Mon, 04 May 2009
Eightfold Path
I went to listen to Lama Phurbu Tashi again on Sunday. He gave a talk on the Eightfold Path. I've always had trouble remembering all eight, but his explanation made sense to me and I think I'll finally remember them. Here's a summary of what he said, put in my own words and filtered through my unreliable memory, as I didn't take notes.
The eightfold path begins with right view, which is cause and effect. It's the middle way between the views that things happen randomly and the view that things have an eternal fixed essence. Because we have the view of cause and effect, we eliminate what needs to be eliminated and cultivate what needs to be cultivated. So we practice right thought, which is free of malice and covetousness, right speech, which is kindly and appropriate, and right action, which does not harm others. We apply these three sorts of morality to our daily lives and practice right livlihood by not hurting or cheaing others in our job. We enhance our practice through right effort, which is joyously applying our practice to every moment of our lives. Doing this requires right mindfulness, which remembers to apply the correct remedy to each afflictive emotion. And when the power of mindfulness is applied with joyous effort as soon as each afflictive emotion arises, our minds naturally settle in right concentration.
