Chapter 5: The Eight Fold Path: The Path for All Humans to Enlightenment

Chapter 5

The Eight Fold Path:
The Path for All Humans to Enlightenment

With an understanding of The Four Noble Truths, you can now study and practice The Path to eliminate discontentedness from the mind and your life. You will need a detailed and thorough understanding and practice of The Eight Fold Path to attain Enlightenment.

Gotama Buddha gave us “The Path” forward to pursuing our own Enlightenment. In his explanation of The Eight Fold Path, we learn exactly how to achieve Enlightenment through a life practice or a better way of life.

You will need to learn The Eight Fold Path in detail, over time, to soak this Teaching into the mind. A Practitioner will need to apply time and effort to investigate this Teaching on multiple occasions to fully develop their life practice. The Eight Fold Path is your “life practice” and The Path to Enlightenment.

The Eight Fold Path is categorized into three (3) different sections, wisdom, moral conduct, and mental discipline. Referring to The Eight Fold Path as wisdom, moral conduct, and mental discipline is an easy way to reference The Eight Fold Path and the goal of each section of The Eight Fold Path, without needing to describe each step individually.

The following table will help you to understand the categorization of The Eight Fold Path into its three (3) separate categories which describes the goals of those individual steps.

For example, learning, reflecting, and practicing Right View and Right Intention leads to the development of “wisdom”. Learning, reflecting, and practicing Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood leads to the development of “moral conduct”. And, learning, reflecting, and practicing Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration leads to the development of “mental discipline”.

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You will need to put the entire Eight Fold Path into practice within your daily life, over time, as you learn and grow.

You will not be able to achieve perfection in a couple of days, weeks, or months. Instead, you will need to learn, implement, see results, and continue the process of working to diligently apply all steps of The Eight Fold Path to your life. Through gradual training and gradual practice, the mind will experience gradual progress to becoming more peaceful and calm.

You must not master each step individually before moving onto the next.

Instead, study the entire Eight Fold Path and implement it as a way of life, a “Life Practice”. Earning your own Enlightenment is a pursuit of life improving steps. Having guidance and Teachers is helpful as you study and work towards the goal of Enlightenment.

The Eight Fold Path is the way leading to the elimination of discontentedness and attaining Enlightenment. Through practice of The Eight Fold Path, we eliminate all unwholesome results and outcomes from our unwholesome decisions through not causing harm to other beings. This is described as the elimination of unwholesome Kamma through producing only wholesome Kamma. It is our wholesome and wise decision making to acquire wisdom, improve our moral conduct, and refine our mental discipline that we will experience better results in the condition of the mind and our life.

By causing harm to other beings through your intentions, speech, actions, or livelihood, you cause harm to yourself through “The Natural Law of Kamma”. The Natural Law of Kamma is cause and effect, action and results, essentially the results of your decisions. If you make wholesome decisions, there will be wholesome outcomes. If you make unwholesome decisions, there will be unwholesome outcomes. It is due to craving, anger, and ignorance (unknowing of true reality) that the unEnlightened mind does not

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understand what it does not understand and, therefore, makes unwholesome decisions causing harm in the world. Then, that harm is returned to you through others’ intentions, speech, and actions. There will be more on Kamma in the Chapter titled “What is Kamma and How Does It Affect Me?” (Chapter 9).

These Teachings and practices are about non-harm or harmlessness to other beings so that you do not create unwholesome outcomes, (i.e. unwholesome Kamma) which would be returned back to you.

Practicing “The Eight Fold Path” closely, you ensure there is no harm to other beings practicing harmlessness, thus, you can attain inner peace, Enlightenment, or Nibbāna through, in part, the elimination and extinguishing of unwholesome Kamma.

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1.) Right View: Having the “Right View” is having a clear understanding of The Four Noble Truths and practice this Teaching so that you know it is true.

You will need to understand that The Four Noble Truths explains the wisdom of discontentedness, the wisdom of the cause of discontentedness, the wisdom of the elimination of discontentedness, and the wisdom of the way of practice leading to the elimination of discontentedness.

The Eight Fold Path explains the path forward to eliminate discontentedness in the mind. You need to accept responsibility for your own intentions, speech, and actions realizing that you cause the mind to be discontent, not

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anyone else or something else external. You alone are the cause of the discontent mind and only you can eliminate the discontentedness in the mind through learning and practicing the entire Eight Fold Path. This is practicing “Right View”.

If you blame others for the pleasant feelings, painful feelings, or feelings that are neither painful-nor-pleasant (discontentedness), then you are not yet practicing Right View but instead “wrong view”.

You need to understand and observe the wisdom that no one and nothing can create a discontent mind, only you can do that to yourself. If you will not take responsibility for the mind blaming others for its discontentedness, then you will find it impossible to eliminate discontentedness in the mind.

Wrong view means that discontentedness in the mind is caused by someone else or something else so therefore, you have no ability to eliminate discontent feelings.

Right View is accepting and seeing it as your responsibility to eliminate discontentedness in the mind without blame of anyone else. You are solely and 100% responsible for all discontent feelings. This means that you can 100% eliminate discontentedness in the mind. Accepting this responsibility is the very first step towards a peaceful mind and eliminating 100% of the discontentedness in the mind.

2.) Right Intention: The Right Intention, “right thought”, or “right thinking”, is formed by the interest in renunciation (letting go) along with the absence of ill will or harm in the mind. You need to practice the intention to let go of unwholesomeness while developing a practice of non-ill-will and harmlessness.

Goodwill, harmlessness, and wholesome intentions towards all beings is important. Intentions based in ill will, harm, craving, anger, ignorance (unknowing of true reality), ego, or other unwholesome mental states will produce unskillful speech and actions thus produce unwholesome results (i.e. unwholesome Kamma).

You must always have the “right” or “proper” intention, thoughts, or thinking that is positive and beneficial to other beings to produce the best outcomes for your own well-being.

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There are three aspects to Right Intention.

