The Way to Wisdom: the Noble Eightfold Path
Suffering
The world is on fire with desire.
Not getting what one wants is suffering.
Decay, disease, old age and death are suffering.
How can we rise above such suffering?
The Cause of Suffering
The root of suffering is craving for delights and pleasures of the eye, ear, nose and body.
Craving of the cessation of pain causes suffering.
The Extinction of Suffering
Freedom from craving vanquishes suffering.
Letting go of attachment annihilates sorrow.
The Middle Way : the Noble Eightfold Path
It is the middle path between extremes that leads to liberation.
Right-Understanding
Free yourself of views and attitudes that block the path of understanding.
Knowing the difference between what is a good action and what is a bad deed is right understanding.
Right-understanding leads to willing the good through actions of body, speech and mind.
The purpose of practical ethics is ultimately spiritual.
Karma (Kamma*) is an action of the will that results in something wholesome or unwholesome arising.
Avoid any action of the mind that can cause harm to oneself or others.
Avoid any thought or action that causes harm to others.
Anything that does harm should be avoided.
Unwholesome intentions must be grasped and extinguished at the root.
Avoid doing the right thing for the wrong reason.
Mind control means denying what is not good for one’s spiritual development and replacing it with its opposite.
Right-understanding leads to accrued-merit, which opens the way to a deepening understanding
of the cause of suffering.
Wrong-understanding leads to wrong actions, which lead to more and more suffering.
Delusion leads to more and more evil.
One is the owner of the Karma one makes.
One reaps the fruit of one’s actions in this life or the next.
Right Thought
Right thought means right intentions or right motives that set the mind moving toward achievement of wholesome goals.
Right intention is the forerunner of right action.
Desire, ill-will and harmfulness arise from ill-intentions.
Suffering will be the result of wrong thought or wrong intention. When you observe desire, ill-will or harmfulness arising in your mind, replace them with, renunciation, good-will and harmlessness.
Eliminate obstruction, and open the path to wisdom.
Knowing what is good is not the same as doing what is good.
Only the application of loving-kindness can bring about the good.
Working on yourself is the most difficult and painful discipline.
Everything contains its opposite.
Replacing bad intentions with good intentions is the antidote that helps to eliminate suffering.
Good intentions are contrary to the way of the world.
The direction we take often comes back on us.
The unwholesome thought is like a rotten peg lodged in the mind.
The wholesome thought is like a new peg suitable to replace it.
Right Speech
Never deceive.
Always tell what you know and admit when you know nothing.
Abstain from lying and always tell the truth.
One should never knowingly speak a lie for one’s own advantage.
Speech can give wisdom, heal division and create peace.
False speech can break lives, create enemies and start wars.
Lying corrupts society.
Lies lock one in a cage of falsehood.
As an upturned bowl empties of water, so falsehood empties a man of his merit.
Use speech to unite those who are divided, create agreement and harmony.
The root of slander is hate, a pitfall to be avoided.
Speech that originates in loving-kindness wins trust and affection.
Harsh speech uttered in anger is intended to cause pain. Why?
Speech should be gentle, soothing to the ear, loving and kind, to really reach the heart. There is no good reason for speech that is angry, abusive, reproving, bitter, insulting, hurtful, offensive, demeaning, sarcastic or ironic.
Speech that arises out of anger and aversion is impulsive action without deliberation and leads to harm of others and self.
Abstain from idle chatter and frivolous speech and pointless talk that have no depth.
Abstain from listening to chatter that stirs up restless thoughts.
Make every word have meaning, so speech is a treasure.
The opposite of idle chatter is calm and quiet.
Right Action
Good will helps avoid disagreement.
Avoid frivolous entertainments which block development on a higher, aesthetic, contemplative plain.
The opposite of anger is patience.
The antidote to anger is tolerance.
Learn to tolerate abuse without retaliating.
Undisturbed shall the mind remain, with heart full of love and free of hidden malice.
