Introduction to the Eightfold Path

Jetliners used as bombs against innocent people. Ethnic slayings. Political scandals. Athletes using drugs. Exploitation of foreign workers. Destruction of habitats. Kids killing kids. Cheating on income taxes. Not calling your mother. Not answering your child. Why does there seem to be so much suffering in the world?

Our very nature as human beings is to want to be happy. But as we encounter others with the same quest, we often create the opposite of happiness—for them and for ourselves. It sometimes seems as if the harder we try to be happy, the more uneasy—if not downright wretched—we become. It is like drinking salt water in an effort to slake thirst. Nearly 2,600 years ago, the Buddha made this paradoxical phenomenon the core of his teachings, known as the Dharma (in Sanskrit; Dhamma in Pali). In his first teaching, the Four Noble Truths, not only did he describe the nature and causes of such suffering in our life, but he also specifically mapped the path we can follow to end it. On this path, the Eightfold Path, we discover that happiness results from being totally in the present moment, without greed or aversion.

You may be wondering, “What does this teaching have to do with me?” The first answer we find is that our experience of suffering and its cause is universal. We all seek happiness, but whenever we become attached to things we believe will bring us happiness, suffering eventually arises because those things are impermanent. When some people first encounter this teaching, they assume that Buddhism must be quite gloomy—but only if they have never seen the infectious smile of the Dalai Lama, who observed in Compassion and the Individual:

Now, when you recognize that all beings are equal in both their desire for happiness and their right to obtain it, you automatically feel empathy and closeness for them. . . . Nor is this wish selective; it applies equally to all.

This sense of interconnection with all beings—human and nonhuman—is one of the most satisfying aspects of Buddhist practice. When someone says to you, “I know how you feel,” and you know they really do, that is one of the most comforting experiences you can have. People who are dealing with traumas resulting from domestic abuse, war, and natural disaster or who are members of twelve-step programs have learned that shared experience is often the most healing and motivational aspect of their recovery. Similarly, Buddhist teachings stress that understanding our commonality with all beings is crucial to our overcoming suffering.

Each chapter of this book discusses one step of the Eightfold Path. In Chapter 1 we shall explore the Buddha’s explanation of the universal existence of suffering in the First Noble Truth; discuss the cause of suffering and the converse, its “cure,” in the Second and Third Noble Truths; and introduce the map for ending suffering, the Fourth Noble Truth—the Eightfold Path—in which right understanding and right thought are considered the wisdom teachings; right speech, right action, and right livelihood are the morality teachings; and right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration are the mental discipline teachings.

All major Buddhist traditions acknowledge the foundation of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. This book draws upon the wisdom of these richly diverse traditions, through abundant quotes interspersed throughout, to create “one sangha.” Although all traditions acknowledge the underpinning of the Four Noble Truths, some stress one group of teachings more than others. For example, Zen Buddhist training emphasizes the mental discipline teachings, with the conviction that morality and wisdom will follow naturally from the practice of deep meditation. Many Tibetan, or Vajrayana, teachers put emphasis on the wisdom teachings, understanding that morality and strong meditation will follow. Vipassana, or Insight Meditation, teachers often underscore the morality teachings as the basis for mindfulness and wisdom.

No tradition excludes any of the steps on the Eightfold Path; all acknowledge that if you have no wisdom and are preoccupied with how you are going to get the better of your friends, you’re not likely to have a very peaceful meditation practice. Because all steps are interrelated and so critical, Insight Meditation teacher Sylvia Boorstein refers to them as the “Eightfold Circle” (see page 16). Each of us as practitioners must explore the Buddha’s teachings for ourselves, as the Buddha himself invited us to do. Regarding this inquiry, Thai Vipassana master Achaan Chah teaches that the true Eightfold Path is within us: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, one tongue, and one body.

