The Eightfold Path Of The Buddhist Religion

Buddhism teaches people to live honorably and follow the Eightfold Path to reach release from the state of infinite re-incarnation and reach nirvana, which means the end of the life cycle by living a life full of dignity and refuse from all other attachments causing their desires and strifes McKay et al., 2008)

This paper is a book report on “Living Buddha, Living Christ,” written by, Thich Nhat Hanh. In this paper I will discuss the four themes; Mindfulness, Understanding, Interbeing, and Wisdom. I will define the themes, and explain how each theme listed is a part of my life and whether this theme, can be co-related along with my faith.

We don’t know details about the life of Siddhartha “Buddha” as nothing was written down by him or his disciples until hundreds of years after his death. However, the legends that were passed down paint a very humble and intriguing picture of the man known as Buddha. The story states that Buddha was born into a very lavish lifestyle; he was given anything and everything he could ever want and kept very sheltered in order to protect him from the realities of the world around him. Eventually becoming curious of the surrounding world he escaped the royal walls and seen what the world

Having achieved enlightenment, the Buddha began spreading his knowledge to help others achieve ?Nirvana?, which means to be released from the reincarnation cycle. He preached that there were 4 Noble Truths: (1) all life is suffering; (2) the source of suffering is desire; (3) to end desiring is to end suffering; (4) there is an eight-fold path to end suffering; to have the right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. This idea of being released from suffering attracted many people, and Buddhism soon spread rapidly through Northern India, and then through Southern India.

"…[T]he Buddhist path can be summed up as: (1) to lead a moral life, (2) to be mindful and aware of thoughts and actions, and (3) to develop wisdom and understanding.”

The eightfold path consists of right views, right thoughts, right speech, right behavior, right live hood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation. The meaning of each respectively, are keeping to oneself and disregarding the idea of being prejudice, ignoring the evils in the world, refraining from hurtful and bad words, to live the teachings of Buddhism daily, apply our efforts stay away from ignorance and selfishness, enjoy good and clean thoughts, and concentrate on Buddha himself. One important word in the religion is the word dharma which means duty. Each believer has a duty. Good dharma leads to good karma.

The Buddha went in between to extremes to find the middle way. The middle way consists of the four noble truths and the eightfold path. The four noble truths are the most commonly shared belief between Buddhists. They are ways to eliminate desire, which will eliminate suffering. Number one says, “ life consists of suffering.” Number two says, “everything is impermanent and ever-changing, we suffer because we desire those things that are impermanent.” Number three says, “ the way to liberate oneself from suffering is to eliminate desire.” And number four says, “ desire can be eliminated by following the eightfold path.” The eightfold path is a group of statements, they are not sequential things, they are just attitudes and actions. The eightfold path consists of right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right live hood, right effort, right awareness and right meditation. By following these attitudes and actions, you can achieve a life without suffering#.

Buddhanet.net states that the Four Noble Truths are the truth of suffering, its cause, its end and the way to its end. These are the truths that all Buddhists believe are part of life and will lead to Nirvana and in turn a life free from suffering. But to reach Nirvana one must live by the Eight-Fold Path, which is made up of eight aspects: right views or understanding, proper intention and attitude, whole speech, proper action, correct and ethical livelihood, complete energy and effort, complete awareness, and concentration and meditation (online.sfsu.edu,

The journey “home” that Buddhists refer to as the privilege of enlightenment, the ultimate truth, is called the paramattha. The Paramattha is not the same journey as other faiths profess, because other faiths, like the science known as psychology, emphasize outside influence, in one way or another, in the ancient long search for understanding. Understanding life, afterlife, existence, thought, personality, behavior, and the unknown. These latter truth-seekers have overlapping roads of distinction on their charted course that is not an essential part of the

There are various Buddhist teachings, each having significant impacts on and affecting the Buddhist adherents differently. The ultimate goal of Buddhist adherents to the reach Nirvana, they achieve this through ridding themselves of desire and Dukkha(suffering). The main Buddhist teachings are the five precepts, the four noble truths and the eightfold path. These act as a guideline for the Buddhist adherents on their path towards reaching enlightenment by helping deal with modern issues such as bioethics. Similarly, many influential figures such as the Dalai Lama, Buddhaghosa and Dogen teach as a role model for Buddhist adherents to follow and guide them closer towards nirvana. Through both Buddhaghosa and Dogen’s statement, they illustrate

The eightfold path is not a set of rules that can be broken, but is instead a guideline to having a fulfilling life and to reach Nirvana. The Buddha first examined what causes the human condition. He knew that life could not be perfect because this would make it so we could not possibly notice ourselves, so this is why we feel pain and suffering. The Buddha also says that you must practice to find happiness and combat the imperfections of life. This is why the eightfold path is not a set of rules waiting to be broken, but instead is a way of life that will lead one to the truth and bring happiness to our

As a result of this, Hindus often act very selfless, as this type of behavior is said to bring positive consequences later on. In Buddhism, the Eightfold Path, the set of codes Buddhists must follow to eventually reach Nirvana, specifies two points particularly relating to charity. The first point being that one must have the right values and attitude. This specifically means being selfless and having compassion rather than having greed and selfishness. The Eightfold Path also states that one must have the right action.

The eightfold path are the following. Right view, right intention, right action, right speech, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. Right view is seeing the world as it is right view. Some of the traditions also include kamra (kamma) here, but most secular Buddhist view kamma as intention or action, so we place it under Right Action. Additionally, with secular Buddhists, kamma is not believed to be a system of justice that goes from one life to the next, but instead is about developing wholesome intention behind our actions so we behave ethically in this life, with Right Action. Right View also touches on our own views of the world, how we may grow to them, how we may consider them important, when they are really not important, and how we can get caught up in them. The second of the eightfold path is the path to right intention. In order not to create more suffering, we need to rely on paying attention to what our intentions are with others and with

Long through humanity’s evolution, desire has always been a burden. The Buddha’s weapon against tanha is the eightfold path .They are the right knowledge,aspiration,speech,behaviour, livelihood,effort, mindfulness, and absorption.

For some Buddhist that goal is the eight-fold path or the way to liberation, this path can often be substituted for just a