Be conscientious, full of sympathy and desirous of the welfare of all living beings. The monk will be so imbued with feelings of love for other sentient beings that he will not be able to harm them.
Have respect for the property of others and their rights, showing generosity of heart.
Abstain from unwholesome sexual conduct that will cause harm to others. Abstain from having sex with partners who are betrothed, married or under parental protection.
Curb sexual desire so it does not lead to moral transgression.
A banal attachment to promiscuity blocks the path to purification.
See your partner as a sentient human being, not as an object of desire.
Protect sentient human beings from the negative effects of unwholesome Karma.
Sensual desire wreaks havoc in the lives of laymen and householders.
Monks and nuns avoid distraction by leading celibate lives.
Right Livelihood
Be reliable and worthy of confidence.
Avoid gaining a livelihood by doing anything that harms others.
Avoid gaining a livelihood through unwholesome speech or action. Gain a living by doing no harm and benefiting others, righteously, legally, peacefully, honestly, openly and courteously, in such a way that as to gain merit and avoid the pitfalls of destruction.
Fulfill your duties in an honest and trustworthy manner, avoiding idleness, deceit and illicit gain.
Show respect, courtesy and consideration for others.
Right livelihood yields worldly fruits and brings good results.
The mind, being holy, being turned away from the world and conjoined with the path:
this is called supra-mundane right livelihood.
Right Effort
No one can make you make the effort; you must make it for yourself. Purify yourself in accordance with good intentions as a preparation to deeper insight through meditation.
Arouse the energy of the mind, and focus it on cleansing the mind of its impurities through self-discipline.
Through intense self-discipline, liberate the mind, so it is free to work on the supra mundane
level.
Prevent the arising of unwholesome mental states before they are awakened. Stem the five hindrances of sensual desire, ill-will, dullness of the mind, restlessness before they arise.
Lust for sensual pleasures, sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches or for wealth and power, position and fame block the path to purification. Hatred, anger, resentment and repulsion block the path to purification.
Feelings of aversion may be shed like leaves from a tree.
Mental inertia, drowsiness and dullness of mind block the path to purification.
Restlessness, worry, stress, agitation, excitement and frenzy keep the mind from focus.
Doubt, lack of resolution and indecisiveness hinder right effort.
Nip mental hindrances in the bud through careful analysis of mental states; then, cut them out at the root and drive them out of the mind.
Watch and observe the workings of the mind.
Check uncontrolled response through mind control.
Check uncontrolled desire and agitation through focusing on equanimity.
The positive effect of mind control is reason enough to keep doing it. Replace unwholesome thoughts with equal and opposite thoughts, as a carpenter drives out a rotten peg and drives in a fresh one.
Buddhists do meditation exercises practicing renunciation and compassion as a way of going against the stream.
The Buddha goes against the stream.
He goes the opposite way, breaking the shackles of desire. Follow the eightfold path, being sure to purify yourself in accordance with good Karma as a preparation to deeper insight through meditation.
Without accomplishing moral purity, you will encounter great difficulty in going forward.
Push out unwholesome attachments by replacing them with their opposites as the antidote.
Replace hate, aversion and rancor, with the mind focused upon millions of thoughts of human-kindness. Counteract dullness and drowsiness through concentration on a great ball of light to energize the mind.
Calm the agitated-mind through breathing meditation. Investigative observation and analysis of the mind helps allay doubt, uncertainty, indecision and lack of resolution.
Direct the mind away from an unwholesome thought, as you might look away from an undesirable sight.
When someone expresses an unpleasant or unwholesome thought, change the subject.
Avoid topics which are unsavory.
There would be much less unsavory talk if there were no one to listen.
Through effort of the mind arouse un-arisen wholesome states. When novices are focused on unwholesome states, wise monks suggest meditation topics to get them back on the path.
The seven steps of enlightenment are mindfulness, investigation, energy, rapture, tranquility, concentration and equanimity.
Through meditation, clear the mind of wandering and delusion and focus on objects clearly in the now.