Renunciation: The mind needs to practice “renunciation” or “relinquishment”, the interest and willingness to “let go” and “give up” unwholesomeness and the mind’s false beliefs and misperceptions of reality. The cause of discontentedness is that the mind has craving/desire/ attachment (mental longing with a strong eagerness) which is the source of all discontent feelings.

As long as the mind is “holding on”, then it will continue to experience discontentedness.

Until it trains to “let go” to reside “in the middle”, the mind will continually experience discontentedness. With the intention of letting go, or relinquishment, the mind is prepared to abandon its harmful habits and develop wholesome moral conduct and mental discipline through all the other steps on The Eight Fold Path while eliminating its false beliefs and misperceptions of reality.

Non-Ill-Will: The mind needs to develop the intention and practice of loving- kindness, which is the opposite of ill will or “non-ill-will”. Loving-kindness is active goodwill towards all beings without judgment. A genuine interest in seeing all beings be well. Through developing the intention for all beings to be well, including yourself, the mind is filled with loving-kindness and has eliminated ill will. The mind is then uninterested to cause harm to other beings and finds its way developing the remaining portions of The Eight Fold Path as a well developed life practice.

Harmlessness: The mind needs to have the “right” or “proper” thought, thinking, or intention to not be interested in producing harm to other beings. Any harm that we cause to a being, is only going to be returned to us and be a source to cause our own harm. Causing harm to other beings is like kicking up sand and having it blow back into your eyes.

Knowing that any harm you cause is only going to be returned back to you, why would the mind continue to choose to cause harm to others? A practice or intention of harmlessness will ensure the mind is uninterested and unmotivated to cause harm to other beings and will find it more seamless to make all the other decisions to cultivate The Eight Fold Path and practice The Teachings in daily life.

Right Intention helps to form a foundation of wisdom in the mind to let go, having a genuine interest in seeing all beings be well, and a practice of harmlessness which the remaining factors of The Path to Enlightenment are then developed and practiced through The Eight Fold Path.

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3.) Right Speech: The Right Speech involves ensuring that we do not cause harm to other beings through our communication. During the lifetime of Gotama Buddha all that existed was “verbal speech”. Today, we communicate through verbal speech, text/chat messages, emails, posts to social media, and many other forms of written communication. All communication can either be “harmless and wholesome” or “harmful and unwholesome”. But choosing to learn and practice harmless communication, or Right Speech, you are then ensuring how you interact with others does not cause harm so that harm is not returned to you.

To practice Right Speech, or Right Communication, a Practitioner would need to fully develop and practice The Five Factors of Well Spoken Speech in all conversations through gradual training of the mind. This includes polite, kind, friendly, respectful, and wholesome speech in all forms of communication.

Proper Time: A Practitioner needs to ensure they are choosing the right time to speak. This includes not interrupting others when they are speaking, choosing to be patient and to speak at the appropriate time. This also includes ensuring that your mind is prepared to speak and is choosing to speak at a time when the mind is clear and concentrated rather than angered or otherwise confused about the topic to be discussed. If the mind is angered or unconcentrated, this will produce communication that is harmful to others requiring them to sort through our own discontent feelings and unconcentrated or unorganized thoughts.

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If the mind is discontent, that is the improper time to speak. Postponing conversations can allow the mind time to regain its calmness, mindfulness, and concentration to then ensure one is speaking at the proper time with wisdom. If the mind is lacking Right Intention, Right Mindfulness or Right Concentration, that is the improper time to communicate. Allow the mind to regain these qualities of mind and then communicate at the proper time when you can practice harmlessness with full awareness of the mind and with focus or singleness of mind.

It is also important that you observe and consider whether it is the proper time to talk with the other person. If they are angered, frustrated, or irritated, it is most likely not the proper time to have a discussion. You can consider the topic that you have to speak about and ensure it is the appropriate time to have a discussion on that specific topic. When people first come home or have recently arrived to a certain destination, it is oftentimes best to allow their mind to adjust to the new environment where they have just arrived before discussing most topics especially topics that may be of a heavy nature. Topics that are significant, dramatic, or those that might involve major changes to one’s life would be best discussed at a time when your mind, and the mind of others involved, is prepared to discuss that topic. It could be wise to ask the other individual if it would be a good time to discuss a certain topic before just opening up into an in-depth conversation that could have significant impacts to one’s life. As a wise Practitioner, you may need to prepare the mind of the individual prior to choosing to have major conversations through asking questions if it would be a good time to speak about a specific topic rather than opening up into a full scale conversation.

Knowing the best time to speak with others will need to be developed through trial and error, being best assessed in the present moment, based on the uniqueness of the topic, while considering the mental state of the individuals involved in the conversation.

True: Having truthful communication helps to establish that you are a truth- speaker, one to be relied on, trustworthy, dependable, not a deceiver of the world. A Practitioner who only speaks the truth develops the ability to be helpful and well received by others because people become accustomed to you only speaking the truth. It will be well known within your community that when you speak, you only speak the truth, therefore, you will find it much easier to help others and encourage improvement in all the various projects and efforts you choose to participate.

Through speaking the truth, you become “one whom people listen to” well received in the world instead of a deceiver of the world.

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You will find that opportunities to progress in life with wholesome outcomes will come to you more easily because in your personal and professional relationships people know that you are not a liar but are trustworthy and dependable. If one speaks untruths, people worry what else you could be lying about and one’s reputation is significantly diminished creating obstacles to your success in life.

Not only is it wise to speak the truth, in terms of, not telling a deliberate lie but also, it is important to verify the accuracy so that all you share through communication is 100% true. Whether you are speaking, writing, or otherwise communicating in any way, ensuring that you have independently verified what you share with others will ensure the best possible outcomes and the mind can be at ease knowing that what you share is accurate and the truth. Propagating untruths, conspiracy theories, or otherwise unfounded content will only create harm in the world, therefore, it will produce unwholesome results for you. Where you can talk through your own direct experience, this will ensure you are speaking the truth, not only by not telling a deliberate lie, but also ensuring all that is communicated is accurate and based in wisdom.

