Eightfold Path

The Noble Eightfold Path ( Pali: ; Sanskrit: ) is an early summary of the path of Buddhist practices leading to liberation from samsara, the painful cycle of rebirth, in the form of nirvana.

The Eightfold Path consists of eight practices: right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right '' samadhi'' ('meditative absorption or union'; alternatively, equanimous meditative awareness).

In early Buddhism, these practices started with understanding that the body-mind works in a corrupted way (right view), followed by entering the Buddhist path of self-observance, self-restraint, and cultivating kindness and compassion; and culminating in ''dhyana'' or ''samadhi'', which reinforces these practices for the development of the body-mind. In later Buddhism, insight ('' prajñā'') became the central soteriological instrument, leading to a different concept and structure of the path, in which the "goal" of the Buddhist path came to be specified as ending ignorance and rebirth.

The Noble Eightfold Path is one of the principal summaries of the Buddhist teachings, taught to lead to '' Arhatship''. In the Theravada tradition, this path is also summarized as ''sila'' (morality), ''samadhi'' (meditation) and ''prajna'' (insight). In Mahayana Buddhism, this path is contrasted with the Bodhisattva path, which is believed to go beyond ''Arhatship'' to full Buddhahood.

In Buddhist symbolism, the Noble Eightfold Path is often represented by means of the dharma wheel (dharmachakra), in which its eight spokes represent the eight elements of the path.

Etymology and nomenclature

The Pali term ' ( sa, āryāṣṭāṅgamārga, script=Latn) is typically translated in English as "Noble Eightfold Path". This translation is a convention started by the early translators of Buddhist texts into English, just like ''ariya sacca'' is translated as Four Noble Truths. However, the phrase does not mean the path is noble, rather that the path is ( pi, arya, script=Latn meaning 'enlightened, noble, precious people'). The term ''magga'' (Sanskrit: ''mārga'') means "path", while ''aṭṭhaṅgika'' (Sanskrit: ''aṣṭāṅga'') means "eightfold". Thus, an alternate rendering of ''ariya aṭṭhaṅgika magga'' is "eightfold path of the noble ones", or Eightfold Ariya Path".

All eight elements of the Path begin with the word ''samyañc'' (in Sanskrit) or ''sammā'' (in Pāli) which means "right, proper, as it ought to be, best". The Buddhist texts contrast ''samma'' with its opposite ''miccha''.

The Noble Eightfold Path, in the Buddhist traditions, is the direct means to nirvana and brings a release from the cycle of life and death in the realms of samsara.

The eight divisions

Origins: the Middle Way

According to Indologist Tilmann Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term ''the Middle Way''. In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the Eightfold Path. Tilmann Vetter and historian Rod Bucknell both note that longer descriptions of "the path" can be found in the early texts, which can be condensed into the Eightfold Path.

Tenfold path

In the ''Mahācattārīsaka Sutta'' which appears in the Chinese and Pali canons, the Buddha explains that cultivation of the noble eightfold path of a learner leads to the development of two further paths of the Arahants, which are right knowledge, or insight (''sammā-ñāṇa''), and right liberation, or release (''sammā-vimutti''). These two factors fall under the category of wisdom (''paññā'').

Short description of the eight divisions

The eight Buddhist practices in the Noble Eightfold Path are:
# Right View: our actions have consequences, death is not the end, and our actions and beliefs have consequences after death. The Buddha followed and taught a successful path out of this world and the other world (heaven and underworld/hell). Later on, right view came to explicitly include ''karma'' and rebirth, and the importance of the Four Noble Truths, when "insight" became central to Buddhist soteriology, especially in Theravada Buddhism.
# Right Resolve or Intention: the giving up of home and adopting the life of a religious mendicant in order to follow the path; this concept aims at peaceful renunciation, into an environment of non-sensuality, non-ill-will (to loving kindness), away from cruelty (to compassion). Such an environment aids contemplation of impermanence, suffering, and non-Self.
# Right Speech: no lying, no rude speech, no telling one person what another says about him to cause discord or harm their relationship.
# Right Conduct or Action: no killing or injuring, no taking what is not given, no sexual misconduct, no material desires.
# Right Livelihood: no trading in weapons, living beings, meat, liquor, and poisons.
# Right Effort: preventing the arising of unwholesome states, and generating wholesome states, the ''bojjhagā'' ( Seven Factors of Awakening). This includes ''indriya-samvara'', "guarding the sense-doors", restraint of the sense faculties.
# Right Mindfulness ('' sati''; '' Satipatthana''; '' Sampajañña''): a quality that guards or watches over the mind; the stronger it becomes, the weaker unwholesome states of mind become, weakening their power "to take over and dominate thought, word and deed." In the vipassana movement, ''sati'' is interpreted as "bare attention": never be absent minded, being conscious of what one is doing; this encourages the awareness of the impermanence of body, feeling and mind, as well as to experience the five aggregates (''skandhas''), the five hindrances, the four True Realities and seven factors of awakening.
# Right '' samadhi'' ('' passaddhi''; '' ekaggata''; ''sampasadana''): practicing four stages of '' dhyāna'' ("meditation"), which includes ''samadhi'' proper in the second stage, and reinforces the development of the '' bojjhagā'', culminating into '' upekkha'' (equanimity) and mindfulness. In the Theravada tradition and the vipassana movement, this is interpreted as '' ekaggata'', concentration or one-pointedness of the mind, and supplemented with '' vipassana'' meditation, which aims at insight.

Right view

The purpose of "right view" (' / ') or "right understanding" is to clear one's path from confusion, misunderstanding, and deluded thinking. It is a means to gain right understanding of reality.

Sequences in the suttas

The Pali canon and the Agamas contain various "definitions" or descriptions of "right view. The '' Mahasatipatthana Sutta'' ( Digha Nikaya 22), compiled from elements from other suttas possibly as late as 20 BCE, defines right view summarily as the Four Noble Truths:

In this, right view explicitly includes '' karma'' and rebirth, and the importance of the Four Noble Truths

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