Through inquiry and investigation analyze the nature of phenomena; ask yourself what it is that fascinates you so much.
Quicken the energy of your effort, shaking off lethargy and inertia, awakening enthusiasm, gathering momentum and using perseverance, so the power of the mind overcomes inertia and cannot be stopped.
Push hard until you have overcome all obstacles.
See the true nature of things as they really are without delusion. Enthusiasm builds to rapture ascending to ecstatic heights accompanied by restlessness of mind which must be calmed and subdued.
Rapture becomes tranquility which through contemplation proceeds to serenity.
Tranquility brings concentration on one-pointed unification of mind. Equanimity comes when the mind through deepening concentration becomes free from inertia and excitement and remains balanced on its own. The mind in equanimity, without effort or restraint watches and observes the play of phenomena.
Maintain wholesome arisen states: guard the balance of the mind and focus on the positive state, so it remains at the forefront of the mind until it reaches fulfillment. Keeping the balance of the mind takes constant practice.
It is easier to lose balance than maintain it.
One can gain enlightenment and lose it.
Right Mindfulness
Right mindfulness is the quality of awareness.
It insures complete awareness of all the activities of the body.
It insures complete awareness of all sensations and feelings as they occur. Right
mindfulness is complete awareness of all activities of the mind as they occur and complete awareness of all mental objects.
This attitude of complete awareness brings about powerful results.
It sharpens to the finest degree man’s powers of observation. It induces the deepest calm and insures that nothing is said or done or thought … without deliberation.
So penetrating and powerful is the sense of awareness that every single, minute activity of the mind is observed and considered.
Realize total awareness of the true nature of phenomena the way they really are.
The minds of most beings flit about, here and there, and never are steady.
They who have no control over the mind cannot fix steadily on a subject of meditation.
Meditation fixes the flighty-mind through focus and concentration.
Nothing is as it seems because the mind embellishes experience.
Focus on contemplation of the body, of feeling, of the mind and of the mind objects.
After putting away worldly greed and grief, bring the roots of body, feeling, perceptions and objects of the mind out into the light and examine them closely for attachment and delusion.
Clearing up the cognitive field is the task of right mindfulness. To produce mindfulness is not so much a matter of doing as a matter of undoing : not thinking, not judging, not associating, not planning, not imagining, and not wishing. All desired objects of body, feeling emotional or wishful thinking are colored by the way the mind manipulates experience and expectation interferes with reality. Mindfulness undoes the knots and tangles by simply observing and noting. Mindfulness does nothing but note, watching each experience as it arises, stands and passes away.
Observation frees the mind from clinging, from compulsion and from unbridled-desire.
In the bright light of mindfulness, in the immediacy of observation, attachment evaporates and delusion vanishes, both burned away by the watchful eye of the mind. In right mindfulness, there is a sustained contemplation of experience, in its bare immediacy, precisely and persistently.
The mind observes, free of meanderings, the clear nature of every experience by separating the original experience from its embellishments. Examine the material side of existence through contemplation of the body. Breathing meditation allows us to quiet and calm the mind, so it is in a stable state to contemplate.
Calming the body function, breathe in; calming the body function, breathe out.
Behold how the body arises; behold how the body passes away.
Mindfulness of breathing tranquilizes and calms the body function. Mindfulness of breathing is preparatory to achievements of higher states, called the absorptions (Jhana states), and preparatory to the development of insight wisdom. Insight wisdom makes the disciple realize, he is not the body, he is contemplating, and the personality which he thought was contemplating does not really exist. Eventually, he realizes there is a mental process outside the self, which brings him closer to an understanding of non-ego.
There is no real self who is standing, sitting and lying.
An action of the body is devoid of an actual ego-entity. Bending, stretching, eating, drinking, chewing, tasting, passing urine, and discharging excrement are impersonal bodily functions devoid of ego-entity. Contemplation of the body from the top of the hair to the tip of the toes reveals a sack of skin stretched over a frame filled with impurities … sinews, marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lymph, tears, skin oils, saliva mucus, urine and so on, which frees us of the delusion that the body is attractive.
