Buddhist Principles and the Right Path

Throughout all of the decisions that must be made in life, it is clear that there are often many different routes that an individual can take. The choices that an individual makes could lead to various consequences that might be favorable or not good at all. Many factors can impact the decision that a person makes and such a factor would be if the individual truly understands what the right path is with

respect to the teachings of Buddhism. If a person focuses on following the right path, they should be able to determine what course of action is the best based on understanding the real truth for the situation at hand. Once a person has established the proper understanding of the right path, they will be armed against being misled in any way by influences based on wrong views.

In order to follow the right path, an individual must know what the right path is. As stated in The Heart of Buddha's Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh, this involves knowledge of the Noble Eightfold Path which includes that of Right View, Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Diligence, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration (49). To be fully liberated from suffering within your control and to experience peace, joy, and true insight, the Noble Eightfold Path should be practiced. These components of the Noble Eightfold Path work together so that the truth in a situation and in life as a whole can be established and acted upon. All parts to the Noble Eightfold Path are equally important but two components that can function as a foundation for the other parts are Right View and Right Thinking. Right View can help someone to see their wholesome and unwholesome depths of their consciousness based on that person's interpretation of reality and the environment in which they live (51). Overall, this has to do with perception and therefore it must be taken into account that this form of consciousness is subjective. This subjectivity, if not monitored, could severely impact an individual's efforts to find truth based on various points of view and ease suffering. The work of determining Right View "…helps us identify all the

seeds in our store consciousness and water ones that are the most wholesome" (51). The other foundational aspect of the Noble Eightfold Path is that of Right Thinking which involves the speech of our mind in a clear and beneficial form (59). If there is wrong thinking, the mind may be thinking about something other than what the body is doing. As a result, a feeling of being lost may result in the individual as the mind and the body are not together (59). When Right Thinking has been obtained, Right Speech and Right Action are likely to follow as well as the improvement of Right View.
      
A well developed understanding of the Noble Eightfold Path and application of it's principles throughout daily life can help a person from being caught in the wrong views and being misled. An example in my life of when I could have been misled was when I looked into making a relatively large purchase such as a laptop computer. In this sense I could have been suckered into buying something that was not of great quality and also of a higher price. However, when I searched deeper into the details of the various options that I could have chosen from I was able to see beyond just the physical appearance of the product and take into consideration the other necessary features that I would need to have in a computer. It may be hard to relate such an example back to Buddhism but the fact that it involves having to vein the right mindset and knowing what is necessary as opposed to just what looks nice or has a bunch of extra features shows that a certain sense of Right View and Right Thinking can be involved.

There have been a couple if instances in my life when I feel that I had the wrong view of something until I made an effort to look deeper into the situation. One main example of this would be when it seemed that it was being enforced that all Muslims are terrorists. Within the past decade or so it seems that people have not gotten all of the facts with respect to this issue and as a result, they tend to make assumptions that are incorrect. This type of thinking that resulted based on the views that people had made me stop and reconsider before I too became lost in this flawed logic. I applied Buddhist principles to correct my thinking and not make any assumptions based on racial or religious stereotypes by considering different points of view on the matter as "…no view can every be the truth. It is just from one point…" (56). However, once I thought about how other people who may look stereotypically as though they were terrorists but do not choose to live that way and how they must feel about this, I felt that there was no need to ever think harshly of such a person if I was ever to meet someone. Another example when I may have had a wrong view about something was when I was considering taking a certain English class in high school. I listened to what others had to say about the class with respect to it's difficulty and how much work is assigned. They had told me that it was hard and that I probably wouldn't enjoy it so it would be better if I took another class instead. As a result, going into the class I had this view that I might not enjoy it too much. This ultimately impacted my thinking in a negative way as well. However, once I got going in the course I found that it was not so bad and I even did well enough in it to receive college credit. To tie this back to Buddhism, I realized that based on my circumstances, taking that class was a good option for me and this helped to establish the truth in my situation and change my thinking in a way to produce the best action and do well in the class. This kind of reasoning can be applied to other various situations through which view points and perceptions may be skewed.

Reference:
     Hanh, Thich. The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1998. 49,51,56,59. Print.