There are many excellent books on the Buddha’s teachings, both scholarly and practical, and some are listed in “Works Cited and Suggested Readings,” beginning on page 215. Because this book is devoted to how we can apply these teachings to everyday life, we shall mention, but not discuss in detail, several important topics: enlightenment, nirvana, and rebirth. But let us briefly address them here as background.

Enlightenment is our awakening to the true nature of reality, including our own, thus freeing ourselves of delusion and of the sense of a separate self. For the purposes of our practice, it is noteworthy that after the Buddha’s enlightenment, he continued to practice for the rest of his life. We too, no matter what our large or small enlightenment experiences may be, nevertheless must practice in our daily lives. Enlightenment is not necessarily a permanent condition. Once Enkyo O’Hara, resident teacher of the Village Zendo in New York City, was asked by some visitors if she was enlightened. She replied, with the wit typical of Zen teachers: “Not at the moment.”

Nirvana (in Sanskrit; nibbana in Pali) literally means “blown out” or “extinguished” and refers to liberation through enlightenment from the grasping or clinging that is the source of all suffering and to the rooting out of greed, hatred, and delusion. The Buddha was less specific about nirvana than about many other teachings. What is important for us to realize is that, contrary to popular usage and advertising, it is not a place we go to. It is the condition of being free from suffering, clinging, and rebirth.

Rebirth is an important teaching related to the origin of suffering in the twelve links of dependent origination (pages 14–15) and to the motivation for practice. For our purposes of applying the teachings to our daily life, rebirth may be seen as rebirth in another lifetime or in each new day. In Ethics for the New Millennium, the Dalai Lama quotes an old Tibetan proverb that says: “The next life or tomorrow—whichever comes next.” Our practice should be consistent, no matter which we anticipate coming next.

In terms of our everyday lives, perhaps the most terse and accurate statement about happiness and Buddhist practice was made by Insight Meditation teacher Jack Kornfield, quoting a sign in a Las Vegas casino: “You must be present to win.” And that’s what this book is about—being present in our lives to gain the happiness we deserve, for ourselves and equally for others.

A NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS AND TEXTS

Much of the material on the Eightfold Path is drawn from the Pali canon, the first compilation of the Buddha’s teachings and the basis of Theravada (“Teaching of the Elders”) Buddhism, which in the West is usually called Vipassana or Insight Meditation. Because of the heavy reliance on these texts, in general Pali rather than Sanskrit terms have been used except when Sanskrit words—for example, sutra (sutta), nirvana (nibbana), Dharma (Dhamma)—are more commonly used in the West. For consistency of usage, I have followed the spellings used in The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen. Terms included in the Glossary are italicized when introduced in the text.

Readers unfamiliar with the Pali canon may be struck by the repetitions in some of the discourses quoted. For hundreds of years, the Buddha’s teachings were transmitted orally, not because there was no written language—there was—but because when the major teachings were recited by his disciples orally and in unison, there was less chance for errors to be introduced. The discourses are usually directed to bhikkhus, or monks, and they were delivered to his Sangha of ordained disciples. But later commentaries note that the Buddha used the term monks for all his disciples, male and female, ordained and lay. Another characteristic of these discourses, as it is for many spiritual writings, is that the Buddha relied on similes and metaphors to teach concepts for which words are inadequate.

The two major sources cited in this book are the Majjhima Nikaya (MN), The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, translated by Bhikkhu Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi; and the Digha Nikaya (DN), Thus Have I Heard: The Long Discourses of the Buddha, translated by Maurice Walshe. (For full references, see page 215.)

APPRECIATION

Once again I wish to thank my editor, Toinette Lippe, and my agent, Lorraine Kisly, for helping me to shape a presentation of the Buddha’s teachings for new students. I also want to extend my gratitude to Venerable George Churinoff (Tibetan Buddhism), Sean Murphy (Zen Buddhism), and Arinna Weisman (Insight Meditation) for reviewing content on the three major traditions and to acknowledge that any errors introduced are mine, not theirs. Finally, I wish to thank the High Peaks Sangha in Keene, New York, for “class-testing” much of the material here and for supporting my practice.