Contemplation of the loathsomeness of the human body helps us to counter infatuation with the body and sexual desire.
Dissect the parts of the body with the mind, the way a butcher would cut away the organs and the heart, and set them apart.
The body is not a material entity with an existence of its own; it is a compilation of the four elements: solid, gas, heat and liquid.
Free yourself from the illusion that you will never die by imaging your own corpse thrown on a charnel ground, one, two, three days dead, swollen-up, blue black in color, full of corruption and decay.
You are not infallible; you are the opposite.
Explode false illusions which keep a tenacious hold on the mind. Contemplate feeling as it arises and passes away and how the mind is disposed when it encounters an object of experience.
When a pleasant feeling arises, it may have its origin in greed and desire.
An unpleasant feeling may have its root in fear, hate or aversion.
Neutral or indifferent feelings may arise out of dullness of mind or delusion. Look at experience, and cut off the root of unwholesome intent, as it begins to rise and interact with feeling.
If we just allow the mind to play, uncontrolled defilements will color experience. Watch an experience as it arises and as it passes away; catch unwanted Karma and defuse attachment, aversion or indifference.
Through mindfulness, we can turn experience back into a bare mental event, shorn of subjective interplay.
Let the flow of events arise and dissolve without being subjective. When the wholesome root of feeling loses its hold on events, the events lose their sense of permanence and become part of the stream of impermanent flux. Non-involvement means detachment from a sense of permanence. In contemplation of mind, the disciple knows that the greedy mind is being greedy; he knows that the hating-mind is hateful; that the deluded mind is deluded; the cramped mind is cramped; the scattered mind is scattered; and the undeveloped mind is undeveloped; the un-concentrated mind is un-concentrated. In concentration of the mind, the disciple knows when the action of the mind is not greedy or hateful, not deluded or cramped and not scattered and undeveloped.
In contemplation of the mind, the disciple observes how the surpass-able mind is surpassable,
the concentrated mind is concentrated, and the freed mind is freed.
The disciple knows that mind means ‘consciousnesses’ rather than thinking as an enduring separable entity.
The mind is a sequence of momentary mental acts unconnected to a sense of self or belonging to self.
Mind is a bare state of consciousness free of subjective association. As meditation practice deepens, the observer becomes more and more detached until there is only detached-mind.
As meditation practice deepens, the unwholesome roots of greed, aversion, and delusion become less-capable of interacting in consciousness.
As meditation practice deepens, the mind becomes less-cramped and scattered, and more developed
and concentrated, more-and-more free, and more-and-more pure. As contemplation deepens, the contents of the mind become more and more purified and rarified.
Irrelevant flights of fancy, imagination and emotion gradually subside, and the mind becomes clearer, and more intently aware, watching its own process of becoming. The seeming, solid, stable mind dissolves into a consciousness of a series or sequence of perceptions in the mind (Cittas) flashing in and out of being, moment by moment, coming from nowhere and going nowhere, yet continuing in sequence without pause. Contemplation of the mind objects focuses on the five hindrances of lust, anger, torpor or sloth, mental worry and restlessness and, finally, doubt. Mind objects mean the bare facts of events colored by lust, anger, sloth, restlessness and doubt.
The disciple dwells in contemplation of the mind objects, the five hindrances. He knows when there is lust in him; he knows when there is anger, knows when there is torpor or sloth, knows when there is restlessness and mental worry, and knows when there are doubts.
He knows when the mind is free of the five hindrances: he knows when the mind is free of lust, anger, sloth, worry and doubt.
He knows how they arise, and he knows how they are overcome.
He knows how they do not rise again in the future.
The five hindrances may be overcome through the antidote of the seven factors of enlightenment: mindfulness, investigation, energy, rapture, tranquility, concentration and equanimity.
