The Fourth Noble Truth is that of the Way leading to the Cessation of Dukkha (Dukkhanirodhagāminīpaṭipadā-ariyasacca). This
is known as the ‘Middle Path’ (Majjhimā
Paṭipadā), because it avoids two extremes: one extreme being the
search for happiness through the pleasures of the senses, which is ‘low,
common, unprofitable and the way of the ordinary people’; the other being the
search for happiness through self-mortification in different forms of
asceticism, which is ‘painful, unworthy and unprofitable’. Having himself first
tried these two extremes, and having found them to be useless, the Buddha discovered
through personal experience the Middle Path ‘which gives vision and knowledge,
which leads to Calm, Insight, Enlightenment, Nirvāṇa’. This Middle
Path is generally referred to as the Noble Eightfold Path (Ariya-Aṭṭhaṅgika-Magga), because it is composed
of eight categories or divisions: namely,
1. Right
Understanding (Sammā diṭṭhi)
2. Right Thought (Sammā saṅkappa)
3. Right Speech (Sammā
vācā)
4. Right Action (Sammā
kammanta)
5. Right Livelihood (Sammā
ājīva)
6. Right Effort (Sammā
vāyāma)
7. Right Mindfulness (Sammā
sati)
8. Right Concentration (Sammā
samādhi)
Practically
the whole teaching of the Buddha, to which he devoted himself during 45 years,
deals in some way or other with this Path. He explained it in different ways in
different words to different people, according to the stage of their
development and their capacity to understand and follow him. But the essence of
those many thousand discourses scattered in the Buddhist Scriptures is found in
the Noble Eightfold Path.
It should
not be thought that the eight categories or divisions of the Path should be
followed and practised one after the other in the numerical order as given in
the usual list above. But they are to be developed more or less simultaneously,
as far as possible according to the capacity of each individual. They are all
linked together and each helps the cultivation of the others.
These eight
factors aim at promoting and perfecting the three essentials of Buddhist
training and discipline: namely: (a)
Ethical Conduct (Sīla), (b) Mental Discipline (Samādhi) and (c) Wisdom (Paññā).[116]
It will therefore be more helpful for a coherent and better understanding of
the eight divisions of the Path, if we group them and explain them according to
these three heads.
Ethical
Conduct (Sīla) is built on the
vast conception of universal love and compassion for all living beings, on
which the Buddha’s teaching is based. It is regrettable that many scholars
forget this great ideal of the Buddha’s teaching, and indulge in only dry
philosophical and metaphysical divagations when they talk and write about
Buddhism. The Buddha gave his teaching ‘for the good of the many, for the
happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world’ (bahujanahitāya bahujanasukhāya lokānukampāya).
According
to Buddhism for a man to be perfect there are two qualities that he should
develop equally: compassion (karuṇā)
on one side, and wisdom (paññā)
on the other. Here compassion represents love, charity, kindness, tolerance and
such noble qualities on the emotional side, or qualities of the heart, while
wisdom would stand for the intellectual side or the qualities of the mind. If
one develops only the emotional neglecting the intellectual, one may become a
good-hearted fool; while to develop only the intellectual side neglecting the
emotional may turn one into a hard-hearted intellect without feeling for
others. Therefore, to be perfect one has to develop both equally. That is the
aim of the Buddhist way of life: in it wisdom and compassion are inseparably
linked together, as we shall see later.
Now, in
Ethical Conduct (Sīla), based on
love and compassion, are included three factors of the Noble Eightfold Path:
namely, Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood. (Nos. 3, 4 and 5 in
the list).
Right
speech means abstention (1) from telling lies, (2) from backbiting and slander
and talk that may bring about hatred, enmity, disunity and disharmony among
individuals or groups of people, (3) from harsh, rude, impolite, malicious and
abusive language, and (4) from idle, useless and foolish babble and gossip.
When one abstains from these forms of wrong and harmful speech one naturally
has to speak the truth, has to use words that are friendly and benevolent,
pleasant and gentle, meaningful and useful. One should not speak carelessly:
speech should be at the right time and place. If one cannot say something
useful, one should keep ‘noble silence’.
Right
Action aims at promoting moral, honourable and peaceful conduct. It admonishes
us that we should abstain from destroying life, from stealing, from dishonest
dealings, from illegitimate sexual intercourse, and that we should also help
others to lead a peaceful and honourable life in the right way.
Right Livelihood means that one should abstain
from making one’s living through a profession that brings harm to others, such
as trading in arms and lethal weapons, intoxicating drinks, poisons, killing
animals, cheating, etc., and should live by a profession which is honourable,
blameless and innocent of harm to others. One can clearly see here that
Buddhism is strongly opposed to any kind of war, when it lays down that trade
in arms and lethal weapons is an evil and unjust means of livelihood.
These three
factors (Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood) of the Eightfold Path
constitute Ethical Conduct. It should be realized that the Buddhist ethical and
moral conduct aims at promoting a happy and harmonious life both for the
individual and for society. This moral conduct is considered as the
indispensable foundation for all higher spiritual attainments. No spiritual
development is possible without this moral basis.
Next comes
Mental Discipline, in which are included three other factors of the Eightfold
Path: namely, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness (or Attentiveness) and Right
Concentration. (Nos. 6, 7 and 8 in the list.)
