In the opening sura of the Qur'an we hear, "Guide me
on the straight path..." and the theme of straight path is repeated many
times in the Qur'an. In Christianity and
Judaism we also hear about "the Path of the Lord." We've talked before about the recurrence of
the theme of path in religious traditions, and I do so again because I think it
an important metaphor, since it implies a way of life. I read the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism as
a clear prescription for how to live as a Buddhist, but one that offers us
considerable flexibility in how we take the basic technologies and apply them
to our own circumstances. I'd be really
interested to know how Buddha would have framed his teachings if he'd grown up
in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, or seventh century Arabia.
But he didn't, so today we're going to look at the
teachings developed twenty-five hundred years ago and I'm going to try to play
with them a little in the context of our modern-day American world view and
language.
First the basics: Buddha, as you know, woke up, and
having done so was unsure what came next.
He felt the need to return to the world and teach in order to guide
others down the same path, but his experience was so...experiential...that he
had no idea how to do this. I suspect he
reflected on and deliberated about this for a long while before he came up with
an approach that he thought might work.
If it was brilliant to frame this as the Four Noble Truths,
developing the technology of the Noble
Eightfold Path was an act of towering genius.
The Four Noble Truths are an explanation the state of the
world, of existence; as such they could be read doctrinally, as a profession of
faith. I have come to the conclusion
that in many respects the Four Noble Truths are not that different from descriptions
in many other traditions. Buddha's
formulation that all is suffering, that the cause is our own attachment, that
there is an end to suffering, and that there is a path to get there has
parallels in other traditions:
·
Socrates described thought that all people
wanted to exist in a state of eudemonia, a word that is generally translated as
happiness, but which as best I can tell has an underlying sense of
flourishing. His path to eudemonia was
cultivation of the virtues. Implicit in
this worldview is that prior to eudemonia we are suffering and unhappy, and
cultivation of the virtues is a discipline that brings our normal cravings and
ego under control;
·
Hinduism, which predated Buddha and Socrates,
recognized this world as suffering - samsara - and that there was a way out,
moksha, which a couple of Vedanta monastics recently told me they cannot
distinguish from nirvana. I think we all
know that much of the basic psychological framework of Hinduism is similar to
Buddhist thought - which is not surprising, since it was Buddha's original
culture;
·
Even Christianity and Islam have similar
constructions. They both see the world
as suffering and see the cause as our distance from the divine. The end of suffering exists in heaven, and
both offer a real practice path to get there - though in both religions many
fail to practice and resort to "belief" as the way out.
To my mind what makes Buddhism different, and Buddha's
teachings extraordinary and revolutionary is not the framework he offered us,
but the development of the Noble Eightfold Path as a technology which he
encouraged people to adopt into and as their lives without reliance on a
teacher, on a scripture, or even on a divinity.
"Practice this and rely on your own experience," is what he
told his followers and those who came out in vast numbers to listen. He did not need to dismiss alternative views
of salvation, rather he could simply say that they were not interesting or
relevant to him. For example, he refused
to discuss what happened after death.
"All you need to do," he said, "is practice these eight
disciplines and pay attention to what happens in your own experience.
It is my experience that these eight disciplines are
relevant and useful to all spiritual practices and religious traditions and can
be used within them without compromising the foundation or beliefs of that
religion. Some of the more
belief-oriented traditions have a hard time, for example believing that
meditation empties the mind and makes room for the devil, but in doing so they
fail to recognize the richness of contemplation practices within their own
tradition. Additionally many traditions
- including many within Buddhism - do not fully employ practices of this nature
and can take the descriptions of reality given by their founders and leaders as
doctrine, and rather than follow spiritual practices that allow the personal
realization of Truth, they leap to belief.
I am inclined to believe that Buddha knew the secret
sauce of his teaching was the Noble Eightfold Path, and knew that his ability
to lead others to his experience would be based upon the utility and
acceptability of these practices. And let's
be honest: what's not to like? Let's
look at them in the order that Walpola Rahula discusses them in "What the
Buddha Taught:
- Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood. These are ethical practices, and collectively
form one half of the basic construct, which is that compassion and wisdom
should be cultivated together.
Compassion is both exercised and developed through its practice. I've talked before of how many of us - myself
in particular - need to practice generosity, to practice giving away
possessions, to actively help others in order to even open up those parts of
ourselves, let alone to cultivate them.
- Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Meditation. These are the wisdom practices, designed to
allow things to slow down, maybe even stop, so that we can see more clearly.
Taken in isolation of the ethical practices they can lead to
introversion and an extremely limited view of the world, ultimately seeing
clearly that "I'm angry and resentful and mean, but that's who I am and
that's okay." But if the ethical
practices are sincerely undertaken, this is not a possible outcome. If one is actively engaged in the world in
ethical action as one is undertaking wisdom practices, one is cultivating the
recognition of connectedness, of inter-being, of codependence, and ultimately
of compassion. The two work together
allowing compassion and wisdom to support each other in their respective
developments.
- So we come to the last two steps of the path, normally listed
as the first two: Right Thought according to Rahula is "selfless
renunciation or detachment, thoughts of love and thoughts of nonviolence which
are extended to all beings." This is normally listed second, but it is an
aspiration that grows in possibility and actuality as one pursues the ethical
and wisdom steps. Right Understanding is
seeing things as they really are, and though normally listed first, it is
perhaps the highest wisdom and the highest compassion, a wisdom beyond rational
ken. It is a wisdom that has shed the
scaffolding of Buddhist teachings and has reached the experience and
understanding that Buddha could not explain.
Which brings us back to the beginning: Buddhist teachings aren't wisdom
any more than they are compassion, they are a framework for us to utilize that
allows us to cultivate wisdom and compassion.
I believe that the most important of these teachings is living the Noble
Eightfold Path.
Buddhism has become a religion, and as Wade often reminds
us, this is a good thing, but at its core I believe Buddhism is cultivating the
practice of the Noble Eightfold Path. It
is about putting on these practices as our clothing and wearing them every day
in our lives, personalizing them so they fit our own cultural and social
history. There are many teachers who perform
the protocols in extraordinarily beautiful ways and who talk eloquently and
articulately about sunyata and the twelve-linked chain of causation and the
Abhidharma, but what I find most interesting and compelling are not those who
stand out as good teachers among Buddhists, but those Buddhists who are
universally recognized as exuding compassion and wisdom among ordinary people
and people of other religions. Thich
Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama can both talk in incredible intricacies about
Buddhist teachings, and I'm sure can perform exquisite ceremonies, but for me
their most important attribute is that they are exemplars of living the Noble
Eightfold Path. It is for this reason
they are held in broad reverence. They
have both said words to the effect that right now the world doesn't need more
Buddhists, rather it needs more Buddhas or more compassion.
Buddhism for me is about internalizing the Noble
Eightfold Path as a way of life and thereby cultivating wisdom and
compassion. It is about deciding to get
on the path, gritting your teeth, and plugging away every day. This might sound a gruelling, rugged
determination undertaken at all costs, but as my mother told me, "the good
things in life are worth working for."
Wisdom and compassion are not just a good thing, they are the best of
things, I am increasingly believing the only things that actually matter. It's a wonderful blessing that as we climb
the path the air becomes clearer and sweeter, the climate cooler and fresher, and
the view grander. If we are patient with
ourselves and with our practice we can eventually feel the fruits of our effort
following this straight path as more joy in our lives.
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