Always speaking the truth makes it easy for the mind and unburdens the mind. If one always speaks the truth, they do not need to sort through all the various conversations and statements they have made in the past to conduct conversations in the present moment. A Practitioner can just always look to the truth, speak the truth, and the mind can rest easy knowing that at all times you are only ever speaking the truth. This allows communication to happen easily, seamlessly, and with minimal effort unburdening the mind. The mind can rest and relax knowing that you are only ever speaking the truth.

Spoken Gently: To speak gently, one needs to pay close attention to training and then practicing gentle tone, tempo, and word choice in their communication. Through observing what is working and not working amongst individuals that you communicate with, you can dramatically improve how you communicate and, thus, interact with others. You can observe and become aware how calm and gentle words work to accomplish your goals more readily than rushed and harsh words. You will need to practice, observe, and adjust your communication style until the mind is more finely tuned to practice speaking effortlessly and gently in all conversations paying close attention to tone, tempo, and word choice.

When you do not practice speaking gently, notice how it causes harm to others and thus, causes harm in your relationships. There are going to be challenges for you to bring your communication style closer to speaking gently in all conversations. As you are gradually developing your life practice

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but still unable to practice speaking gently, you can apologize, aim to improve, then move on applying effort to improve in each and every conversation.

Beneficial: A Practitioner who is speaking beneficially would ensure their communication is clear, concise, and well delivered ensuring there is purposeful speech with an interest to help others. If one was to speak unclearly, lacking conciseness, and with poorly delivered communication then it would cause harm to others as they would need to sort through the muddled conversation to determine what you are attempting to communicate.

Through a well concentrated mind that is uninterested in causing harm to others, you can decide to train the mind to gather the thoughts and communicate in a clear, concise, and well delivered method that ensures the receiver of your communication does not need to apply extensive effort to understand what is being shared. Communication should be purposeful and to the point without frivolous speech or pointless rambling.

If you make people work hard to understand what you are attempting to share, people will be less and less interested in communicating with you. People will just stop listening and “tune you out”. You will find this frustrating and challenging to accomplish your goals in life.

To develop effectiveness in communication, your speech needs to be beneficial to others through purposeful dialogue that is not self satisfying or originating from selfish desires. Instead, look for ways to help others that focus on bringing people together in harmony rather than argumentative unbeneficial conversations through clear, concise, and well delivered communication.

A Mind of Loving-kindness: Through a well developed practice of Right Intention, a Practitioner should have loving-kindness for all beings. Loving- kindness is active goodwill towards all beings without judgment. A genuine interest in seeing all beings be well.

Through Right Intention, or Right Thought and Right Thinking brought through into Right Speech, the mind is well prepared to deliver words with goodwill and an interest in seeing all beings be well. If there is any ill will inserted into your communication, this will cause harm to others, therefore, cause harm to you.

While on the surface sarcasm may seem humorous and harmless, but in reality the true intention behind sarcasm is oftentimes malicious and with ill intent. While it may be the right time, true, gentle, and perceived as

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beneficial, if there is ill intent with sarcasm through mocking or ridicule then the speech is not being spoken through a mind of loving-kindness.

Therefore, any speech including sarcasm that has ill will is harmful and will only come back to harm you. People will speak to you in the same way that you speak to others. The ill intended speech with sarcasm, mocking, and ridicule of others is only going to be returned to you as this is the speech one is choosing to use with others. Conversely, if you speak with a mind of loving-kindness, that is how others will choose to speak with you. Overtime, more and more people will observe your wholesome moral conduct and choose to treat you the same way that you treat others.

Blameless: No one enjoys being blamed for anything or made to feel as if they are at fault. While it could be true that someone has made a mistake, it is just a mistake or accident and if you choose to assign blame in your communication, it is only going to serve to create division. And, if the person truly has not made a mistake and is being falsely blamed, this is only going to create separation and arguments - blameful speech is harmful speech.

If we choose to be blameful towards others holding them to potentially feel guilty about their mistakes, then people are going to be uninterested to interact with you as a family member, friend, or coworker. Rather than focusing on placing blame, a well trained mind can let go of that desire and instead focus on solutions to the mistake. There is no need to ensure someone is pressured into accepting blame, but instead, the real challenge is how to move past this impermanent situation in peacefulness and harmony with all beings feeling whole.

Placing blame would only produce harm to others through disparaging others’ efforts, thus, it is going to harm your relationship both personally and professionally. Mistakes or accidents are “mistakes and accidents” so punishing others through blameful speech is only going to drive people in the opposite direction from you where you will lack the support you need to accomplish the goals or objectives ahead of you. Instead of blaming others for situations and circumstances that are in the past, focus on the present moment and how to resolve the situation for the best outcome of all involved. It is best to find encouraging, supportive, and motivating language that can allow all participants to maintain their enthusiasm and interest to work together in meeting a given goal or objective. Speech that is blameless is speech that is harmless.

Through causing no harm in your communication, you will find that relationships are quite enjoyable and you can be inspiring to countless people in your life.

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You can reflect on these Five Factors of Well Spoken Speech and the need to speak blamelessly and how when you have not spoken in this way, your conversations and relationships dissolved or were otherwise negatively impacted. Conversely, you can observe how when speaking in this way, all participants gained insight, understanding, and maintained harmony in accomplishing certain goals.

As you observe that the mind is not practicing one or more of these five (5) factors, make efforts and repeated efforts to improve your moral conduct through applying energy and active training of the mind. Bring your speech closer and closer to these five (5) factors observing how your personal and professional relationships will dramatically improve as you focus on improving your life practice as it relates to Right Speech or Right Communication.

If you choose to not practice these five (5) factors in their entirety, then you will observe the struggles and challenges associated with practicing “wrong speech” or “wrong communication”. Difficulties in personal and professional relationships will ensue with the result of continued struggles and challenges making any goals or objectives more labor intensive. The mind will be drained of its energy because it is constantly struggling to have polite, kind, friendly, and respectful relationships.

