Back to the Basics: The Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path

Let's quickly review The Four Noble Truths:

1.)    The truth of dukkha (typically translated as "suffering")

2.)    The origin of dukkha

3.)    The cessation of dukkha

4.)    The path leading to the end of dukkha which is: (you guessed it) The Eightfold Path.

And now, The Eightfold Path:

1.)    Right View

2.)    Right Intention

3.)    Right Speech

4.)    Right Action

5.)    Right Livelihood

6.)    Right Effort

7.)    Right Mindfulness

8.)    Right Concentration

It is true that the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path are central to Buddhist practice. It has been passed down that these were the first teachings the Buddha gave after attaining enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree. Whether the story is true or apocryphal, it points to the importance of these teachings within the Buddhadharma. The Four Noble Truths can be viewed as the basic "mission statement" of Buddhism. In short, they present the deceptively simple statements that life contains suffering, that our over-attachment to the things and ideas in our life creates this suffering, that there is a way to end our suffering and lastly the Buddha presents his method for ending suffering which is contained in the eightfold path. These short, simple statements explain the basic rationale behind Buddhist teachings. If life did not contain suffering or if there was no way to end suffering, there would be no real reason to practice the Buddhadharma. One could argue that the dharma teachings and practices exist to address the situation described in the Four Noble Truths.

In college, as I began to take a second look at Buddhism, I learned much more about the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path than the simple lessons I had been taught in high school. I learned that the Four Noble Truths are not a creed or statement that Buddhists need to accept on blind faith. Instead, our approach to the Four Noble Truths should be more akin to the laws of physics such as Newton's laws of motion. For example when  students learn that an object in motion will remain in motion unless it is acted upon by an external force, they may initially have to take this law on "faith." Every high school physics class includes basic experiments and problems to give the students first-hand experience showing that Newton's first law of motion does in fact hold true (at least on the level of classical mechanics, let's not get into quantum mechanics or special relativity today). The Four Noble Truths are actually quite similar to this. Depending on our experiences in life, we may have to initially take it on faith that life contains suffering (I've also heard this as "life is unsatisfactory" and both work fine) and that our suffering is caused by clinging to various objects or ideas in our lives. As we start to pay attention to our lives more closely, we'll see that some level of suffering results when we cling to our possessions or to the ideas we have about ourselves. I think all of us have realized this on some level at some point in our lives. As a kid, I remember realizing that all of the expectations I had leading up to Christmas or my Birthday almost always led to some form of disappointment and even if I did get exactly what I wanted, the joy of it eventually faded. In a way, the first half of the Four Noble Truths is simply stating the obvious and we've all come to a similar conclusions in our own lives..

The Eightfold Path can be viewed as the Buddha's solution to the "problem" of suffering. As a teenager, I thought that Buddhists attempted to strictly adhere to each aspect of the Eightfold Path in the same way that Orthodox Jews strictly adhere to kosher laws. In practice, the Eightfold Path provides a road map to help us work towards letting go of our clinging and ultimately ending our suffering. For me, it's a lot easier to break up the Eightfold Path into its three parts and view each as separate and interrelated paths of practice. The three paths (or trainings) break down like this:

• The Wisdom Training, containing: "Right View" and "Right Intention"
• The Moral or Ethical Training, containing "Right Speech," "Right Action" and "Right Livelihood"
• The Concentration Training, containing: "Right Effort," "Right Mindfulness" and "Right Concentration.

I personally loved Daniel Ingram's one act play on the these three aspects of the practice from his book: "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha." First of all, the play is hilarious and it actually does a pretty good job explaining how these three aspects work together on the path to realization.  Buddhist practice is most effective when each one of these three paths is practiced regularly and kept in balance.  Meditation contains the Concentration and Wisdom training while the Ethical training involves keeping the precepts and carrying the lessons of the dharma into daily life.  Because these are trainings and not commandments, the practice is on-going and it will encounter the occasional ups and downs. For example, the practice of Right Speech does not imply that lying is a sin that will be punished, it just means that you try to recognize the harm in lying and you resolve to do better in the future.  The "folds" of the Eightfold Path are like markers on the trail to get you back on track.  As you cultivate Wisdom, Concentration and Ethics, you begin to learn the trail by heart and have less need for the markers.

As it turns out, my elementary understanding of Buddhism was correct, if perhaps a little simplistic.  It is true that the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path are at the very center of Buddhist practice.  However, they are not rules sent down from on high to be taken on blind faith and strictly adhered to; like much of the Buddha's teachings, they must be practiced and directly experienced in order to be of any benefit.