According to the Buddha, the Noble Eightfold Path is the path to liberation from samsara. It consists of Right View, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.
The first seven practices are pillars that support Right Concentration. Without Right Concentration, one cannot overcome the ignorant belief of an independently existing self, which is the root of samsara.
What are the first seven pillars?
Right View
Right View is the knowledge of the Four Noble Truths. When we genuinely understand the Four Noble Truths, we realize that the further our perception is from reality, the more we suffer.
- The Truth of Suffering: We are living in an ongoing state of dissatisfaction.
- The Truth of the Origin of Suffering: Suffering/dissatisfaction arises from causes and conditions.
- The Truth of Cessation: There is a possibility of reaching a state where that dissatisfaction/suffering has ceased.
- The Truth of the Path: There is a path for us to follow that will bring us to such a state.
To see reality through the lens of the Four Noble Truths is to have the “Right View,” which leads to truth and liberation. Denying the Four Truths or living with a view that contradicts them will lead to further confusion and dissatisfaction.
Right Resolve
Right Resolve is to be resolved on renunciation—the wish to be freed from suffering, resolved on freedom. We gain Right Resolve by contemplating the precious human birth, death and impermanence, karmic causes and results, and the sufferings of samsara. By realizing that nothing in the realm of samsaric experience is a reliable source of happiness, we gain the wish to be entirely free from the cycle.
Right Speech
Right Speech means to abstain from idle chatter and false, divisive, or harsh speech. For example, if we are in a situation where people are talking negatively about someone else, we do not engage and instead express that we do not want to take part in the conversation. We all know that moment when the office “water cooler” chit chat becomes harmful or divisive. We can take a moment and ask ourselves, “Are my words coming from a wholesome intention?” “Are my words aimed at tearing someone down?” “Are my words true?” Ideally, engaging in Right Speech leads to connection.
Right Action
Right Action is more than simply holding the intention to do no harm to ourselves and others; it means ensuring that our physical actions do not inflict harm on any sentient beings. Practicing Right Action means avoiding killing, injuring, stealing, and sexual misconduct.
Right Livelihood
Right Livelihood can hold two meanings, depending on the context. For monastics, Right Livelihood means to live from the donations of others and never take more than one needs. For laypeople, it means to avoid any livelihood that causes suffering to others by cheating, harming, or killing them. Whether we are business owners or employees, we can ensure we follow ethically sound methods of making a living. If we are unemployed, we can ask ourselves if our means of survival are ethical and if we are causing harm to anyone else in our quest to meet our basic needs.
Right Effort
Right Effort means diligently cultivating good qualities and abandoning non-virtuous thoughts and actions. The Buddha taught that if you want to be happy, certain behaviors will help you attain that happiness and others will prevent it. In Buddhism, virtue is anything that causes happiness, and non-virtue is anything that causes suffering. The primary means for developing Right Effort is to contemplate impermanence. We must recognize that we can’t delay our endeavors since there is no guarantee that we will be here tomorrow. We must have enthusiasm for the path by contemplating the benefits of liberation and the faults of samsara.
Right Mindfulness
Right Mindfulness means to remain mindful of the body, feelings, consciousness, and mental phenomena, while abandoning attachment and aversion. Simply put, be aware of what you are doing. As easy as this seems, when was the last time you took a walk or drive and completely lost track of where you were? It’s easy to lose track of what we are doing. To practice Right Mindfulness, we can ask ourselves, “How am I existing in this moment?” or even, “How is the world around me existing in this moment?”
To answer these questions, we must examine our body, mind, feelings, and surroundings. We can do so at the beginning and end of each day and even from moment to moment. This awareness leads us to respond to the true reality of situations rather than reverting to our instinctive reactions.
How do the first seven pillars support the eighth?
Right Concentration means to remain withdrawn from our senses and focused upon the object of our meditation while we practice. We develop a stable mind by avoiding counterproductive, harmful thoughts and actions. By creating a situation where our mind isn’t easily disturbed, we can be more engaged in our practice. Through this approach, we become more skillful meditators.
We can also summarize the Eightfold Path by breaking it into three, easy-to-remember categories, known as the Three Higher Trainings:
- Ethics: Right Action, Right Speech, and Right Livelihood.
- Meditative Concentration: Right Mindfulness, Right Effort, and Right Concentration.
- Wisdom: Right View and Right Resolve.
How can we apply the principles of the Eightfold Path to our lives?
Whatever the topic of our Dharma study, the most important takeaway is to apply it to our minds. It is crucial to develop a definitive understanding while acknowledging that intellectual understanding alone cannot transform our minds or experiences. For example, we know that we should avoid lying and that lying leads to paranoia, distrust, and so on. However, if we keep lying despite this knowledge and make no effort to prevent it, we will continue to experience paranoia and sow the seeds of distrust. Similarly, we know that avoiding distractions is essential to developing Meditative Concentration. But, as long as we continue to engage in meaningless activities like social media overuse and pursuing an unchecked desire for wealth and fame, we cannot progress in our meditation practice.
These guiding principles help us make choices that will lead us away from suffering and towards enlightenment as we move through our daily lives.