The Noble Eightfold Path The Four Noble Truths And The Noble Eightfold Path

First, some words from a master.

Yoda and the teachings of the Jedi were heavily based upon Lucas’ interpretation of Buddhism. Buddhists believe that our attachments lead to our problems (things like fear, grief and anger). So, while Yoda says that fear is the root of the dark side, the Buddha went a little deeper. That brings us to…

The Four Noble Truths

1: Life means suffering. Pain Sickness Injury Tiredness Stress Old age Death Sadness Fear Frustration Disappointment Depression

2: The origin of suffering is attachment. Craving and clinging to things is what gives us pain when they’re gone. We perceive love as good, for instance, but plenty of people have been killed for it.

3: The cessation of suffering is attainable. Method called Nirodha. Nirodha = unmaking of sensual craving and conceptual attachment. Peace through dispassion.

4:There is a path to the cessation of suffering. “The Middle Path” Not hedonistic, not ascetic. Gradually becoming dispassionate while increasing compassion. How? That’s where the Eightfold Path comes in.

Orange = Wisdom Blue = Ethical Conduct Purple = Mental Development

Right View To see the world as it is. To see things through To grasp the impermanent and imperfect nature of worldly objects and ideas To understand the law of karma and karmic conditioning.

Right Intention Make sure you’re doing things for the right reasons The Buddha distinguishes three types of right intentions: the intention of renunciation, which means resistance to the pull of desire the intention of good will, meaning resistance to feelings of anger and aversion the intention of harmlessness, meaning not to think or act cruelly, violently, or aggressively, and to develop compassion.

Right Speech Basically, don’t say nasty or untrue things. The Buddha explained right speech as follows: to abstain from false speech (Don’t lie) to abstain from slanderous speech and not to use words maliciously against others to abstain from harsh words that offend or hurt others to abstain from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth.

Right Action In a nutshell, be good to those around you. Right action means: to act kindly and compassionately to be honest to respect the belongings of others to keep sexual relationships harmless to others.

Right Livelihood Make your living in a way that doesn’t harm (and ideally helps) Wealth should be gained legally and peacefully. Therefore, the Buddha forbade: dealing in weapons dealing in living beings working in meat production and butchery selling intoxicants and poisons, such as alcohol and drugs

Right Effort Use self-discipline to stay on the path. Without Right Effort, nothing else here is possible.

Right Mindfulness Controlling your mind, actively observing and controlling the way our thoughts go. Buddha accounted for this as the four foundations of mindfulness: contemplation of the body contemplation of feeling (repulsive, attractive, or neutral) contemplation of the state of mind contemplation of the phenomena.

Right Concentration Concentrate on your actions, your intentions, and the world around you. Right concentration for the purpose of the eightfold path means wholesome concentration, i.e. concentration on wholesome thoughts and actions. The Buddhist method of choice to develop right concentration is through the practice of meditation. Through practice it becomes natural to apply elevated levels concentration also in everyday situations.