve if out of our expectations.