Through mindfulness, we block unwholesome arisen states through concentration and bring the mind to one-pointed-ness and balance.
Right mindfulness means maintaining clarity and balance so the mind can concentrate purely on the path.
The disciple is mindful of how unwholesome states arise and pass away, of how consciousness arises and passes away, how investigation arises and passes away, how energy, rapture and restlessness come into play and pass away, how tranquility and concentration come into play and pass away, how one can continue on the path, and how one can be hindered.
The disciple contemplates how the mind objects arise and pass away and lives in independence, unattached to this world, entering the path and realization of Nirvana. The Buddha only points out the steps in the path; no one can take these steps for you. It behooves the disciple to have a good teacher, to guide him on the path, to keep him from going astray through ignorance and delusion.
This is why disciples take refuge in the Buddha, the Monk-hood (Sangha), and the Dharma: the Holy Triple Gem.
Joining the monk-hood is not the only way. Instances have been recorded of laymen achieving Nirvana.
Right Concentration
Right concentration ensures one-pointed-ness of mind. It is the ability to focus one’s mind, steadily, on any one object only, to the exclusion of others.
Long-continued practice of mental concentration makes the mind highly penetrative. It becomes like a high-powered light which can illuminate any object on which it is focused.
Now, this concentration of the mind, like virtue, is not an end in itself. The purpose of developing this is concentration (Samadhi) to make use of its penetrative power, to understand existence and, thereby, realize the highest wisdom.
We come now to wisdom, in which state this highly concentrated mind, abiding in calm concentration (Samadhi) is made to focus its attention on the three great characteristics of existence, namely impermanence, suffering and egoless-ness, the mind is able to see things as they are.
The result is the dawning of the highest understanding, which is the first factor of the eightfold path, through which, when perfected, one is able to see reality. This realization coincides with the cessation of craving and the attainment of Nirvana. What now is right concentration? Having the mind fixed to a single object. This is concentration.
There are different levels of one-pointed-ness.
Just being able to concentrate on one object to the exclusion of all others is not enough.
One-pointed-ness alone is not enough and is not an end in itself. Right concentration must be directed to higher purposes and right understanding, so the disciple should avoid concentration on the body or other unwholesome states. One has to transcend the level of worldly states and concentrate on an object in a manner that causes holy states to arise.
Right concentration reflects the culmination of all the achievements of the factors of the eightfold path working simultaneously to obtain the right point of one-mindedness. This understanding leads to the achievement of new mental states beyond those already experienced.
Right concentration looks back upon right understanding, right effort, right intention and right mindfulness.
Right concentration reflects on the four foundations of mindfulness : contemplation of the body, contemplation of feeling, contemplation of mind, and contemplation of mind objects.
Right concentration requires the four great efforts:
First, abandon unwholesome states before they arise by blocking the five hindrances of sensual desire, ill-will, drowsiness, restless worry and doubt. Second, right concentration requires the disciple to abandon unwholesome arisen states through concentration on the impermanence of life, deterioration of the body, loving kindness, compassion, breathing meditation, investigative analysis, and other meditation forms suggested by the Buddha.
Third, right concentration requires the arising of wholesome states of the mind through the seven steps to enlightenment: mindfulness, investigation, energy, rapture, tranquility, concentration and equanimity.
Fourth, right concentration means maintaining wholesome states once they have arisen through illuminating the four noble truths: the nature of suffering, the cause of suffering, the extinction of suffering, and the Middle Way.
Right concentration, then, looks forward to a realization through right mindfulness, of the impermanence of the moment, the fleeting nature of existence, the transitory nature of being, the vanity of grasping, the illusory nature of consciousness, freedom from the delusion of self, deliverance from worldly desire, detached concentration, rapture, tranquility, and equanimity.
Accompanying detached observation, watching the play of events, after extended practice, the disciple comes to learn about two methods of concentration:
In the first one, insight meditation, he does not deliberately attempt to exclude the multiplicity of phenomena from his field of attention.