If you miss even one (1) of these factors in a given conversation, there is the potential for the discussion to digress into argumentative or otherwise difficult territory that you’d wished would not have occurred. Training the mind closer and closer to practicing all five (5) factors will only help you to achieve better results in life. Speaking in this way is “a better way of life” that is beneficial for others, therefore, it is benefiting you. As your life practice becomes more and more wholesome, more and more wholesomeness will return to you.

We should not engage in idle chatter or unpurposeful talk that includes gossip, harsh language, false speech with lies, deceit, or slander.

Slander (Gossip): speech or communication that is damaging to the reputation of an individual/company/organization/country/group of people, etc., whether true or false.

Frivolous Speech (Idle Chatter): is described as speaking “unbeneficially” and “unpurposefully”. This is typically done with the mind’s craving/desire/ attachment where one may just be rambling pointlessly without any real purpose or need to speak but instead, just because there is a craving/desire to talk. There is no purpose or value to the speech. In some cases, one could

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be speaking quickly and continuously without the ability for a mutual conversation.

Having clear, well thought out, purposeful and wholesome speech is important. Your speech should be without blame or “blameless”.

The Right Speech is born out of the Right Intention. With wholesome intentions practicing harmlessness, this will breed wholesome and purposeful speech free from craving, anger, and ignorance (unknowing of true reality) without ego.

A good practice is, “if you do not have something good to say then do not say anything at all”. You will need to learn to have “Right Speech” to attain Enlightenment practicing the “Five Factors of Well Spoken Speech”.

These are not rules to follow but instead, the best way to ensure the best possible outcome in all your communication with all beings. Through not causing harm to others through your speech, your life will become effortless and much more enjoyable as your personal and professional relationships will blossom.

When you do not practice speaking with Right Speech, notice how it causes harm to others and thus, causes harm in your relationships. There are going to be challenges for you to bring your communication style closer to speaking with Right Speech in all conversations. As you are gradually developing your life practice but still unable to practice speaking with Right Speech, you can apologize, aim to improve, then move on applying effort to improve in each and every conversation.

4.) Right Action: Our bodily actions are born from the Right Intention. Having no interest in harming other beings through practicing loving-kindness and all the other aspects of Right Intention, the mind can then produce bodily actions without harm.

You need to produce the Right Actions to ensure no harm to other beings through movements of the body. Actions should also be free of craving, anger, or ignorance (unknowing of true reality) and ego. Our bodily actions should be without harm or “harmless”.

Some of the most harmful bodily actions include the below and through making the unwholesome decision to do any of these, there will be unwholesome results (i.e. unwholesome Kamma).

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A Practitioner should develop their life practice to:

- Refrain from killing
- Refrain from stealing
- Refrain from misusing of sexual conduct that would harm
- Refrain from substances that would cause heedlessness
- Refrain from gambling

These actions are largely part of The Five Precepts which should be practiced by all people. Through practice of these Five Precepts and The Eight Fold Path, one is conducting a good moral life.

While Gotama Buddha never explicitly said, “do not punch someone in the face” as part of Right Action, we know that if we cause harm through our bodily actions this will cause harm to us. If you were to hit someone either a friend or a person unknown to you, the harm you cause will be returned to you. They could hit you, their friends could attack you, you could go to jail, or you might even get murdered. Any bodily actions that are harmful will cause harm to others and there will be harm that returns to you.

It is important to purify your bodily actions to ensure that you are practicing in such a way that there is no harm being produced through your bodily actions so that no harm will come to you. We do not judge others, discriminate, or otherwise form harmful bodily actions. These are not commandments but the best way one would live in harmony with others.

5.) Right Livelihood: A livelihood is how you earn your living through daily life to sustain your life in a career, profession, or lifestyle. Our livelihood is the work or activities we do on a daily basis such as an occupation or lifestyle to sustain our life (i.e. stay at home parent, volunteer, retired person, holy life, administrative support, waste removal, cleaning services, doctor, politician, entrepreneur, etc.). A livelihood to sustain our life should not cause any harm to other beings. If we cause harm to other beings in order to sustain our own life, this is going to produce harm in our own life.

For example, are you a doctor, nurse, auto mechanic, street cleaning engineer, food server, waste removal technician, etc.? Are you conducting a livelihood that is wholesome and helpful to society and humanity? “Yes”? This is a Right Livelihood. You should not cause any harm through your livelihood.

Each person has a livelihood whether the goal is to acquire financial support or not. A livelihood is the career, profession, or lifestyle one chooses. In some cases, a person may choose to pursue personal interests and skills rather than financial goals or a career. A stay at home parent is still a

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livelihood as this is a contribution to society and humanity providing life sustaining activities but may not have a direct salary associated with the day-to-day responsibilities.

A livelihood is not necessarily solely to make money or produce wealth but instead is how we choose to contribute our time, effort, and energy towards life sustaining activities for us and our family. Finding life supporting activities, a livelihood, that allow us to generate income to support our life through helping others or just purely providing life sustaining activities that we perform as a role in society, is our livelihood. Through finding a livelihood that you enjoy while also providing income or life sustaining needs will ensure a successful livelihood.

For those who do generate income through their livelihood, focus on finding something you enjoy that happens to also provide financial support. This will ensure the best outcome and enthusiasm for your daily life. If you select a livelihood solely on the bases of making money, acquiring wealth, power, prestige, or a specific title, then you will find the mind will struggle to perform your duties and responsibilities on an ongoing consistent basis perhaps even becoming bored or disinterested.

If you find a livelihood that is helping others, you enjoy the profession, and you happen to be able to acquire financial income to sustain your life and the life of those close to you, this will be the best match.

The mind will be motivated and enthusiastic to perform the daily responsibilities of the livelihood with ease. Finding a livelihood where you can acquire an income, help others, and you enjoy the activities required on a daily basis, will ensure that you never “work” one day in your life. Your profession will not feel like “work” but instead it is just one way that you help the world through your daily efforts and it happens to generate life sustaining resources for you and your family. Your livelihood is part of your life practice and we can make conscious and wise choices to ensure we are meeting our goals while also helping others through our livelihood.

