The Eight Fold Way - Coming Home Victoriously

Buddha left what is called "The Eightfold Way".  If you can understand and follow the eightfold way, the Way will open up right in front of you.  The Way leads an individual victoriously to reality, to seeing life as it really is in eternity. It is right there in front of you, but you do not even see it.  The Eightfold Way reveals a light upon which you can walk.  They are indicators of how to come to that ultimate state of awareness where one can take the leap.  Practicing the Eightfold Way and you will begin to feel you are disappearing and the Tao is everywhere, the Divine is revealed.   It is a profoundly beautiful practice. 

The Lord Buddha has said:

Those who follow the Way are like unto warriors who fight single-handed with a multitude of foes.  They may all go out of the fort in full armor; but among them are some who are faint-hearted, and some who go halfway and beat a retreat, and some who are killed in the affray, and some who come home victorious.

O, Monks, if you desire to attain enlightenment, you should steadily walk in your Way, with a resolute heart, with courage, and should be fearless in whatever environment you may happen to be, and destroy every evil influence that you may come across; for thus you will reach the goal.

The eight fold Way was given as a compassion for those wishing to reach the goal.

The first is: Right View.  Right may give you the idea there is a wrong.  But this is not exactly correct.  Right means that which you cannot invent.  Right is what does not depend on you.  Right is that which is not your invention.  It is already there.  If you go away from what is already there, then you have moved away from right view.  If you go away from what is then you are wrong.  If you come close to what is then you are right.  Right view has nothing to do with what is 'wrong'.  No.  Right view does not concern itself with wrong.  Right is not something you have to do - you were born right.  It's when you move away from this that wrong appear.  Staying with what IS is right view. Move away from that and you are wrong.  Again, wrong is your invention of what is.  Right is simply what is.

The second step is:  right intention. Right intention is the intention to move with reality moment by moment.  Jesus demonstrated right intention with his statement "not my will, but thine be done."   When you hold no private desire towards nature, towards your life, and you are one with what the universal brings, this is called right intention.  One beautiful story of a monk traveling demonstrates right intention.  The monk was traveling for three days with his disciples and they could find no food, no shelter and the traveling was hard.  The monk was praying, thanking god.  A disciple heard him and thought this unbearable, 'How could you pray and thank god?  We are starving! Tried!"  The monk's rely, "I thank god because these days I have needed to be hungry, I needed to strive.  Much has happened inside of me because of this and I am thankful for God.  God knows what I need.  And it comes to me."  - - This is an example of right intention.  To hold no goal outside of what life brings you.  Don't move against life.  Be intent on being present with what comes and allow this to have its work on you.  Allow the present circumstances to be what you need.

The third is: right speech: Say only that which is.  Never say what is not true.  Only say that which is true and real.  Never talk about others' experiences. Right speech means: don't be fictitious, don't be esoteric.  Just be absolutely honest and authentic.  Have very sincere speech.

The fourth is: right morality. Morality is that which comes from within you, not outside of you.  And morality can happen only if you are absolutely free. Not because of fear should you be moral.  If you are not stealing, sleeping with wives and husbands because of fear of it being wrong, this is not morality. This 'morality' will not transform you. You are not free.  Morality is to look into things and out of your awareness a responsibility arises.  If it is because of an outside source you are not doing something, this is not morality.  It is better to move into experiences that give you the awareness that bring you true understanding and responsibility.  That which comes from your own consciousness is morality.  Morality may be totally different for each person.  One person may do something from his own consciousness that is immoral for another to do.   Right morality comes from within.  

The fifth is: right livelihood.  Life should be simple, not complex.  Life should be based on needs, not on desires.  Needs are perfectly okay.  You need food, you need clothes, you need a shelter, you need love, you need relationship.  Needs can be fulfilled.  It is perfectly good.  But desires are basically unfulfillable.  Desires are complex.  They create complexity in life because you can never fulfill them.  Desires are like chasing a shadow.  Right livelihood is to use your life energy to fulfill your needs and then simply be, enjoy, love the simple.  

The sixth is: right effort.  Never strain and never be lazy.  This is right effort.  A person must be balanced between the two. You do, but you don't strive painfully beyond.  Like children playing.  You do, but with grace.  This is right effort.   

The seventh is: right mindfulness.  Mindfulness means you should always be alert, watchful.  You should always remain in the present.  Not a single thing should be done in sleepy state of mind.  Buddha used to say not even your breath should be allowed to go out and in without your consciousness.  I recall the Bodhidharma speaking of how when mind and breath are continuously connected you will awaken to divine reality.  Right mindfulness is meditation. Meditation cannot be separate from life.  Continuously aware of all activities is right mindfulness.  

And the eight step is: right samadhi: O, I love this one!!!  Even your samadhi must be right.  You can go into wrong samadhi.  One can go so deeply inside that you forget the outside.  This is very tempting when practicing deep meditation.  Normally we are only aware of the outside and we are totally unaware of the inside.  Wrong samadhi is the same in reverse: you are totally inside and you have forgotten the outside.  It's the same unconsciousness as daily life, just reversed.  Right samadhi is when you are totally aware in and out.  Your light is burning so bright it fills you with light, and this light is outside too.  In fact both inside and outside are not different in right samadhi.  This is the most glorious experience of the human consciousness. Ah!  Right Samadhi!  I sit.   I sit.  

These eight steps are of great help to those seeking the experience of enlightenment.  But because people cannot gather their energy, they never become integrated.  Practicing these eight steps brings you home to the very center of existence.    Samadhi is a beautiful word.  It means now everything is solved.  It means samadhan, everything is achieved. You have come home.

You have come home.  You have come home.