Transcript Slide 1

Four Noble Truths (Reviewed)
1. Dukkha (lack of satisfaction) is a
fundamenal and pervasive pattern in
human experience.
2. Tanha (craving) for identity and
permanence is the cause of dukkha.
3. Cessation of craving for identity and
permanence dissolves dukkha.
4. There is a path to cessation in eight
coordinated practices.
Exploring the Eightfold Path:
The Path to Cessation of Dukkha
Clear Seeing and Intentional Living
The Eightfold Path: Preliminaries
Right Association
Not one of the eight practices, but the context in which the
Buddha believed they could best be cultivated. Just as anxieties
are absorbed by the company we keep, so also is freedom from
anxiety. We absorb psychological toxicity and health equally from
our immediate environment.
1. The Right View: Know the four noble truths. Not mere
“beliefs” but an experiential knowing of dukkha, the
conditions of its arising, and the conditions of its cessation.
2. The Right Intention: “Intention of renunciation, intention of
non-ill will, intention of harmlessness.”
The Eightfold Path: Sila (Morality)
3. The Right Speech: “Abstinence from false speech,
abstinence from malicious speech, abstinence from
harsh speech, abstinence from idle chatter.”
4. The Right Action/Conduct: “Abstinence from the
destruction of life, abstinence from taking what is not
given, abstinence from sexual misconduct.”
Buddhist Five Precepts
Do not kill.
Do not steal.
Do not lie.
Do not be unchaste.
Do not take intoxicants.
The Eightfold Path: Sila (Morality)
5. The Right Livelihood: Avoid occupations that
harm other living beings.
The import of 3, 4, and 5 is to examine:
the effects of one’s activity on oneself
the motivation behind the activity
Each person must determine this for herself, as only the
individual can ultimately verify or confirm the truth about the
rising and cessation of dukkha associated with one’s own
personal sphere activity.
What activity is right/useful for cessation?
6. The Right Effort:
Mentally striving for
mastery over evil
unwholesome
thoughts.
Intentions, actions, and
living are born from
thought.
Striving is necessary,
for it is difficult to
uproot tendencies.
The Eightfold Path:
Bhavana (“Mental Cultivation”)
7. The Right Mindfulness: Lending attention to every state
of body and mind (e.g., perceptions, thoughts, and feelings).
The Result
Seeing impermanence (anicca) of the bodily and mental
Seeing that tanha is the cause of dukkha
Seeing that there is no individual, separate self behind the
body and mind
In this way, mindfulness facilitates non-attachment.
8. The Right Concentration: Penetrate deeper levels of
consciousness through inward examination, passing from
inner security and happiness to complete equanimity
beyond all dualities.
The Buddha recommended a single object as the focus for
developing right concentration, often one’s own breath or pattern of
breathing (following the “in-breath” and “out-breath.”)
One might move from mindfulness to concentration or from
concentration to mindfulness, but each aspect of bhavana (that is, 7
and 8) is mutually reinforce.
The Buddha’s more detailed teaching concerning meditation
practice will be explored in the Satipatthana Sutta – “the
Discourse on the Four Arousings of Mindfulness.”
The Eightfold path leads to the cultivation of six
perfections:
Wisdom
Morality
Charity
Forbearance
Striving
Meditation
Mastering the Mind through
Meditation Practice
Mastering the Mind
• The Buddha’s teachings on the development
and mastery of the mind assume that the
mind is a great obstacle to cessation.
• Five Hindrances to Mental Development
– Sensual Lust
– Ill Will
– Dullness and Drowsiness
– Restlessness and Remorse
– Doubt
Two Foundational Aspects of
Mental Training
• Serenity (Samatha)
= mental calmness
through
concentration.
• Insight (Vipassana) =
experiential and
penetrative seeing.
Samatha and Vipassana
• Serenity (samatha) is usually cultivated first
and then insight (vipassana).
• However, aptitudes of meditators vary, and
therefore alternative approaches are
accepted.
– A monk may develop or cultivate “serenity
preceded by insight.”
– A monk may develop or cultivate “serenity and
insight joined together.”
Four Establishments of Mindfulness
• Concentrate, observe, or focus
attention on one or more of
four fields:
(1) The body, including
breathing.
(2) Feelings or bodily
sensations
(3) States of the mind (e.g.,
calm, turbulent, confused,
clear).
(4) Mind objects or thoughts.
Contemplating the Body
• The Buddha directs concentration to the body
Focus on breathing, body parts, composition of body, and
notice impermanence in them all.
• The Buddha also directs concentration to
feelings or bodily sensations (vedana).
Focus on feelings or sensations that arise from different
parts of the body, and notice whether they are pleasant,
unpleasant, or neutral.
• Internally = one’s own body, externally = the
body of others.
Contemplating the Mind
• The Buddha directs concentration to states of
mind.
Focus on what arises and passes away in general states of
mind or moods, whether the mind is clear, confused,
turbulent, calm, worried, confident, etc.
• The Buddha directs concentration to mind
objects or thoughts, or what he calls
phenomena in phenomena.
Focus on five hindrances, five aggregates (body-mind) as
subject to clinging and impermanence, and four noble
truths.
What is seen?
Anicca (impermanence)
Anatta (no self or lack of self-existence)
Dukkha (lack of satisfaction)
How are these seen?
With equanimity – choicelessly and nonreactively
What is the result?
Nibanna: the cessation of craving and lack
of satisfaction.
The Experiential Nature of Vipassana
“Those truths of which before I had only
heard, now I dwell having experienced
them directly within the body, and I
observe them with penetrative insight.”
– Sariputta (Buddha’s disciple)