Gotama Buddha gave us five livelihoods that we should not engage in as they cause harm to other beings, thus, unwholesome Kamma production: business in weapons, business in living beings (animals, slaves, human trafficking), business in meat, business in substances that cause heedlessness, and business in poisons. These all cause harm in the world, thus, if we choose to sustain our life based on these “wrong livelihoods” then we will experience harm.

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These are aspects of practice that one is being guided to avoid while practicing one’s livelihood.

Scheming: corruption or deception.

Flattery: excessive and insincere praise, given especially to further one’s own interests.

Hinting: suggest or indicate something indirectly or covertly. Not being direct, clear, and to the point with one’s work activities.

Belittling: talking down to others in negative and disparaging ways in the attempt to diminish others’ work.

Pursuing gain with gain: doing work just for profit or greed, without a real interest to provide benefit to humanity through one’s livelihood.

As long as your livelihood is not involved in any of these five (5) wrong livelihoods, you are not pursuing a livelihood solely for the purpose of “gain” or selfish desires (i.e. solely for fame or fortune), and you conduct your livelihood with high ethics (i.e. without scheming, corruption, or deception), you are practicing “Right Livelihood”.

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Ordained Practitioners have guidance from Gotama Buddha beyond these five (5) livelihoods that are considered “wrong livelihood”. For example, Gotama Buddha provided guidance that Ordained Practitioners who provide tattoos, palm reading, spells, predictions based on astronomy, and other types of “livelihoods” are practicing “wrong livelihood”. Gotama Buddha’s Teachings have much more details on “Right Livelihood” for Ordained Practitioners.

Gotama Buddha’s objective for Ordained Practitioners was to keep them focused on learning, practicing, and sharing these Teachings so that they could eliminate discontentedness in the mind for themselves and guide humanity in eliminating the discontentedness in their mind. Therefore, Ordained Practitioners who focus on livelihoods other than learning, practicing, and sharing The Teachings are not practicing “Right Livelihood”.

Ordained Practitioners are sustained through offerings by Household Practitioners. So it is important that they develop their own practice of these Teachings and then share those Teachings with Household Practitioners so they can benefit from The Teachings and improve their life. If Ordained Practitioners are not learning, reflecting, and practicing The Teachings so that they can then share The Teachings with Household Practitioners, they are benefiting from the offerings and hard work of Household Practitioners without providing anything in return that is beneficial to Household Practitioners. This was not how Gotama Buddha intended The Community of Ordained Practitioners to function, thus, he established many “wrong livelihoods” that involved distracting Ordained Practitioners from their work to develop a life practice and then teach others.

Recently, marijuana has become known as a substance once thought of as a “drug” but now many people are realizing its medicinal qualities. For one to sell this medication through proper legal channels as a “medication” with the intention to help, that would still be considered a “Right Livelihood”. You will find more on the topic of marijuana in the Chapter titled “The Five Precepts: A Householder’s Guide to Daily Practice” (Chapter 7).

Detailed explanation of Right Livelihood is available in this same book series found in Chapter 14 of the book “Lowly Arts” (Volume 12).

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6.) Right Effort: Right Effort has four (4) aspects to it that need to be understood and practiced.

To apply Right Effort, you will need to:

A.) Prevent unwholesome mental states that have not arisen from arising in the mind.
B.) Abandon unwholesome mental states that have arisen in the mind.
C.) Produce un-arisen wholesome mental states to arise in the mind.
D.) Maintain wholesome mental states that have arisen, not allowing them to fade away and work to increase their growth in the mind.

Prevent unwholesome mental states that have not arisen from arising in the mind

A good example of this aspect of Right Effort would be that you most likely have no interest in killing another human being currently in the mind. The unwholesome mental state of killing another human being is un-arisen in the mind.

Applying this aspect of Right Effort would be to prevent this unwholesome mental state and all other unwholesome mental states that have not arisen in the mind from arising.

Abandon unwholesome mental states that have arisen in the mind

A good example of this aspect of Right Effort would be that if you are currently in a relationship yet have a craving and desire to have sexual contact with another, you should apply Right Effort to abandon this unwholesome mental state that has arisen in the mind. Eliminate the unwholesome mental state of craving sexual contact as you already have a partner and having sexual contact with another would cause harm.

Another example of this would be when you feel the rise of anger inside of the mind along with the physical sensations of a burning and irate feeling arising. Do you let it come through in your speech and actions or do you make the “Right Effort” to abandon this unwholesome mental state?

By applying “Right Effort” we can abandon the unwholesome mental state prior to reacting through our speech and actions, thus, eliminating any potential unwholesome Kamma production through our speech and actions.

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Produce un-arisen wholesome mental states to arise in the mind.

A good example of this aspect of Right Effort would be if you know the mind is not generous or compassionate, then you apply Right Effort to produce these un-arisen wholesome mental states to arise in the mind. Practice generosity and compassion through your actions and all other wholesome mental states that need to be arisen to attain Enlightenment.

Maintain wholesome mental states that have arisen, not allowing them to fade away and work to increase their growth in the mind.

A good example of this aspect of Right Effort would be if the mind currently has loving-kindness and sympathetic joy. Then you apply Right Effort to maintain these wholesome mental states that have arisen, not allowing them to fade away and work to increase their growth in the mind.

Right Effort Summary

In applying Right Effort, you actively work to prevent and then abandon unwholesome mental states such as craving, anger, and ignorance (unknowing of true reality) or ego from arising along with other unwholesome mental states that would be in conflict with The Five Precepts or other Teachings. It is important to cultivate wholesome mental states such as generosity, loving-kindness, wisdom, and humbleness (the opposites of craving, anger, ignorance, and ego).

You can apply Right Effort to cultivate the wholesome mental states of compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity, along with the wholesome mental states shared as guidance in The Five Precepts and all other Teachings shared by Gotama Buddha.

You will also need to apply Right Effort to develop a meditation practice on a consistent and ongoing basis. A Practitioner will need to apply Right Effort to abandon the unwholesome mental state of complacency and arise the wholesome quality of developing and practicing meditation daily.

