Buddhist Basics: The Fourth Noble Truth - The Noble Eightfold Path

Buddhism’s Fourth Noble Truth contains the entire Buddhist path to awakening (enlightenment). It states that there’s a path from unawakened existence, in which we’re always subject to dissatisfaction, to full awakening, a state beyond the understanding of our ordinary mind. We’ll talk about the eight steps along this path: skillful understanding, skillful thought, skillful speech, skillful action, skillful livelihood, skillful effort, skillful mindfulness, and skillful concentration.

Transcript

Hello fellow meditator,

And welcome to this teaching on the Four Noble Truths,

The foundational teachings of Buddhism.

If you'd like to enroll in my free email course on the Four Noble Truths,

Please visit my teacher page here on the app and click the link to my website.

It'll take you to a page where you can register for that course and other free resources.

Welcome to this video on the Fourth Noble Truth.

We have finally arrived at really the heart of Buddhist practice.

As you might recall from my previous videos,

The first noble truth is the truth of unsatisfactoriness,

That if we have not woken up completely to the nature of reality,

We're always going to have a slight mismatch between what we want and what we get.

So unenlightened life is never completely free from dissatisfaction.

Second noble truth is that dissatisfaction has a cause,

Which is misunderstanding,

Even if only slightly,

The nature of reality and of ourselves.

The third noble truth is that there is a cessation that is possible for all unsatisfactoriness.

That's amazing.

And it's great news.

So basically,

That third noble truth is the news that we can wake up completely fully never have to suffer again.

And this fourth noble truth is that there is a path for us to get from basically where we start in the first noble truth to that third noble truth of complete awakening.

And there are steps,

There is guidance,

There's a community that can help us to reach that goal.

Before I tell you about the steps of the Noble Eightfold Path,

I just want to let you know that I do have a free course on the Four Noble Truths.

And it offers guided meditations and reflection prompts and other sorts of resources to help you really take these teachings into your life,

Transform your life,

And live a happier,

More fulfilled life.

So here we are,

We have arrived at really the heart of Buddhism.

And different schools of Buddhism might interpret the Noble Eightfold Path in different ways,

But it is the shared core of Buddhist practice.

And before I talk about all eight steps of the Noble Eightfold Path,

I want to just tell you because it's kind of a large number,

I want to tell you can be divided into really three larger groups.

The first group is morality,

Just basic training on how to be a better person,

How to live well with others,

How to use our actions of body,

Speech,

And mind really to create a better environment for ourselves and others and not just go around being jerks.

The second category of training or practice in the Buddhist path is around concentration.

So really learning how to pay attention,

Focus,

Be present in our lives,

And really begin to notice our own experiences so that we can then go on to group number three,

Wisdom,

And begin to really tease apart our experience and to question like,

Is there anything that doesn't change?

Is there a stable inherently existent self that I can find anywhere in my mind or body?

Am I ever going to arrive at a perfect state of happiness through getting all the external circumstances just right?

So these are really key important questions in the Buddhist tradition,

And you approach them really not by like memorizing the right answers to these questions,

But through asking the questions again and again in your practice,

In your daily life,

Until eventually you arrive at the place of understanding for yourself.

So let's dive into the steps of the Noble Eightfold Path.

I describe these three general categories of Buddhist practice as morality,

Concentration,

And wisdom.

And the Noble Eightfold Path actually begins with wisdom,

And I'll talk a little bit more about why that is in a moment.

But the first two steps on the Noble Eightfold Path are number one,

Skillful understanding and skillful thinking.

And I want to give a shout out to the book Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness by Henepolo Gunaratana.

I'm probably saying his name wrong,

But he's the guy who wrote mindfulness in plain English,

If you're familiar with that book.

It's really good.

So I'm drawing some of the language that I'm using in this video from that book,

And I just want to acknowledge that.

So Henepolo Gunaratana writes about these steps not as like right understanding and right thinking,

Which is how it's sometimes translated,

But as skillful understanding and skillful thinking.

Because if we're breaking things down into right or wrong,

That's not really accurate to the way that the Buddhist tradition sees this path.