Right
Effort is the energetic will (1) to prevent evil and unwholesome states of mind
from arising, and (2) to get rid of such evil and unwholesome states that have
already arisen within a man, and also (3) to produce, to cause to arise, good
and wholesome states of mind not yet arisen, and (4) to develop and bring to
perfection the good and wholesome states of mind already present in a man.
Right
Mindfulness (or Attentiveness) is to be diligently aware, mindful and attentive
with regard to (1) the activities of the body (kāya), (2) sensations or feelings (vedanā), (3) the activities of the mind (citta) and (4) ideas, thoughts, conceptions and things (dhamma).
The
practice of concentration on breathing (ānāpānasati)
is one of the well-known exercises, connected with the body, for mental
development. There are several other ways of developing attentiveness in
relation to the body – as modes of meditation.
With regard
to sensations and feelings, one should be clearly aware of all forms of
feelings and sensations, pleasant, unpleasant and neutral, of how they appear
and disappear within oneself.
Concerning
the activities of mind, one should be aware whether one’s mind is lustful or
not, given to hatred or not, deluded or not, distracted or concentrated, etc.
In this way one should be aware of all movements of mind, how they arise and
disappear.
As regards
ideas, thoughts, conceptions and things, one should know their nature, how they
appear and disappear, how they are developed, how they are suppressed, and
destroyed, and so on.
These four
forms of mental culture or meditation are treated in detail in the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta
(Setting-up of Mindfulness).[117]
The third
and last factor of Mental Discipline is Right Concentration leading to the four
stages of Dhyāna, generally
called trance or recueillement. In the first stage of Dhyāna, passionate desires and certain unwholesome thoughts
like sensuous lust, ill-will, languor, worry, restlessness, and skeptical doubt
are discarded, and feelings of joy and happiness are maintained, along with
certain mental activities. In the second stage, all intellectual activities are
suppressed, tranquillity and ‘one-pointedness’ of mind developed, and the
feelings of joy and happiness are still retained. In the third stage, the
feeling of joy, which is an active sensation, also disappears, while the
disposition of happiness still remains in addition to mindful equanimity. In
the fourth stage of Dhyāna, all
sensations, even of happiness and unhappiness, of joy and sorrow, disappear,
only pure equanimity and awareness remaining.
Thus the
mind is trained and disciplined and developed through Right Effort, Right
Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.
The
remaining two factors, namely Right Thought and Right Understanding go to
constitute Wisdom.
Right
Thought denotes the thoughts of selfless renunciation or detachment, thoughts
of love and thoughts of non-violence, which are extended to all beings. It is
very interesting and important to note here that thoughts of selfless
detachment, love and non-violence are grouped on the side of wisdom. This
clearly shows that true wisdom is endowed with these noble qualities, and that
all thoughts of selfish desire, ill-will, hatred and violence are the result of
a lack of wisdom – in all spheres of life whether individual, social, or
political.
Right
Understanding is the understanding of things as they are, and it is the Four
Noble Truths that explain things as they really are. Right Understanding
therefore is ultimately reduced to the understanding of the Four Noble Truths.
This understanding is the highest wisdom which sees the Ultimate Reality. According
to Buddhism there are two sorts of understanding: What we generally call
understanding is knowledge, an accumulated memory, an intellectual grasping of
a subject according to certain given data. This is called ‘knowing accordingly’
(anubodha). It is not very deep. Real
deep understanding is called ‘penetration’ (paṭivedha),
seeing a thing in its true nature, without name and label. This penetration is
possible only when the mind is free from all impurities and is fully developed
through meditation.[118]
From this
brief account of the Path, one may see that it is a way of life to be followed,
practised and developed by each individual. It is self-discipline in body, word
and mind, self-development and self-purification. It has nothing to do with
belief, prayer, worship or ceremony. In that sense, it has nothing which may popularly
be called ‘religious’. It is a Path leading to the realization of Ultimate
Reality, to complete freedom, happiness and peace through moral, spiritual and
intellectual perfection.
In Buddhist
countries there are simple and beautiful customs and ceremonies on religious
occasions. They have little to do with the real Path. But they have their value
in satisfying certain religious emotions and the needs of those who are less
advanced, and helping them gradually along the Path.
With regard
to the Four Noble Truths we have four functions to perform:
The First
Noble Truth is Dukkha, the nature of
life, its suffering, its sorrows and joys, its imperfection and
unsatisfactoriness, its impermanence and insubstantially. With regard to this,
our function is to understand it as a fact, clearly and completely (pariññeyya).
The Second
Noble Truth is the Origin of Dukka, which is desire, ‘thirst’, accompanied by
all other passions, defilements and impurities. A mere understanding of this
fact is not sufficient. Here our function is to discard it, to eliminate, to
destroy and eradicate it (pahātabba).
The Third
Noble Truth is the Cessation of Dukkha,
Nirvāṇa, the Absolute Truth, the Ultimate Reality. Here our function
is to realize it (sacchikātabba).
The Fourth
Noble Truth is the Path leading to the realization of Nirvāṇa. A
mere knowledge of the Path, however complete, will not do. In this case, our
function is to follow it and keep to it (bhāvetabba).[119]
[116] M I (PTS), p. 301.
[117] See Chapter VII on Meditation.
[118] Vism. (PTS), p. 510.
[119] Mhvg. (Alutgama, 1922), p. 10.
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