To help all beings put an end to affliction and reach the shore of Nirvana, the Buddha taught the Noble Eightfold Path. It is a simple method that fits the daily thinking and conduct of ordinary people.

I. Definition

The Noble Eightfold Path is the right way with eight branches that leads a person toward a complete and enlightened life.

II. Characteristics

1. Right understanding (Samma Ditthi): deep and thorough understanding.

• a. Correct understanding:
  • Understand that things are a union of many causes, impermanent and bound to disappear.
  • Understand the results of all actions and ideas.
  • Understand the worth of life: one's own, others', and all living beings.
  • Understand that all living beings share the same pure nature.
  • Understand that karma is the result of actions, good and bad, so as to practise or avoid them.
  • Accept true morality as one's goal and direction.
• b. Incorrect understanding:
  • Thinking the existence of things is merely natural.
  • Accepting a God while denying the law of cause and effect.
  • Believing in predestination and denying the results of karma.
  • Holding notions of class and caste that divide people from one another, or people from other beings.
  • Following myths and superstitions.

2. Right thought (Samma Sankappa): thinking truthfully.

• a. Correct thoughts:
  • Think about precepts, concentration and wisdom in order to practise liberation.
  • Think of the causes of beings' suffering in order to explain and encourage practice.
  • Think of one's mistaken deeds and bad thoughts in order to repent and correct them.
• b. Incorrect thoughts:
  • Think of witchcraft to delude people.
  • Think of cruel ways to harm humans and animals.
  • Think of schemes to take revenge.
  • Think of wealth, lust and reputation.

3. Right speech (Samma Vaca): honest and wholesome speech.

• a. Right speech:
  • Speak honestly and clearly.
  • Speak straightforwardly, without partiality.
  • Speak gently, clearly and simply.
  • Speak in ways that are beneficial, harmonizing, encouraging and unifying.
• b. Incorrect speech:
  • Lying and untruthful speech.
  • Crooked, partial, flattering, distorting and sophistical speech.
  • Malicious, nagging, cursing, scolding, slanderous and vulgar speech.
  • Divisive speech that harms people and other beings.

4. Right action (Samma Kammanta): right and beneficial action.

• a. Right actions:
  • Act reasonably, respecting the right to live and the shared happiness of humans and animals.
  • Respect people's occupations and property.
  • Keep a pure conduct, free of debauchery.
  • Serve one's duties conscientiously and wholeheartedly.
  • Know how to sacrifice rightly to liberate oneself and others from suffering.
• b. Incorrect actions:
  • Cruel killing.
  • Theft and seizure.
  • Living in luxury and dissipation.
  • Inventing powerful weapons to kill.
  • Making counterfeit goods to deceive people.
  • Misusing arts and entertainment to incite dissipation and indulgence.

5. Right livelihood (Samma Ajiva): making a right living.

• a. Right livelihood:
  • Work hard to make a living without harming people or animals.
  • Use one's honest talents to live, not deceit or fraud.
  • Live nobly, without unreasonable servility.
  • Live according to the true teaching, not superstition.
• b. Incorrect livelihood:
  • Making a living by harming living beings.
  • Living by astrology, fortune-telling and divination.
  • Living by fawning on the powerful, brokering and using cunning speech.

6. Right effort (Samma Vayama): right diligence.

• a. Right effort:
  • Seeing one's own faults and evils, diligently repent and remove them.
  • For faults not yet arisen, diligently cultivate wholesome practices to guard against them.
  • Seeing one has no merit yet, diligently strive to build merit.
  • Having merit, diligently maintain and develop it further.
• b. Wrong effort:
  • Diligence in killing.
  • Diligence in cunning and theft.
  • Diligence in debauchery.
  • Diligence in lying, distorting and flattering.
  • Diligence in drinking and extravagance…

7. Right mindfulness (Samma Sati): remembering and contemplating rightly.

• a. Remembering the past:
  • Remember the kindness of parents, teachers and friends in order to repay it.
  • Remember the gratitude owed to one's country in order to serve and protect it.
  • Remember the help of living beings in order to repay them.
  • Remember the grace of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in order to practise.
  • Remember past mistakes in order to repent and change.
• b. Incorrect remembering:
  • Remember others' faults to mock and criticize.
  • Remember old hatred for revenge.
  • Remember old desires that weaken one's will.
  • Remember treacherous and cruel deeds with pride and self-satisfaction.
• c. Right contemplation:
  • Contemplate compassion: contemplate the hunger and illness of beings to arouse a heart of pity and rescue.
  • Contemplate wisdom: contemplate the causes of the arising of the universe to cultivate oneself and reach liberation.
• d. Wrong contemplation:
  • Dwelling on lustful forms, means of killing and cunning schemes.
  • Dwelling on deceitful words and savory delicacies.

8. Right concentration (Samma Samadhi): practising right meditation.

• a. Right meditation:
  • Meditation on impurity: contemplate the impurity of things to remove greed and lust.
  • Meditation on compassion: contemplate that all beings share one true mind, to remove hatred.
  • Meditation on causation: contemplate that all things arise from conditions, to remove ignorance.
  • Meditation on the elements: distinguish the provisional nature of the eighteen realms, to remove attachment to self and to phenomena.
  • Meditation on breathing: contemplate the in-and-out breath to calm a scattered mind.
• b. Incorrect meditation:
  • Cultivating cessation to attain a false, name-only Nirvana.
  • Cultivating formless concentration to seek pleasure in heavenly or heretical realms.
  • Meditating to refine elixirs and circulate energy in pursuit of supernatural powers and longevity…

III. Classification

• Faith / Wisdom (Saddha): right understanding and right thought.
• Morality (Sila): right speech, right action and right livelihood.
• Concentration (Samadhi): right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.

IV. Effectiveness

1. Improve oneself: one who practises the Noble Eightfold Path transforms everything and builds for oneself a true, beneficial and good life.
2. Improve one's surroundings: our circumstances are formed by the mind and are the results of our actions. Acting according to the Path makes the world peaceful and serene.
3. Foundation of enlightenment: the Noble Eightfold Path is the first foundation of the true enlightenment of all Buddhas.

V. Benefits

• Right understanding is not deceived or led astray.
• Right thought is not clouded by delusion.
• Right speech benefits oneself and others.
• Right action does not harm people or other beings.
• Right livelihood earns everyone's respect.
• Right effort brings good results.
• Right mindfulness fully understands situations and gathers many good results.
• Right concentration lets wisdom flourish and makes Buddhahood easier to attain.

VI. Conclusion

The Noble Eightfold Path presents right principles to be applied in every situation of life, to reform every fault and wrongdoing of beings. As Buddhists, we need to learn and practise the Path to improve our own lives, our society, and to attain enlightenment like the Buddhas.