“The practice of the Way is the same…Maintain
your health. Be joyful. Do not force
yourself to do things you cannot do.” – The Buddha
Buddha was not a god; he suffered just like we
all suffer in life. It is because of the
suffering within us all that the Buddha is able to enter our hearts. The Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold
Path are vessels in which the Buddha holds the water or insight he had
discovered.
The First Noble
Truth is suffering. Everything is
suffering. The Second Noble Truth is the
origin or nature of suffering. How did
our suffering come to be? The Third
Noble Truth is the end of creating suffering by ceasing the action that makes
us suffer. Healing from suffering is
possible. The Fourth Noble Truth is the
path that leads to refraining from doing the things that cause us to
suffer. Once we have found the origin of
our pain, we can either choose to feed it or stifle it.
The Noble Eightfold Path helps us to
eliminate the origin of our suffering. The Noble Eightfold Path consists of the Right
View, Right Speech, Right Effort, Right Concentration, Right Livelihood, Right
Mindfulness, Right Thinking, and Right Action.
The
Right view can be seen as having a positive attitude or hope that a person can
change their suffering in order to experience joy, peace, and
liberation. The Right Thinking is
important because when we are thinking, essentially, we are speaking in our
mind.
The Right Mindfulness is important because when
we are made aware of our circumstances as well as actions, we are more likely
to do a better job a disciplining ourselves and making right choices.
Right
Speech is a product of Right Thinking since speaking is our thoughts being
expressed aloud. The basis of Right Action is Right
Mindfulness. “We can protect life,
practicing generosity, behave responsibly, and consume mindfully.” (Hanh, p. 98) Right Concentration is maintaining a balance
between active and selective focus. When
practicing the Right Livelihood, you have to find a way to make a living
without causing you or anyone else around you anymore suffering.
Last but not least, the Right Effort, is the
energy that helps us realize which things to be diligent for. When I dived into
the Heart of the Buddhas’ Teaching, I began to question if I were in fact
practicing the Way and in part practicing the Right Diligence or Right Effort. During our journal challenges, as I made
myself mindful of practicing the Right Effort, everything began to fall into
place. What the Buddha was saying about
the Right Mindfulness being a key factor in all of the Noble Eightfold Paths
rang true for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment