Buddha Dharma Part Four - Seeing Clearly

In the fourth truth, he explained what path we can take to start the process of destroying the three poisons. This path is known as the eightfold path. This path is not a religious path and doesn’t require rituals, prayers, ceremonies, or even for you to become a Buddhist. It can be looked upon as a path that leads to us living a responsible life and so anybody can practise it. So, it isn’t a Buddhist practice, it is more of a lifestyle practice.

Transcript

This episode is called,

Seeing Clearly,

And it's part of the Buddha Dharma series.

In the first Noble Truth,

Buddha explained that there is suffering running throughout our lives,

From birth through to death.

In the second Truth,

He told us about some of the causes of this suffering,

Namely the three poisons.

In the fourth Truth,

He explained what path we can take to start the process of destroying these three poisons.

The path is known as the Eightfold Path.

This is how Buddha described the Eightfold Path.

And what is the Noble Truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of desire?

Just this very Eightfold Path,

Appropriate view,

Intention,

Speech,

Action,

Livelihood,

Effort,

Mindfulness,

And concentration.

This path is not a religious path and doesn't require rituals,

Prayers,

Ceremonies,

Or even for you to become a Buddhist.

It can be looked upon as a path that leads us to living a responsible life,

And so anybody can practice it.

So,

It isn't a Buddhist practice,

It's more of a lifestyle practice.

The Eightfold Path comprises of three aspects,

And I'll take each aspect individually and explore the appropriate ways to approach the path.

The first aspect is seeing clearly,

Which includes appropriate view and appropriate intention.

View.

So,

Let's start by looking at the view.

The view refers to the understanding that we cause most of our emotional suffering ourselves.

The understanding that everything is impermanent,

And the understanding that things happen due to causes,

Which in turn lead to consequences.

Here,

I'll concentrate on the understanding of cause and effect.

So,

What do we need to understand about cause and effect?

It's important to understand that our actions of body,

Speech,

And mind have consequences.

You may think that I understand that actions of body and speech have consequences,

But how can our thoughts?

Before we do any action,

It starts off as a thought.

First,

We think,

And then we act.

This thought can be conscious or unconscious,

But it is there before any action.

So,

It's important to realize that our thoughts also have consequences.

Whatever we do and say will become a cause for our future conditions.

I'm not talking about future lives here,

I'm talking about this life.

We're the architects of our future.

This is how we should be thinking.

We should not be thinking that our lives are conditioned by some system of reward and punishment,

Meted out by some outside force.

This way of thinking is just shirking our responsibilities.

Of course,

It's easier to blame someone else for our problems.

We love doing that,

But this will not help us bring about a change for the better in our lives.

Put simplistically,

If we act in a kind,

Caring,

Helpful,

And compassionate way,

We'll be helping to build a good future for ourselves.

This is not some metaphysical law,

I'm just stating the way life is.

If we act in a bad way,

By not caring for others,

Stealing,

Lying,

Cheating,

Killing,

And generally acting in an unhelpful way,

People are not going to want to be associated with us or help us when we need it.

This is the way of the world.

Also,

If we are a kind and caring person,

Our conscience will be clear,

And this will also reduce any emotional suffering and certainly help us during our meditation and mindful awareness practices.

There's no scientific evidence for this,

But just look at your own experiences,

And I'm sure you'll see that your actions have consequences.

If you kill someone,

You'll be caught and sent to prison or even put to death.

However,

If you're not caught,

You will have to carry the torment,

Anguish,

And guilt around of you for the rest of your life,

Fearful every time the doorbell rings.

Either way,

There are consequences for your act of killing.

Having said that,

I'm not suggesting that if we act in good ways,

The whole of our life is going to be rosy,

And fortunately that isn't going to happen,

But it will reduce the chances of bad things happening.

It will also put us in a better frame of mind to be able to cope with those unfavorable situations when they do arise.

We don't live in a bubble,

So the actions of others are always going to affect us.

Other people's causes and effects overlap our causes and effects until there is a huge web of interconnected causes and effects.

So we have to remember that when something unpleasant befalls us,

It is a result of a large number of causes.

Knowing this will stop us adding anger and frustration to any already difficult situation.

It will also prevent us from struggling with something that is beyond our control.

This will at the very least reduce some of our emotional suffering.

When we have the appropriate view regarding cause and effect,

It encourages us to live an honorable life.

This is a life where we take responsibility for our actions.

Some people find it hard to get to grips with cause and effect,

So I suggest you sit quietly and reflect on it.

That way you will understand that things can only come into existence due to a cause or causes and not randomly or magically.