Instead, he directs mindfulness to the changing states of the mind and body, noting any phenomenon that presents itself.
The task of insight meditation is to maintain a conscious awareness of whatever enters the range of perception, clinging to nothing.
Upon continuance of the noting of events of the mind, concentration becomes stronger, moment after moment, until it becomes established one-pointedly on the constant stream of events.
When insight meditation is accomplished sufficiently, it leads to a breakthrough to the final stage of the path to freedom, insight and wisdom. The second method of concentration is called tranquility meditation, in which the disciple concentrates firmly on one object, presumably an object given him by his teacher. In tranquility meditation, the disciple focuses his mind on the object and tries to keep it there, fixed and alert.
If the mind strays, he notices this, and quickly catches the mind and brings it back, firmly but gently, to the object, doing this over and over as often as necessary. This is called the initial application of tranquility meditation. Next, sustained concentration anchors the attention on the object and holds it there until the disciple, begins to experience rapture, delight and joy and happiness, culminating in one-pointed-ness.
As one continues to meditate, these factors combine, complement one another, and pick up power to steer the mind to mental states called absorptions, which are beyond the reach of the five-fold sense activity.
The mental states called absorptions can only be attained in solitude through unremitting perseverance.
In these states, all activity of the five senses is suspended.
No visual or audible impressions arise at this time.
No bodily feeling is felt, but although all other senses have ceased, the mind remains active, perfectly alert, and fully awake.
The term ‘absorption’ is sometimes improperly translated as ‘trance,’ but this rendering may be vague and misleading, and Pali scholars call the four absorptions the ‘Jhana’ states.
Detached from sensual objects, detached from evil things, the disciple enters the first absorption, which is accompanied by thought concentration and discursive thinking, which is born of detachment and filled with rapture and happiness. The first absorption is attained when, through strength of concentration, the fivefold sense activity is temporarily suspended, and the five senses are likewise eliminated. The first absorption is free from five things and five things are present. When the disciple enters the first absorption, there have vanished the five hindrances of lust, ill-will, torpor and sloth, restlessness, mental worry and doubts; and there are present concentration of thought, discursive thinking, rapture, happiness and concentration. And further, after subsiding of thought concentration and discursive thinking, and, by the gaining of inner-tranquility and oneness of mind, he enters into a state free from thought concentration and discursive thinking, the second absorption, which is born of concentration and filled with rapture and happiness.
And further, after the doing away of rapture, he dwells in equanimity, mindful, with clear awareness; and he experiences in his own person, that feeling of which the noble say, ‘happy is he who dwells in equanimity and mindfulness.’ Thus, he enters into the third absorption.
The four immaterial absorptions which are based on the fourth absorption are produced by meditating on their respective objects from which they derive their names, which are sphere of unbounded space, of unbounded consciousness, nothingness and neither perception nor non-perception.
These absorptions, reached by the path of serenity meditation, as exalted as they are, still lack the wisdom of insight and, so, are not sufficient for gaining deliverance.
Tranquility concentration does not guarantee freedom from unwholesome states and does not lead as a matter of course to a sort of breakthrough that can be expected in insight meditation.
The way to wisdom is fulfillment of the eightfold path through understanding and right intention, making a final effort to overcome the root of suffering. The way to wisdom, the goal of the mind, is to find its resolution in the opposite extreme of the body, the root of worldly Karma.
It means a final realization of the significance of the four noble truths, realizing the path to freedom from suffering, breaking the final shackles of desire; it means bringing about the extinction of suffering and letting go of the world to be free to enter Nirvana. The root of suffering is a simple, obvious and powerful truth, but the understanding the root is one thing and eradicating it is quite another.
The problem is that the source of the affliction is latent and dormant, and we can’t get at it, if we don’t know about it.
Evenly highly-developed and very advanced disciples can have hidden remnants of desire below the level of awareness which hold them back from making the final step to freedom.