It's not that we start out wrong and we become right.

It's that we start out not necessarily knowing what is going to be skillful for us to do in terms of our mental behavior or physical behavior.

And it's like any skill,

You cultivate these skills as you walk further down the path.

So I like the translation of skillful understanding as the first of the eight steps on Noble Eightfold Path.

And what this really means is that we're understanding,

We're starting from a set of teachings that the Buddhist tradition offers about how the world is.

And those teachings are that the world is impermanent.

Everything is always changing.

If the world is impermanent,

There's no inherently existent self.

So that's the second characteristic of phenomena.

That there's no inherent self to me,

To anything else,

To any country,

To any idea.

Everything is going to change sooner or later.

And the third of these three characteristics of phenomena kind of builds off the other ones,

Which is that if we are impermanent beings thinking that we're permanent and trying to get all of our external circumstances lined up just right,

We're never going to make it because everything's always changing.

So we're never going to be quite satisfied until we really come to recognize the nature of reality.

Those,

I would say,

Are like the three core Buddhist hypotheses.

And one thing I really appreciate about this tradition is that they don't expect you to take that on blind faith.

They don't expect you to take that on blind faith.

Or even not blind faith.

They expect you to really take these as if they were hypotheses and test them in our own lives.

So when the Buddhist tradition talks about right understanding,

What you're already doing by watching a video or this series of videos on the Four Noble Truths,

It's already part of presenting that way of looking at the world,

Which Buddhists do.

And so it's really the most accurate way of looking at the world than the way we usually unconsciously do it of assuming if I get this and if I can keep that away,

I'm going to be happy forever.

I just need to work a little bit harder and finally make this happen.

So once we're exposed to these Buddhist teachings,

We can begin to try them out in our lives,

See if they work,

Let our actions be guided by them.

And so to have right understanding just means to have a very basic Buddhist worldview when you're getting started and to put those teachings into effect and see what happens.

The second of the eight steps along the Noble Eightfold Path is Right Thinking.

And to boil it down to its most basic elements,

This step is really about not letting our minds stew in unhelpful thoughts.

So when negative thoughts like anger or hatred or jealousy or just wanting to spread stuff about someone we don't like on social media or wherever we're going to spread that kind of talk,

When we find those thoughts coming up in our mind,

This step is all about letting them go,

Not acting on them,

Not following after them,

Trying to get rid of hatred and ill will,

And also just greed and self grasping as much as possible.

Not only because it's better for people around us,

But because it's better for us.

We're going to be happier.

We're not going to be acting like jerks and bringing suffering on ourselves in the future.

And then once we can kind of move our minds out of those negative states,

The other part of this step on the Noble Eightfold Path is to then cultivate generosity,

Compassion,

Kindness,

Caring,

Empathy,

All those other wonderful states that not only benefit the people around us,

But they also benefit us.

We get to live in like a brighter,

Cleaner,

Happier mind,

Because that's what we're filling our time with,

Mentally.

So those first two steps are about wisdom.

And we're going to come back to them again at the end of the description of these eight steps.

And we'll talk about a deeper level of them.

But for now,

Let's switch into the next category of Buddhist practice,

Which is all about morality.

So those first two are about wisdom.

Now we're going to talk morality,

And then the last two are going to be about concentration.

So step number three is skillful speech.

And this really,

It's similar to step number two,

Skillful thinking.

But this is about how you express yourself in the world.

So are you lying to people?

Or are you telling the truth?

When you're telling the truth?

Are you doing it in a skillful way?

Or are you being kind of a jerk about it?

Are you saying things to try and split up friendships,

Things like that.

So all these negative forms of speech are ones that we can try to notice.

And honestly,

If you go online,

And you notice the kinds of speech people are using on social media,

And even on certain types of news networks,

There is really some toxic stuff out there.

So it's like,

It's like an experiment run amok to see what unskillful speech can look like.

But there's also really wonderful forms of affirmation and really positive stuff that also happens on social media.

So again,

It's kind of like a petri dish where you can see all forms of speech just out there in the open.