After implementing this important practice in applying “Right Effort”, over time you will notice it becomes easier and easier to abandon the unwholesome mental states and arise wholesome mental states.

Over time and as you better train the mind, when events happen in your life where you once experienced anger or other unwholesome mental states, you won’t even have a rise of the unwholesome mental state - at all. You will not experience any anger, frustration, irritation or other unwelcome feelings. You will notice that you can completely and entirely eliminate 100% of all

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unwholesome mental states through actively cutting off the arising of unwholesome mental states and through cultivating wholesome mental states.

Breathing Mindfulness Meditation and generosity is training the mind to easily “let go”. Then, in daily life as unwelcome feelings and unwholesome mental states arise, a Practitioner can more easily apply Right Effort to “cut off” and eliminate the unwholesome, arising the wholesome. Through determination, dedication, and diligence to apply Right Effort in daily life, over time, the mind will gradually eliminate any arising of discontentedness. This requires a committed and consistent meditation practice along with learning and implementing all the other Teachings including Right Effort.

Right Effort will help you to attain a peaceful, calm, and stable mind no matter what events happen in your life. You will not be attached to the speech nor actions of others nor events that happen around you. You will ultimately attain an unshakeable content mind. The mind will need gradual training to accomplish this result.

Training the mind in this way, you can work towards liberating the mind through wisdom. It is a permanent place for the mind to reside, content and peaceful.

The same applies to unwholesome mental states like sexual desire that would break The Five Precepts, or other unwholesome mental states. Do you allow this unwholesome mental state to continue to arise and then apply speech and action to fulfill your desire or do you make efforts to abandon this unwholesome mental state?

We must apply “Right Effort” to abandon unwholesome mental states and produce or maintain wholesome mental states.

With “Right Effort” you prevent unwholesome mental states that have not arisen from arising, abandon unwholesome mental states that have arisen, produce un-arisen wholesome mental states, and maintain wholesome mental states that have arisen, not allowing them to fade away and work to increase their growth in the mind.

7.) Right Mindfulness: Mindfulness is to be aware of the mind in the present moment, not allowing the mind to dwell in the past or the future. To purify the mind, you will need to have awareness of mind and what currently exists in the mind. Additionally, to apply Right Effort you will need to have full awareness of the mind at all times. This is developed gradually over time.

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For a Practitioner who is just starting out, you can think of Right Mindfulness as “awareness of mind”. However, as you progress in this book series and seek guidance with a Teacher, a Practitioner will need to learn and practice The Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

These are explored in the book “Breathing Mindfulness Meditation” (Volume 7) of this same book series.

For completeness, The Four Foundations of Mindfulness will be listed here and then Teachings on these will be found in the book “Breathing Mindfulness Meditation” (Volume 7) of this same book series and through training classes with the author of this book series.

A Practitioner can consider Right Mindfulness “awareness of mind” until they are able to more fully explore The Four Foundations of Mindfulness and develop these in their life practice.

What Are The Four Foundations of Mindfulness?

The Four Foundations of Mindfulness are four aspects of awareness the mind needs to develop to have “awareness of mind”, then, actively and skillfully work with arising unwholesome thoughts, ideas, and feelings to eliminate them from ever arising again.

It is through developing awareness of bodily sensations, feelings, conditions of the mind, and mental objects that the mind can then eliminate unwholesome qualities and cultivate wholesome qualities.

Through developing The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, a Practitioner can then more readily and actively “cut off the thoughts” and “let them go” training the mind to eliminate discontentedness.

Rather than allowing the mind to become polluted with unwholesome feelings, conditions of the mind, or mental objects, a Practitioner can instead cut off and let go of any arising thoughts, ideas, and feelings when they are only bodily sensations.

This allows the mind to not experience the pollution of arising unwholesomeness and trains the mind so that unwholesome thoughts, ideas, and feelings no longer arise at all.

Without The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, a Practitioner would not be aware of the bodily sensations, or the resulting feelings, conditions of the mind, and mental objects to then be able to cut off and let go of the

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unwholesome thoughts, ideas, and feelings prior to polluting the mind so that eventually, they will never arise.

Through developing The Four Foundations of Mindfulness a Practitioner will be able to get to the point in their training that through the constant cutting off of unwholesome thoughts, ideas, and feelings that the mind can reside peaceful, calm, serene, and content with joy because unwholesomeness will never arise.

It is the constant cutting off sooner and sooner that the mind can experience liberation through the non-arising unwholesome thoughts, ideas, and feelings. The mind will eventually get tired and will submit to never arise unwholesome thoughts, ideas, or feelings.

The non-arising of unwholesome thoughts, ideas, and feelings is experienced through a well liberated mind - an Enlightened mind.

The Four Foundations of Mindfulness

Cultivating mindfulness or awareness of mind is accomplished through meditation practices and carried into everyday life through implementing awareness of the mind in each moment of your normal activities.

To cultivate mindfulness, you will need to learn Breathing Mindfulness Meditation in the positions of seated, lying, standing, or walking. Breathing Mindfulness Meditation and the four (4) body positions for meditation are described in the Chapter titled “Meditation: Developing Your Practice”

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(Chapter 11). Using Breathing Mindfulness Meditation, you can establish mindfulness or awareness of bodily sensations, feelings, conditions of the mind, and mental objects while learning to “let them go” to eliminate discontentedness.

If you continue to have reoccurring thoughts during the day or during your meditation sessions, a Practitioner could find the “cravings/desires/ attachments” of why this discontentedness exists and learn how to eliminate them from the mind with the guidance of a Teacher.

Eliminating cravings/desires/attachments will clear the mind and uncover your ability to “concentrate” in the present moment. Right Concentration is the last and final step of practicing the entire Eight Fold Path.

The word “mindfulness” or “mindful” has become a popular word as part of common language. The use of the word “mindfulness” or “mindful” is most often being used in replace of “careful”.

