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Category Archives: The 8-fold path
Refuge in the Sangha
And finally we come to the sangha as refuge. The word sangha has more than one meaning, but at its root, it means the community of practitioners, whether ordained or lay, male or female. Originally it referred only to the … Continue reading
Posted in Faith, Friendships, Mindfulness, Refuges, The 8-fold path
Tagged Buddhist, refuge, Refuge in the sangha, sangha
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Other Auspicious Actions
From: http://www.suttas.com/10-meritorious-deeds.html In the previous post, we talked about half of the “auspicious actions” that had to do with giving. The remaining items on the list involve other sorts of actions. 2. keeping the precepts 3. meditation 8. teaching the … Continue reading
Posted in Causes and results, Karma, Mindfulness, Precepts, The 8-fold path, Wisdom
Tagged Buddhadhamma, Dhamma, meditation, Precepts, Right view
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Karma and Self
A question we’ve heard before came up again recently: “If there’s no self, then who gets the karma of our actions?” It’s a tricky question because the answer requires trading in our presumption of a self-centred world for a completely … Continue reading
Posted in Causes and results, Karma, Mindfulness, Speech, The 8-fold path, Wisdom
Tagged Karma, Mindfulness, selfing, The Buddha's Path, the self
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How the Divine Abodes Work
Over the years, Thanissaro Bhikkhu has cleared up a lot of misunderstanding about what metta – and its companion mindstates – is and is not. The brahmavihāras, or sublime attitudes, are attitudes of goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity that you spread … Continue reading
Posted in Causes and results, Compassion, Harmlessness, Mindfulness, Sublime states, The 8-fold path, Wisdom
Tagged Brahmaviharas, divine abodes, Divine attitudes
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Commitment
We’ve considered the five hindrances. Let’s think about what’s being hindered by the hindrances. One answer could be our commitment to practice or to investigating the Dharma; we could call commitment the forward motion and the hindrances the backward motion. … Continue reading
Posted in Causes and results, Dukkha, Hindrances, Mindfulness, Perfections, The 8-fold path, Wisdom
Tagged Commitment, determination
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Everything is hard before it’s easy
The above quote is usually attributed to German philosopher J.W. Goethe, but revised versions of the same sentiment can be found attributed to different people. It seems particularly apt when we think about not only establishing a regular meditation practice, … Continue reading
Posted in Causes and results, Compassion, Harmlessness, Mindfulness, Patience, Speech, The 8-fold path, Wisdom
Tagged Mindfulness
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We create the path
It is as if a person, traveling in the forest, were to see an ancient path, an ancient road, traveled by people of former times. Following it, the person would see an ancient city, an ancient capital inhabited by people … Continue reading
Posted in Livelihood, Mindfulness, Precepts, Speech, The 8-fold path, Wisdom
Tagged liberation, Nibbana, The Eightfold Path
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Right Concentration
Here we are at the final element of the Buddha’s eightfold path. It may seem as if we’ve been down in the weeds while exploring this list of eight things to cultivate, but this path is the summary of the … Continue reading
Posted in Causes and results, Mindfulness, The 8-fold path
Tagged right concentration, The Eightfold Path
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Right Mindfulness (7)
The last principle that we’ll consider for developing Right Mindfulness is a list called the seven factors of awakening. They lay out a meditative path towards enlightenment and are often paired with (opposed to) the hindrances. We start our meditation … Continue reading
Posted in Causes and results, Harmlessness, Hindrances, Mindfulness, The 8-fold path
Tagged Awakening factors, Right Mindfulness
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Right Mindfulness (6)
The fourth (of four) arenas for developing right mindfulness is phenomena or dhammas, or in plain English, ways of examining our experience through the lens of the Buddha’s teachings. Carrying on with the five hindrances (after sensual desire and ill … Continue reading
The Buddha's Advice to Laypeople 