Every cause will ultimately have an effect,

So all of our actions of body,

Speech and mind are going to have consequences.

This should encourage us to act in a skillful way.

Intention.

The next element of the path is intention.

What I'm talking about here is your motivation and conditioning,

As it is these forces that move us into doing actions with our body,

Speech and minds.

This element is divided into three sections and Buddha explained it this way.

And what is appropriate intention?

Intentions of letting go,

Intentions of freedom from ill will,

Intentions of harmlessness.

This is called appropriate intention.

Letting go.

The first section is sometimes talked about as renunciation,

Giving something up,

Rejecting or abandoning,

But I think a better way to describe this is letting go.

What we're trying to let go of is attachment to or craving for,

Sensual objects.

I personally believe renunciation is never going to work.

The more we try to renounce something,

The more we get ourselves entangled in it.

If you are fighting something,

You are given it power.

So in that way for me,

Renunciation will not work.

This is why I say let it go,

Because by doing that you are given it no power and it will begin to disappear on its own.

What I mean by letting go is that we don't get ourselves ensniled by overthinking,

Judging,

Comparing or criticizing.

We don't engage the desire.

We allow it to arise,

Acknowledge it,

Let it pass and we move on.

Of course,

That's easier said than done,

But this is where our mindfulness practices help a lot.

If we are present with our thoughts,

We'll catch the desire as it arises.

This gives us the opportunity to follow the desire or let it go.

Clinging to desires is one of the origins of our emotional suffering,

But when we try to let things go,

A strong feeling inside us stops us from succeeding.

This happens because we are so attached to our desires.

It's never easy to suddenly just let them go,

But it certainly isn't impossible.

If we believe sensual objects are going to give us true happiness,

We will start clinging to them and this will in turn shape our thoughts and actions.

We'll become attached and our emotional suffering will begin.

It takes time to change our perceptions and it's not going to be easy.

We have to slowly start chipping away at our clinging attachment to sensual objects,

Whether it's people or belongings.

Step by step,

We reduce their hold on us.

How do we let our clinging desire go?

There are several ways,

But I believe the best one is to contemplate impermanence.

By doing this,

You begin to realize the impermanence of things.

You understand that everything is temporary and there is nothing solid to get attached to.

So,

When a clinging desire arises,

You do not have to hold on to it.

You can let it go.

Just keep reminding yourself that this is temporary and it will pass.

Freedom from ill will.

This is when we do not have any thoughts of causing others harm.

Ill will stems from clinging to our ego and can arise when we are unhappy with someone,

Jealous,

Have too much pride,

Anger,

Have an aversion towards someone and so on.

For example,

When someone such as a friend,

Partner or family member has hurt us and we start wishing bad things to happen to them.

Ill will is often an emotional reaction.

It doesn't necessarily flow that we will act upon our ill will,

But as our actions are driven by our thoughts,

The potential is always there to do so.

The best way to liberate ourselves from ill will is to foster the thought that other people,

Just like us,

Are fighting against a physical and emotional suffering running through their lives.

They also want to be free of this emotional suffering and want only peace of mind.

If we think like this,

It will cause goodwill to arise within us.

So caring for others feelings and showing them genuine warmth replaces ill will with a sense of compassion and kindness.

Now,

When I talk about caring for others,

I'm not talking about sympathy or pity,

But real empathy.

This is when we put ourselves in other people's shoes and truly understand that they wish to be treated kindly and with warmth.

They too are struggling to make sense of their lives.

These days,

We tend to ration our kindness to people we are friendly with.

This way of acting can be selfish and goes part of the way to explain why there is so much ill will in the world today.

We need to look no further than the vile comments people post on social media and how some politicians talk about each other to see an all too common manifestation of ill will.

So how do we go beyond ill will and build a feeling of goodwill towards others?

One way is to do the following practice,

Which has a reflection on the fact that we are friendly with others.

We have a reflection on kindness and is split into three parts,

Which embraces three types of people we encounter in our life.

Those we're friendly with,

Those we're not overly friendly with,

And the biggest group of all,

Those we don't really care about one way or the other.

The point of this practice is to open our minds and build friendliness and focus on the way we are.

Start by sitting comfortably and lightly close your eyes.

Focus your awareness on the breath flowing in and out of your nose.

And don't change the breath in any way,

Just let it flow naturally.

Now start reflecting on your friends.

This is the easiest way to begin because you already have a certain amount of warmth towards them.

Think of a close friend and start to reflect on their positive qualities and their acts of kindness.

A note of caution here,

Try not to use someone you're sexually attracted to because kindness could quite easily turn into lust.