While the vast majority of the world is using these words in a different way than that of The Buddha, it is important that you understand and use the word “mindfulness” and “mindful” in the same way as Gotama Buddha. This will bring the mind to a better understanding of The Path to Enlightenment and allow you to cultivate the mind to attain Enlightenment. Even though others may choose to misunderstand this word and use it in replace of “careful”, now that you understand the definition of this word more deeply, you can use it as described as part of The Eight Fold Path so that you can train the mind based on these Teachings.

Mindfulness is “awareness of mind”.

Be sure to continually practice “Right Mindfulness” during all waking moments. Implement mindfulness into your daily life in all that you do. This will assist you to be aware of the mind, clear the mind of cravings/desires/ attachments to the past or future, and to eliminate aversion, thus allowing the mind to reside in the present moment being “satisfied with what is” with a more peaceful, calm, serene, and content mind with joy.

8.) Right Concentration: Concentration is the practice of meditation and a by-product of a clear and pure mind that is practicing the entire Eight Fold Path. A mind that has eliminated cravings/desires/attachments along with practicing all these Teachings will have a focus and high degree of concentration. This is referred to as “singleness of mind”.

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Right Concentration, or singleness of mind, is developed and maintained with a consistent and regular practice of The Eight Fold Path including a well established meditation practice to train the mind.

Through training the mind in Breathing Mindfulness Meditation, a Practitioner applies Right Effort to develop Right Mindfulness training the mind to “let go” to eliminate craving (mental longing with a strong eagerness). As a result, the mind becomes more aware and concentrated. Then, in daily life one should train the mind to only focus on one thing at a time to develop higher degrees of concentration or “singleness of mind”.

It is not physically possible for the mind to do more than one thing at a time. If a Practitioner attempts to do multiple things at one time through “multi- tasking”, you are essentially training the mind to rapidly cycle from one task to another. The mind is not actually doing multiple tasks at one time but instead is being trained to become overactive cycling through tasks so quickly, it will find it challenging to do any particular task well. The mind will then lack concentration and find that from the over stimulation that it is difficult to calm and relax the mind at other times in your day.

Through training the mind to do only one task at a time, a Practitioner will increase their productivity because each task will be done well with wholesome decisions and wholesome results (i.e. wholesome Kamma). You will not need to clean up any situations where you rushed through the decision making process producing unwholesome results. Instead, each decision will produce wholesome results because it was executed with Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.

The mind needs to take the effort to develop singleness of mind performing tasks one-by-one with full awareness of mind so that the mind can have well developed concentration ensuring the best possible outcome.

The increased and high degree of focus, concentration, and memory with clarity of mind is attained through a well developed practice of The Eight Fold Path but more specifically through daily training in meditation and through practicing “singleness of mind” in daily life. Performing one task at a time in daily life over a consistent long term basis is a practice of “singleness of mind” and will readily develop Right Concentration outside of one’s meditation sessions.

A Practitioner uses meditation to train the mind but then moves the benefits of these sessions into daily life through their life practice. Focusing the mind on the breath in Breathing Mindfulness Meditation trains the mind to have singleness of mind. Then, the Practitioner will need to apply the effort to ensure they are only performing one task at a time throughout their day in

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daily life. This fully brings the mind into the present moment through fully practicing singleness of mind in-and-out of meditation to accomplish the goal of Right Concentration.

A Practitioner then benefits from the increased and high degree of focus, concentration, and memory with clarity of mind being able to apply them to your personal and professional life creating beneficial outcomes.

As taught in The Four Noble Truths, The Eight Fold Path is the “life practice” that leads to the complete elimination of discontentedness to attain Enlightenment. The Eight Fold Path needs to be deeply understood through detailed study and practiced in daily life to attain Enlightenment.

By eliminating cravings, you will “lay down the burden” of carrying these in the mind. Gotama Buddha used this phrase when describing Enlightenment. Upon attaining Enlightenment, one has “laid down the burden” or “laid down the stress” of carrying the heaviness of mental cravings.

The practice of meditation allows you to practice every step of The Eight Fold Path at one time for a given period of time, Right View through Right Concentration. This is why it’s so effective at creating wellness and a healthy mind.

During the time of meditation, one is conducting the entire Eight Fold Path for that timeframe. It’s like “restarting” the mind with full execution of The Eight Fold Path in multiple moments strung together. Those moments then lead to the next moments of a healthy and stable mind that generates concentration. And it is implementing The Eight Fold Path as a “life practice” that will allow you to attain a peaceful, calm, serene, and content mind with joy - Enlightenment.

There are multiple forms of meditation that can be useful in training the mind. Breathing Mindfulness Meditation in the positions of seated, lying, standing, and walking along with Loving-kindness Meditation are the main forms of meditation needed for attaining Enlightenment. This will be explained more in the Chapter titled “Transforming The Three Poisons: Craving, Anger, and Ignorance” (Chapter 8) and “Meditation: Developing Your Practice” (Chapter 11).

You will find many meditation techniques and styles taught throughout the world, however, focusing on the types of meditation mentioned here will bring the best results in practicing The Eight Fold Path as taught by Gotama Buddha. Other forms of meditation can be used as needed for specific goals

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or tasks the mind may need for continued training and liberation. (More on meditation in later Chapters.)

Many people start with meditation as their entry point into attempting to work towards Enlightenment. That is fine, however, one must understand that meditation alone will not produce Enlightenment if the entire Eight Fold Path is not practiced throughout your daily life in a life practice.

You cannot meditate your way to Enlightenment through wishful thinking while having improper intentions, speech, or actions and have a harmful livelihood. You could not attain Enlightenment without meditation but you also would not be able to attain Enlightenment with only meditation.

To attain Enlightenment, you will need to learn and practice the entire Eight Fold Path with meditation and other Teachings.

Through a regular practice of meditation to train the mind, quiet the mind, and eliminate cravings, you will gain higher and higher degrees of concentration. With a mind full of discontentedness, it’s very hard to have concentration. But with continued practice of the entire Eight Fold Path that includes meditation, you will experience a high degree of concentration as you pursue the goal of Enlightenment and a higher state of consciousness.