And then we can also turn our attention to how do we speak to ourselves internally?

How do we speak to others?

Do we have really like negative self-talk running in our heads all the time?

Can we notice that?

Maybe not indulge it?

When we're speaking with somebody that we love,

Are we offering them kindness?

If there's an uncomfortable truth?

Are we trying to tell them in a way that it'll be easier for them to take in?

Are we being truthful?

So there's a lot of practice that's involved with just becoming familiar with our own speech patterns,

Trying to kind of pluck the weeds of the unskillful speech patterns and then plant some helpful ones in place of that.

So speaking with kindness,

Speaking with generosity,

Speaking with caring to ourselves and others,

It really can brighten up our own minds and also the minds of the people around us.

And at the end of the day,

With each of these steps,

It really is about training our minds so that we can transform them on a deep level so that we can be of more benefit to ourselves and others.

Step number four is skillful action.

And this one really is to do with our actions of body.

So this is really core for Buddhist morality because these are the sorts of things where we can bring real suffering to ourselves and others if we are messing them up.

So there are five basic presets that lay people traditionally would follow.

They might choose to follow only one of them or two of them.

They might add in more presets over time as they feel they're able to keep them.

But the five basic precepts of lay people in Buddhism are,

First of all,

No killing,

No stealing,

No sexual misconduct,

No lying or unskillful speech,

And finally not becoming intoxicated.

So really all of these actions are ones that can have pretty serious consequences for the people around us and for ourselves.

If we take something like killing,

It's pretty easy to not go around killing other humans.

I mean,

For most of us anyway.

So that one's relatively easy to keep.

But if you kind of start drilling down even on a simple precept like not killing,

It's really about not harming those around us.

And just trying to put that into practice can be its own form of really beginning to reshape our lives.

So for instance,

I don't eat meat,

Even though I wouldn't be directly killing that animal.

But it's because I don't want to contribute to other people having to kill animals.

And also,

Even if I ate meat,

I wouldn't want to support a factory farming system.

So,

You know,

Really starting to think about the consequences of our actions,

You start to have a broader sense of the impact that your actions have.

And really,

That's what Buddhist morality is all about.

What is the impact on us?

What is the impact on others?

And if we're able to not kill others,

Then are we actually able to help them instead?

So that would be the flip side of this one.

So in East Asia,

For instance,

It's really popular to buy animals that would be killed for food and release them back into the wild.

Obviously,

They have to be a native species,

And you know,

It has to be done right.

But it's like the opposite of not killing is actually setting beings free.

And it's thought to be a very like meritorious action,

Because you're basically giving these beings their lives back.

And it's a really wonderful thing to do.

I've done it with earthworms.

And it's not like super glamorous or exciting,

But it's a really great feeling to kind of watch them like crawl into the soil and to think,

Oh,

You're not going to get,

You know,

Skewered on a,

On a barb and used for fishing or something like that.

All five of these basic presets in their broadest sense are pretty simple.

But if you take one also like sexual misconduct,

Obviously,

It's completely wrong to force somebody into sex against their will.

But if you think about the Me Too movement and just all the damage that's been done by people acting out of their own impulses and not considering the impact that their actions are going to have on other people,

You can really see how this precept around sexual misconduct also could,

For a lot of people,

Be really a guide to their actions and to help them,

You know,

Reflect on what are they putting out into the world?

What are the subtle forms of grabbing onto,

You know,

Power or sexuality or someone else that maybe are not helpful and could be having a pretty serious impact on someone else,

Even if the person doing the harm doesn't think of it that way.

And step number five,

Right?

Livelihood.

So this part of the Noble Eightfold Path is about how we basically make our way in the world.

Who do we work for?

What job do we do?

What business or what industry are we involved in?

What are the impacts of our profession on the world?

So in the last of the Noble Eightfold Path that we looked at,

We were looking at our personal actions.

Now we're looking at our professional actions,

You could say.

So obviously,

From a Buddhist perspective,

A job that involves like killing living beings,

You know,

Like working at a slaughterhouse or being like a bug exterminator,

Or like a hitman or something like that,

Where you're actively killing humans,

All of those be not great things to be involved in.