It's also recommended that you do not use the same person each time you do this practice or else you may get attached to them.

By reflecting on your friends' good qualities and kindness,

Positive feelings will arise.

Once this has occurred,

You should move away from reflecting on your friend and concentrate on your feelings that have arisen.

These feelings should be your primary focus.

They should be feelings of warmth and empathy.

Spend some time being aware of this warmth and see how happy and peaceful it makes you feel.

Keeping the above feelings in your mind,

Move on to the next type of person,

Someone you dislike.

Picture this person in your mind and examine him or her closely.

See the person's pain,

Suffering,

Loneliness and insecurity.

See that all he or she really wants to have is a peaceful mind.

So now start to radiate the same feelings you had for your friends towards this person you dislike.

Project all the respect,

Warmth and kindness that you can muster.

Finally,

Picture a person you pass by every day but don't really care about one way or the other.

Again,

Feel this person's pain and see how all he or she is looking for is a peace of mind.

Radiate your warmth and kindness towards this person and imagine how that makes him or her feel and in turn how you feel.

This is a simple way to cultivate respect and warmth.

For everybody,

Regardless of whether you know them or not,

Whether you like them or not.

Remember though that this is not a reflective exercise that you do only in the privacy of your home.

It should be applied to your daily life so that you cultivate a friendly and open attitude towards everyone without discrimination.

That of course includes yourself.

So if you're feeling a bit low or your self-compassion needs a boost,

You can start this practice by radiating warmth and kindness towards yourself.

Harmlessness.

You should now have started to have feelings of goodwill towards others.

These feelings should move you towards actions that are not harmful.

Remember,

Our mind controls our actions so feelings of goodwill should lead to more skillful actions.

Everybody wishes to be free of emotional suffering but are often gripped by discontentment,

Anguish,

Unease,

Dissatisfaction and other kinds of suffering.

People are their own private suffering but we should understand that we also play a part in that suffering by not showing compassion for them,

By not caring for their well-being and by not seeing that they,

Like us,

Are trying to be free from all forms of suffering and have a peaceful mind.

Here is a reflection practice that you can do that will help you start developing compassion for others.

Do these reflections on the three types of people mentioned in the goodwill section.

However,

This time choose people who you know are suffering and radiate compassion towards them.

Again,

Start your reflection on a friend who you know is going through a rough time.

Reflect on that person's suffering directly and then reflect on how,

Like yourself,

Your friend wants to be free from pain.

You should continue this reflection and take a look at the person who you know is suffering.

Remember,

Compassion is not pity or sympathy but is a form of empathy.

Pity and sympathy stem from our own emotions which are not stable or reliable,

Whereas empathy is where you put yourself into a more positive place.

The beauty of this is that you are not projecting your thoughts and prejudices but are actually seeing things from another person's viewpoint.

Once you start experiencing a strong feeling of compassion for your friend,

Hold on to that feeling and feel the same way.

You should be able to see the person who you know is suffering and radiate compassion towards them.

Once you start experiencing a strong feeling of compassion for your friend,

Hold on to it and use it as a standard for your same practice we will now do as we reflect on the two other types of people.

Think of a person you know who is suffering but who you dislike and then reflect on their suffering.

See the world through their eyes.

Try and understand their pain and suffering.

Try to genuinely feel their pain and suffering.

Once you've achieved this,

Start radiating the powerful feeling of compassion you felt before.

When you feel such strong compassion for a person,

It's difficult to dislike them anymore because you now understand just like you.

Next,

Think of a person you really have no feelings for one way or another.

Start reflecting on how they also have causes for pain,

Sorrow,

Anguish and dissatisfaction.

Again,

Once you have truly felt their pain,

Start radiating compassion towards them.

This exercise helps you realize that we're all prone to suffering in the same way and there really are no strangers in this world.

By doing these reflections,

You will slowly be able to open your mind and expand your compassion towards more people in the world.

You'll start to see that all of us are the same.

By doing this reflection,

You are not necessarily going to be able to directly ease others' suffering,

But you're going to be more open to doing so as your compassion for them grows.

This ends the seeing clearly aspect of the Eightfold Path.

Reviews

Thank you for this very clear and lucid explanation of the eightfold path. It creates more openness, compassion and good will towards the self and others. Namaste 🤓🙏🏻

Another interesting talk. I’m enjoying this series and it’s really making me think about my life and how I live it. The two little practices at the end were simple and easy to follow, thanks for those.

Thank you for explaining these concepts so clearly. I am slowly understanding the teachings but practice is very challenging.

A genuine education. Clearly explained. Continuing to enjoy this series of talks. 🙏🏻