Gotama Buddha taught Four (4) Jhānas or degrees of concentration that are attained as you progress closer and closer to Enlightenment as part of Right Concentration. Jhāna is the Pāli word for meditative or mental absorption, and refers to states of deep and subtle concentration. The Jhānas are preliminary phases the mind moves through prior to entering into the first Stage of Enlightenment.

Gotama Buddha gave details that describe each of these Jhānas. However, your goal should be to attain Arahantship, in other words, become an Arahant. This is the highest Stage of Enlightenment and the mind is then Enlightened. The Jhānas are impermanent while Enlightenment is permanent. The goal is to achieve Enlightenment.

This means, you will need to practice the entire Eight Fold Path closely and eliminate The Ten Fetters along with eliminating and cultivating various attributes of the mind.

There is no use trying to understand each individual Jhāna and which Jhāna you have or have not attained. It is best to develop and maintain a solid practice of these Teachings while pursuing The Path to Arahantship by staying focused on The Ten Fetters and eliminate these from the mind.

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Obtaining the human state is rare and your time in this form is always limited. So there is no need to focus the mind on figuring out which Jhāna you are in, that you are headed toward, and where you “want” to be. This will take you away from learning The Teachings and practicing The Teachings that lead to complete liberation of the mind.

The Jhānas are temporary and not the goal of these Teachings. The mind is not meant to reside there so there is no need to focus extensive time and effort to understand each Jhāna but instead, apply dedication and commitment to eliminating The Ten Fetters in the goal of attaining the Stage of Enlightenment as an Arahant. Knowing you are attaining the Jhānas can help you to understand you are headed in the right direction but you should not crave or want a specific Jhāna.

If you “want” a specific Jhāna, then you are craving and you will not attain complete Enlightenment. All craving must be extinguished including the craving to attain a specific Jhāna or even the craving to attain Enlightenment. You will need to pursue it as an interest, goal, or objective without craving.

Another reason why there is no need to determine which Jhāna you are in is that there is no need to compare or evaluate your “status” on this path compared to anyone else. This is a personal pursuit and one that you are walking alone with Teachers and guides to assist you. Comparing your progress to another person will only slow your progress as this will create judgment and ego. Both judgment and ego, along with other qualities of the mind, need to be fully extinguished on The Path to Enlightenment.

You will attain “Right Concentration” as you progress along The Eight Fold Path and practice all The Teachings deeply to include meditation.

There are no short cuts to achieving Enlightenment. You must start at the bottom in order to get to the top of the mind. A higher state of consciousness or “Enlightenment” is not given to you. Personal responsibility, personal improvement, and an independent journey with the guidance of Teachers is required in order to earn Enlightenment. You can maintain a normal, healthy, and productive life while pursuing Enlightenment. In fact, your life will actually continuously improve as you work your way towards Enlightenment.

You will notice ease and smoothness in areas of your life where you previously had roughness. Enlightenment is not something to prop up the

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ego against that you hold as a higher status over others, in fact, it’s just the opposite. To achieve Enlightenment, one needs to let go of their ego.

As you pursue Enlightenment through practicing The Eight Fold Path, you will most likely be interested to help others attain Enlightenment as well. It is best to refer new Practitioners to Teachers who are prepared to guide Students in developing a deep understanding and practice of these Teachings. If you attempt to help others while you are still gathering understanding yourself, then the work to help others will only hinder progress. It is best to refer anyone who is interested to pursue this path to a Teacher who is capable of guiding them while still allowing you time to progress. Then together, both of you can discuss The Teachings supporting and encouraging each other.

Enlightenment, and its path, is life changing. You will see the results of implementing The Eight Fold Path into your life as you constantly pursue Enlightenment.

To maintain the quality of Enlightenment, continue to work at maintaining a healthy and pure mind through continuous attention to practice The Eight Fold Path using meditation as a tool to develop and maintain a content mind. Develop and maintain a wholesome “life practice” for the best results.

Right Intentions, Right Speech, and Right Actions will produce wholesome Kamma creating a life of ease and smoothness. Another way to understand these are Kind Intentions, Kind Speech, and Kind Actions.

Enlightenment is a continuous pursuit of knowledge and the result of fully practicing The Eight Fold Path, but it is also the starting point to fully apply your practice with a liberated mind.

Enjoy the journey, enjoy the learning, growing and developing. Enjoy knowing that you can achieve Enlightenment through the process of earning your own Enlightenment.

You will never fear death because you know without a doubt that you are finished with discontentedness and the suffering it causes. Through pursuing Enlightenment and attaining it, you will never be reborn. The mind will have inner joy and inner fulfilling peace that is unshakable.

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The below table shows The Eight Fold Path grouped into its sections of Wisdom, Moral Conduct, and Mental Discipline.

There are two additional steps on The Path to Enlightenment referred to as The Ten Fold Path. The two additional steps described as part of The Ten Fold Path are not taught but instead experienced. The steps of Right Wisdom and Right Liberation are added to The Eight Fold Path to describe The Ten Fold Path.

Right Wisdom and Right Liberation do not have specific Teachings that are shared to produce these factors of The Path to Enlightenment but instead are the results of fully practicing The Eight Fold Path and all the other Teachings to attain Enlightenment.

An Enlightened being will be practicing The Ten Fold Path where they will be experiencing Right Wisdom and Right Liberation as a result of fully practicing The Eight Fold Path.

9.) Right Wisdom: is a Practitioner’s deep understanding of The Teachings and being able to communicate them with ease. A Practitioner will have fully eliminated The Unwholesome Root of Ignorance (unknowing of true reality) which is also described as a fetter/taint/pollution of mind as part of The Ten Fetters.

10.) Right Liberation: is that a Practitioner’s mind is fully liberated experiencing freedom from discontentedness through having eliminated The Ten Fetters. The mind is Enlightened.

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You do not need to do anything special to focus on these two additional factors of The Path to Enlightenment but instead, they will be developed as a result of all the other training you employ.

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