But again,

We can look at more subtle levels.

And if we're working in an industry where we have the option of doing something in this way or in that way,

We can think about the ways that that we can do our job with a positive motivation,

A helpful motivation,

A motivation to minimize impact.

For instance,

I have spent a lot of time in Houston,

And I have friends who work in the oil industry.

And some people might say,

Well,

That's not right livelihood,

Because the oil industry is,

You know,

Contributing to global warming and all this stuff.

But there are people within those companies who are actually actively pushing in a greener direction,

Looking for more sustainable sources of energy.

So there's a lot that we can do within a given industry to really try and push it in a direction of less harm or greater benefit.

And then obviously,

There are professions like nursing and healthcare and all the frontline workers we're seeing during this coronavirus pandemic,

You know,

We're really coming to appreciate how beneficial their roles are for society.

And maybe we can appreciate them a bit more having seen what our lives would be like without them.

And step number six is the last of the morality group of Buddhist trainings.

And this one is right effort,

Or skillful effort.

And in a way,

Really,

This one is like the heart of the entire practice.

So skillful effort means that we're trying not to create openings for negative states of mind,

Negative actions of body,

Speech or mind.

If those negative actions come up,

We're trying to counteract them or not act on those impulses.

And then once we have a little freedom from those negative impulses,

We can actually start to generate positive ones instead.

So we're actively cultivating positive states of mind and then trying to maintain them and create more of a habit of spending time in those positive states.

So for instance,

The example is often used of anger.

If you're having a moment of anger,

Then just noticing that is already good.

So you're not getting carried away into that and creating a whole big thing around it.

I like to use the example of being in traffic because traffic,

Again,

Going back to my Houston days is really bad there.

And it can take a lot of patience to make it through a traffic jam.

So if I'm in a traffic jam,

And I feel all this anger and frustration arising,

Just noticing it in the first place is already good.

And then one thing I like to do is just to start like singing some mantras or otherwise bringing to mind,

You know,

Compassionate,

Inspiring images or thoughts to kind of counteract that negativity of thinking,

Oh,

Why is this not moving?

Why are people trying to cut me off?

So it's a way of counteracting,

You know,

Using compassion to counteract anger.

It might sound dumb,

But seriously,

Try it sometime.

If you know any mantras,

Or even you can just use the expression,

May all beings be happy.

May all these people who seem to be in such a rush,

May they all be safe,

May they all be happy.

Imagine what rush hour would look like if everybody was happy and compassionate toward each other,

That'd be very different.

So it's a way of counteracting that negativity and just not feeding it.

So then in the absence of anger,

Now we can have real compassion.

And we might have had to fake that compassion in the beginning,

Maybe I had to really make an effort to like say some mantras or,

Or to think may all beings be happy,

Even you,

Sir,

Even you,

I want you to be happy.

But once that state has arisen in my mind,

It feels so much better than anger.

So then then the goal of skillful effort really is to continue that sense of compassion,

To expand it out to really get in the habit of feeling that compassion.

And for each of the eight steps along the path,

Really,

This kind of effort is key,

You know,

Knowing what we don't want to follow after,

Knowing what we do want to cultivate.

And I want to just add sort of my own interpretation of this step on the path as well,

Which is that for a lot of people,

I think definitely for me,

When I was a baby Buddhist,

My effort was really strong and like,

Tight,

You know,

Very intense.

I'm going to meditate at this time every day.

And I would,

You know,

I just came at it with so much seriousness and zeal.

And I think it was actually good for me in the beginning to have that,

Because it really got some energy and some momentum behind practice.

But the more I progress in my practice,

The more I'm able to just relax.

So even within a given meditation session,

Even if I really had to work to carve out that time for that practice,

Can I now say,

Oh,

Yeah,

I have half an hour,

I get to just be here,

I get to be calm,

I get to let my mind settle.

And again,

Even within one session,

In the beginning of that session,

I might really need to hold my mind a bit tighter,

And really keep it on my object of meditation.

