"What Buddha Taught" Part III
by Dr. Rahul
The categories should be developed more or less simultaneously, rather than one at a time.
1. Right Speech:
Right speech means abstention from:
‑ telling lies
‑ backstabbing, slander, and talk that may bring about hatred, enmity, disunity and disharmony among individuals or groups of people,
‑ harsh, rude, impolite, malicious, and abusive language
‑ idle, useless, and foolish babble or gossip
When one abstains from these forms of wrong and harmful speech, one naturally has to speak the truth, has to use words that are friendly, pleasant, gentle, meaningful, and useful.
If one cannot say something useful, one should keep "noble silence".
2. Right Action:
Right action aims at promoting moral, honorable, and peaceful conduct. It admonishes us that we should abstain from destroying life, fromstealing, and from dishonest dealings. We should also help others lead a peaceful and honorable life in the right way.
3. Right Livelihood:
Right livelihood means that one should abstain from making one's living through a profession that brings harm to others.
4. Right Effort:
Right effort is
‑ the energetic will to prevent evil and the unwholesome state of mind from arising
‑ to get rid of the evil and unwholesomeness that have already arisen within a person
‑ to produce and rise a good and wholesome state of mind.
‑ to develop and bring to perfection the good and wholesome state of mind already present in a person.
5. Right Mindfulness (attentiveness):
Right mindfulness (attentiveness) is to be diligently aware, mindful, and attentive with regard to:
‑ activities of the body
‑ sensations or feelings
‑ activities of mind
‑ ideas, thoughts, and conceptions
6. Right Concentration:
Right concentration leads to four stages of "trance":
During the first stage of trance, passionate desires, ill‑will, worry, sensuous lust, restlessness, and skeptical doubts are discarded, and a feeling of joy and happiness are maintained.
During the second stage of trance, all intellectual activities are suppressed, tranquility and "one‑pointedness" of mind developed, and feeling of joy and happiness are maintained.
In the third stage, the feeling of joy disappears while the disposition of happiness still remains.
In the fourth stage of trance, all sensations, happiness and unhappiness, of joy and sorrow disappear. Only pure equanimity and awareness remain.
7. Right Thought:
Right thoughts denotes the thoughts of selfless renunciation or detachment, thoughts of love, and thoughts of non‑violence, which are extended to all beings.
8. Right Understanding:
Right understanding is the understanding of things as they are, This understanding is the highest wisdom which sees the ultimate reality.
There are two sorts of understanding:
What we generally call understanding is knowledge, an accumulated memory, an intellectual grasping of a subject according to certain data. It is not very deep.
Real understanding is seeing a thing in its true nature, without name and label. This penetration is possible only when the mind is free from all impurities and is fully developed through meditation.
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