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The Eight-Fold Path
High spiritual attainment is no easy thing, but the path is
well-defined. Buddha defined the route as an eight-part practice.
The steps are not strictly sequential, but must be followed together
and in harmony.
1. Right Views. When you ask yourself
"why do I do what I do?" what answers do you have? By right views
the Buddha meant your motives and your goals. No action in your life
should be mindless; a spiritual person known why he/she acts. A
right action leads to a well-defined goal that moves you towards
your spiritual enlightenment. This does not mean that each move must
be grand; in fact, most journeys are made up of myriad tiny steps.
Right views will help you determine if you are on the right path.
Right views also ask you to study and understand the four noble
truths and the eightfold path. Eventually, right views lead to
meditation and acceptance that all things are interconnected as part
of a whole.
2. Right Resolve. Are you prepared for
the task at hand? What are your preparations of thought, speech, and
motivation? Is the task at hand worthy of your time and effort?
Rightness in resolve means two things. First, is the activity worthy
of your effort? Does it contribute to bettering life for any fellow
creatures, or help even on other being move towards enlightenment?
If the answer is yea, then next ask if you are the person to make a
contribution towards achieving that goal. Your motivation must be
unselfish, with no thought of fame or reward. You must have the
knowledge or special skills needed to make your contribution. Only
when you can merge these two factors harmoniously do you have right
resolve.
3. Right Speech. Words are powerful,
which is why the sages and shamans of so many cultures believe they
have magical power. Buddhist are aware of the power of words and the
thought-entities they can evoke. Buddhist also acknowledge that
words cannot be recalled, and once uttered will stay with a person
depending on their tone and content. They believe very strongly in
the power of words: words can move us to tears or anger, tenderness
or contemplation, passion or boredom. A Buddhist tries also to "say
what you mean and mean what you say."
4. Right Action. Once you decide on a
task, is your procedure well thought out, or is it haphazard? Right
action is not simply about doing the "right" thing, but about taking
the right ("necessary") steps for you to get from point A to point
B. If preparation is a cornerstone of Buddhism, then it is an entire
foundation to Shaolin. Our training is not about being perfect, but
about being competent. We may not perform the "best" action in a
crisis, but we shall perform an acceptable action, and without being
inhibited by fear or other distractions. Meditation prepares our
nerves for crisis, and out other preparations come from our overall
training and career preparedness.
5. Right Livelihood. Buddhist believe
that work is a manifestation of spiritual development. Enlightenment
is difficult to achieve if you are in the wrong occupation for you.
The choice of career is important, and Buddhist believe that the
choice must come from within. To a Buddhist, profession is an
expression of intention. Linked with our sense of identity is the
way we make our living that a poor match almost always causes grief
and suffering. Finding right livelihood is especially important in
walking the spiritual path. From the Shaolin perspective, right
livelihood is both a very economic and a very ecological notion. You
get everything that you need to survive from "the world." A great
part of right livelihood is finding and truly understand your niche
in the world.
6. Right Effort. Having embarked on a
path, are you giving the journey the logistical and emotional
support it needs to be accomplished? Buddhism frowns on half-hearted
efforts. The most important things we do in life cannot be achieved
without the full strength of our hearts and minds - the
concentration of our ch'i. According to the sutras, right effort
also importantly means ceasing to possess intentions that result in
the accumulation of karma. One way of thinking about this is that a
person successfully exercising right effort possesses a
well-calibrated "internal compass." The Shaolin interpretation of
right effort is supremely practical when compared to this more
classical notion of right effort, yet they are inextricable. You
cannot give your full effort, in a practical sense, if your
intentions are sabotaged by ego.
7. Right Attention. Right attention
requires enough self-awareness to be knowledgeable about whom you
are in the deepest sense those words represent. This self=awareness
includes both deep self-reflection and daily mindfulness. Be mindful
of your thoughts and experiences in following the path.
8. Right Meditation. You need not be
single-minded; life is, after all, made of many experiences and
relationships. But the task at hand deserves your full mindfulness,
or it is unimportant. Can you tell which? Right meditation is about
simply being where you are, doing what you are doing. Since we are
strong advocates of moving meditations (not simply gung fu - one
patriarch famously achieved enlightenment while washing dishes), we
do not interpret right meditation to refer solely to specialized,
seated meditations such as zazen.
As a student of the eightfold path, be mindful that the elements of
the path are organic and interrelated. But there is a sort of rough
order of practice: one begins with the practice of ethics (right
speech, right action, right livelihood), moves on to mastering the
mind and its abilities (right effort, right attention, right
meditation), and finally achieves wisdom (right views, right
resolve). Right views include understanding the four noble truths at
the deepest intuitive level, and this was said to have constituted
Shakyamuni Buddha's enlightenment.
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