But once my mind begins to settle down and get into the groove of focusing on the breath or whatever else I might be doing,

Then it's time to relax to loosen up that effort to let the effort feel more effortless.

The Zen folks have this great phrase effortless effort.

That's kind of where you can begin to arrive to as you go later in a meditation session,

Or as you progress down this path,

And it just begins to be more and more part of your life,

It takes less effort.

And with that,

Let's move into the third type of practice on the Buddhist path,

Which is concentration.

So step number seven on the Noble Eightfold Path is Right Mindfulness.

And this refers to the type of mindfulness we're probably all familiar with,

Like being present in each moment,

Trying to really notice what's going on within ourselves,

Around ourselves.

It also,

Though,

Means to remember the object of your practice.

So if you're practicing meditation,

For instance,

It's keeping in mind the type of meditation you want to do.

So this is easy to do if you have a guided meditation,

Because the guidance is there to remind me to remind you of what you're doing.

But if you're just sitting in silent meditation,

The way you cultivate skillful mindfulness might be more to bear in mind,

Ah,

Yeah,

I really want to focus on the breath,

Just the barest sensations,

I'm trying to cultivate my capacity for concentration,

Which is the eighth of the Noble Eightfold Path,

Trying to cultivate my concentration.

So I'm going to let go of anything that arises and just keep coming back to that.

It's easy if we're meditating to start kind of bouncing around and doing different things in our practice.

So this,

This form of mindfulness where we remember what we're practicing in a meditation session is super helpful.

And mindfulness also means going through daily life,

For instance,

Trying to cultivate right actions.

We're mindful of what we're doing.

We're mindful of our intention for doing that,

Whether that intention is,

You know,

Helpful,

Positive,

Skillful,

Or whether there's a little bit of harmfulness mixed in with what we're doing.

So that mindfulness applies to our internal states,

The world around us,

Our actions,

And just being aware of the results of our actions.

Probably mindfulness is the thing people are most familiar with.

So let's move on to step number eight of the Noble Eightfold Path,

Which is concentration.

And it's difficult to say exactly the difference between mindfulness and concentration because they're very connected to each other.

But basically,

With mindfulness,

You know what's going on in your mind,

You know,

If you're getting distracted,

You know,

If you're getting sleepy or dull,

And your mindfulness helps keep your meditation on track.

In a meditation session,

Your capacity for concentration is really about resting the mind on one object.

I say resting the mind because concentration,

Optimally,

It's not like a tight form of concentration,

Like now I'm breathing in,

Now I'm breathing out.

It's really more,

We pay attention to the breath in order to relax into it,

Or to whatever else our object of meditation is.

You could have sound as an object of meditation,

You could have bodily sensations as an object of meditation,

You can even take your thoughts as an object of meditation and notice them,

But they're not very good for cultivating concentration.

Because with concentration,

You want to rest your attention on one object,

Just let the entire mind sort of flow into one experience that you're having,

And rest in that.

So if you're cultivating concentration,

You want to choose a stable object.

And the thing that makes concentration really powerful is that it brings all your mind's energies together.

It's like taking a spotlight and then focusing it down to a laser beam.

Because what you're really trying to do with Buddhist practice is to bring together wisdom and concentration.

So you're using that focused mind to dig into your experience.

If a thought comes up,

If you're cultivating your concentration,

You just kind of let it go.

But if you've really established your concentration,

Then you can examine that thought moment by moment,

You feel it arising,

You feel it kind of fully unfolding,

And then you feel it changing into something else or falling apart,

Dissolving back into your mind,

And you're able to really see that process of impermanence play out in one thought,

For instance.

So to really cultivate concentration is necessary to reach the deeper stages of wisdom.

Because to really have what Buddhists are talking about,

When they talk about wisdom,

It has to be your own experience,

You have to have the experience yourself of seeing impermanence,

Of noticing the ways that we change.

And we're not the same,

You know,

One year to the next,

Or one decade to the next.

Reviews

Than You Namo Buddha’s🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Well said thank you. Nice and clear easy to understand