By Evelyn Cash<\/b><\/p>\n
\nOver the past few weeks I’ve been taking a step back and revisiting some of the very basic
\nteachings of the Buddha. I think it can be helpful from time to time to go back and
\nreconsider teachings you haven’t thought much about in a long time; it can bring a fresh
\nperspective and re-energize your practice.\n<\/p>\n
\nWhen I learned about Buddhism in my high school Comparative Religions class, I basically came \nNow, as a Zen student who has been practicing for a few years and feels quite committed to <\/p>\n \nLet’s quickly review The Four Noble Truths:\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n1.) \n2.) \n3.) \n4.) \nAnd now, The Eightfold Path:\n<\/p>\n \n1.) \n2.) \n3.) \n4.) \n5.) \n6.) \n7.) \n8.) \nIt is true that the Four Noble \nIn college, as I began to take a second look at Buddhism, I learned much more about the Four \nThe Eightfold Path can be viewed as the Buddha’s solution to the “problem” of \nI personally loved Daniel Ingram’s \nAs it turns out, my elementary understanding of Buddhism was correct, if perhaps a little By Evelyn Cash Over the past few weeks I’ve been taking a step back and revisiting some of the very basic teachings of the Buddha. I think it can be helpful from time to time to go back and reconsider teachings you haven’t thought much about in a long time; it can bring a fresh…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-hardcore-dharma","category-meditation","category-talking-dharma"],"yoast_head":"\n
\naway with the understanding that there were two teachings of primary importance to Buddhists:
\nThe Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path. In my tenth grade mind, these two
\nteachings were roughly equivalent to the Five Pillars of Islam<\/a> or the Mitzvah<\/a> of
\nJudaism. I thought that, in order to be Buddhist, a person had to believe in
\nThe Four Noble Truths and follow The Eightfold Path in a devotional way, similar to a
\nMuslim’s dedication to prayer five times a day. I knew that Buddhists meditated
\nand I was interested in that aspect of the tradition even then but the idea of following all
\neight of the folds of the path seemed just a little too difficult for me. I
\ncouldn’t (and indeed, still can’t) remember each one of the eight folds without consulting a
\nbook and so my interest in Buddhism, however small it was at the time, waned pretty quickly.\n<\/p>\n
\nthe Buddhist path, I look at the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path in a completely
\ndifferent way. On the one hand, my tenth grade self was right – these teachings
\nare at the very core of Buddhist practice. On the other hand, 15 year old
\nEvelyn was completely wrong (as usual).\n<\/p>\n
\nThe truth of dukkha (typically translated as “suffering”)\n<\/p>\n
\nThe origin of dukkha\n<\/p>\n
\nThe cessation of dukkha\n<\/p>\n
\nThe path leading to the end of dukkha which is: (you guessed it) The Eightfold
\nPath.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nRight View\n<\/p>\n
\nRight Intention\n<\/p>\n
\nRight Speech\n<\/p>\n
\nRight Action\n<\/p>\n
\nRight Livelihood\n<\/p>\n
\nRight Effort\n<\/p>\n
\nRight Mindfulness\n<\/p>\n
\nRight Concentration\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nTruths<\/a> and the Eightfold
\nPath<\/a> are central to Buddhist practice. It has been passed down that these
\nwere the first teachings the Buddha gave after attaining enlightenment under the Bodhi
\nTree. Whether the story is true or apocryphal, it points to the importance of
\nthese teachings within the Buddhadharma. The Four Noble Truths can be viewed as
\nthe basic “mission statement” of Buddhism. In short, they present the
\ndeceptively simple statements that life contains suffering, that our over-attachment to the
\nthings and ideas in our life creates this suffering, that there is a way to end our suffering
\nand lastly the Buddha presents his method for ending suffering which is contained in the
\neightfold path. These short, simple statements explain the basic rationale
\nbehind Buddhist teachings. If life did not contain suffering or if there was no
\nway to end suffering, there would be no real reason to practice the
\nBuddhadharma. One could argue that the dharma teachings and practices exist to
\naddress the situation described in the Four Noble Truths.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nNoble Truths and Eightfold Path than the simple lessons I had been taught in high
\nschool. I learned that the Four Noble Truths are not a creed or statement that
\nBuddhists need to accept on blind faith. Instead, our approach to the Four
\nNoble Truths should be more akin to the laws of physics such as Newton’s laws of motion<\/a>. For
\nexample when students learn that an object in motion will remain in motion unless it is
\nacted upon by an external force, they may initially have to take this law on
\n“faith.” Every high school physics class includes basic experiments and
\nproblems to give the students first-hand experience showing that Newton’s first law of motion
\ndoes in fact hold true (at least on the level of classical
\nmechanics<\/a>, let’s not get into quantum mechanics or special relativity
\ntoday). The Four Noble Truths are actually quite similar to this.
\nDepending on our experiences in life, we may have to initially take it on faith that life
\ncontains suffering (I’ve also heard this as “life is unsatisfactory” and both work fine) and
\nthat our suffering is caused by clinging to various objects or ideas in our
\nlives. As we start to pay attention to our lives more closely, we’ll see that
\nsome level of suffering results when we cling to our possessions or to the ideas we have
\nabout ourselves. I think all of us have realized this on some level at some
\npoint in our lives. As a kid, I remember realizing that all of the expectations
\nI had leading up to Christmas or my Birthday almost always led to some form of disappointment
\nand even if I did get exactly what I wanted, the joy of it eventually faded. In
\na way, the first half of the Four Noble Truths is simply stating the obvious and we’ve all
\ncome to a similar conclusions in our own lives..\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nsuffering. As a teenager, I thought that Buddhists attempted to strictly adhere
\nto each aspect of the Eightfold Path in the same way that Orthodox Jews strictly adhere to
\nkosher<\/a> laws. In practice, the
\nEightfold Path provides a road map to help us work towards letting go of our clinging and
\nultimately ending our suffering. For me, it’s a lot easier to break up the
\nEightfold Path into its three parts and view each as separate and interrelated paths of
\npractice. The three paths (or trainings) break down like this:\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n
\nAction” and “Right Livelihood”\n<\/li>\n
\nMindfulness” and “Right Concentration.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\none act play<\/a> on the these three aspects of the practice from his book: “Mastering the Core Teachings of the
\nBuddha.”<\/a> First of all, the play is hilarious and it actually does a pretty
\ngood job explaining how these three aspects work together on the path to realization.
\nBuddhist practice is most effective when each one of these three paths is practiced regularly
\nand kept in balance. Meditation contains the Concentration and Wisdom training while the
\nEthical training involves keeping the precepts and carrying the lessons of the dharma into
\ndaily life. Because these are trainings and not commandments, the practice is on-going and
\nit will encounter the occasional ups and downs. For example, the practice of Right Speech
\ndoes not imply that lying is a sin that will be punished, it just means that you try to
\nrecognize the harm in lying and you resolve to do better in the future. The “folds” of the
\nEightfold Path are like markers on the trail to get you back on track. As you cultivate
\nWisdom, Concentration and Ethics, you begin to learn the trail by heart and have less need
\nfor the markers.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nsimplistic. It is true that the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path are at the very center
\nof Buddhist practice. However, they are not rules sent down from on high to be taken on
\nblind faith and strictly adhered to; like much of the Buddha’s teachings, they must be
\npracticed and directly experienced in order to be of any benefit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"