Ignorance of deep-seated powers that dominate volition can hold back even the most strong and gifted.
Ignorance distorts perception and causes delusion; thus the disciple, in spite of his good intentions, seeks permanence in the impermanent, self in the selfless and gets a distorted view of reality which hinders his progress on the path to reality. In spite of knowing better, he unconsciously perceives himself as a self-contained ego which has the innate right to pleasure.
Wisdom is the antidote to ignorance and delusion because the most pernicious of cognitive distortions is a sense of permanent self that craves permanent pleasures in a permanent world.
The solution is to focus on the burning light of concentration on illuminating the desultory nature of cognitive perception.
Trapped in a dichotomy where the mind has the volition to go in one direction, but the innate tendency to take the path of least resistance, force it, through intense effort, to go the other way : to go against the stream.
Wisdom centers on development insight: a deep and comprehensive seeing into the nature of existence.
This necessitated discursive thought and analysis of the true nature of being, getting at the true nature of existence before it is defiled by unconscious intentions through the power of the light of the mind to reduce an experience to the bare fact, without subjective involvement.
Eventually, if the disciple pushes investigation to its end, he will discover that there is no reality, no independent self observing. There is only the bare fact of arising. Similarly, he will discover there are no permanent facts of existence to grasp onto for pleasure or for any other reason.
The antidote to the dissatisfaction connected to the idea of permanence, pleasure and self is through insight meditation to observe or concentrate upon impermanence, unsatisfactory-ness and selflessness.
The objects of perception are mere strings of momentary sensations, bubbles, about ready pop, that can’t be grasped.
The stream of mental events is made up of images that are constantly breaking up. Unsatisfactory-ness means that nothing lasts; there is nothing to hang onto that will give you lasting pleasure.
Selflessness means that if we are not the owners of the perceptions which we try to grasp and hold, the very idea of self is just such a transitory perception. When the course of insight practice is entered, the eight path factors become charged with a previously unknown intensity.
They gain force and fuse together into the unity of a single cohesive path heading towards the goal.
The factors of the concentration group keep the mind firmly-fixed upon the stream of phenomena.
As the wisdom of insight deepens, right understanding deepens and right intentions intensify in an effort to penetrate the world of arising events. This stage is called the mundane path.
The mundane path contemplates the events of a conditional world. When insight meditation pushes beyond the mundane world, it enters the supra-mundane paths, which mean contemplation and realization of unconditional levels. The supra-mundane truths of impermanence, unsatisfactory-ness and selflessness are the antidote to the inherent defilements of the mundane path.
The mind breaks through worldly delusions and realizes that the opposite of the natural inclinations of the mind represent the truths of nature. The supra-mundane path frees the mind from the root of delusion about permanence and self and brings the mind to the point where it is finally ready to comprehend the four noble truths, the starting point and the culmination of the Buddha’s teaching. The mind sees the nature of suffering, the cause of suffering and, then, the way to the extinction of suffering, through the middle way and the noble eightfold path. When all the factors of the path are functioning without hindrance, the mind works with powerful intensity, through right understanding and right intention to focus on the attainment of Nirvana.
When the supra-mundane paths are entered, the extinction of the latent tendencies to defilements is explicit.
Theravada teaching classifies such fetters as follows: personality view, doubt, clinging to rites and rituals, sensual desire, aversion, desire for fine material existence, conceit, restlessness and ignorance.
The four supra-mundane paths eliminate certain layers of defilement. The first supra-mundane path which is called stream entry strikes at the roots of the first three fetters.
First, personality view is cut off when one begins to see that a permanent self is illusory. Second, doubt is eliminated when, through a sense of accomplishment, one gains firm confidence in pursuit of the path.
Third, clinging to rules and rites is abandoned, when one realizes that the truth is not imposed through outside conventions, but must come from within. The second stage, which is called the path of the once-returner, does not eradicate the defilements entirely but greatly reduces the roots.
In this stage, the practitioner reaps the fruit of stream entry, enjoying a sense of peaceful bliss which accompanies momentary release from the first three fetters, giving a glimpse or insight into Nirvana before the mind sinks back into defilement. The disciple who has experienced this first fruit can never turn back.
He may have to be reborn to do it, but he will eventually overcome these impurities. He has acquired the essential realization needed to achieve Nirvana, and there will be no turning him back from that ultimate goal.
The third stage is the path of the non-returner, in which the disciple cuts off the roots of the fourth and fifth fetters of sensual desire and ill-will. Never again will he feel the need to be reborn in a human state of existence; instead, he will be reborn in a higher state in a ‘fine material world’ and there attain deliverance. The fourth state is the path of Enlightenment (Arahantship) in which the aspirant cuts off the five remaining fetters :
Which are desire for a fine material existence, immaterial existence, and the bonds of conceit, restlessness and ignorance.
He has practiced the eightfold path and followed it to full fruition. Endowed with its eight factors, in full perfection, he lives in the enjoyment of their fruits, enlightenment and final deliverance.
He is free from all bondage in the round of all rounds of existence (Samsara.).
Fulfillment of the path is transcending and going beyond the need for it.
The understanding of the relaxation of endeavor is knowledge of fruition. The path performs the task of breaking up defilements which leads, when this demanding exertion subsides, to the bliss of Nirvana.
The higher reaches of the path might seem remote from our present standing and the demands of the practice hard to fulfill, but the only requirements for reaching the goal are two : to start and to continue.
Talking about the final stages of the path is as difficult as navigating uncharted waters. Talking about the higher states is unsuitable material for teaching, as they must be experienced rather than thought about or discussed, and therein the lies the answer. The aspirant must practice the factors of the path, step-by-step, stage-by-stage, through gradual practice, through gradual progress, until he begins to reap the fruit of his efforts. Experience of the higher states will come, even if progress seems slow and the need for effort seems relentless.
Progress in the path is like rubbing two sticks together to make fire. If you stop for a rest, you’ll lose most of the progress you’ve made and have to start over, but if you continue, in an unrelenting manner, you will eventually succeed. Start and continue and you will see where the effort leads.
The eightfold path starts with right understanding of suffering and the origins and cessation of suffering and the middle way leading to the cessation of suffering. It continues through right intentions of renunciation of unwholesome intentions and wholesome intentions of good will and harmlessness, abstaining from false, slanderous, harsh, idle speech, abstaining from taking life, stealing, sexual misconduct, and abstaining from earning one’s livelihood by unwholesome means. It continues through right action, into right effort and abandoning the defilements developing and maintaining wholesome states, with the help of right mindfulness, contemplation of the body, the feelings, the mind, and the objects of perception of the mind, so the aspirant achieves right concentration, passing through the stages of Jhana and the four supra-mundane states directed towards the final deliverance from the rounds of existence (Samsara) and release into a state of Nirvana. It is difficult to conceive of something more difficult than continued and unrelenting adherence to the path.
Just rubbing two sticks together to make a fire is mere child’s play by comparison. A more appropriate analogy would be to say that following the path is like trying to put out a fire that has spread everywhere and seems to be out of control. It is harder to put out such a fire than it is to start one, yet that is what Buddhist practice concentrates upon, blowing out the fire of desire, little-by-little, bit-by-bit, until the last flicker disappears bringing release and the achievement of Nirvana. Start and continue, and you will see where the effort leads. Practice of the eightfold path is strict and rigorous, grasping the discipline of the path, and going at it with unrelenting vigor, hanging on hard, with a determination that is extreme; on the other hand, however, it is good to be reminded that the perception of the opposite of every extreme helps to bring perspective into balance. One cannot achieve Nirvana while in a state of stress. Thus the aspirant will realize that, having followed the rigors of the path of fruition, he must finally let go.
It’s a paradox, but in the resolution of that paradox is the answer.
The aspirant will only be able to achieve Nirvana when he learns to let go.
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