The Noble Eightfold Path

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right blake tonight we're going to present about the eightfold path so on as we go long i'm going to to star keep the participants window open so that i can see if you raise your hands if you have any
questions please do as questions you go long on as we go along or if you'll have a question please raise your digital hand
i'm at any time and i'll find a time to respond to it and will also have other times in in the course of this presentation did
gas questions so
last week lord gave the saturday talk on the four noble truths
was really good talk and i want to review those very briefly and she also gave a the kind of introduction to the eightfold path and we're going to take that are more deeply tonight
so
the four noble truths actually echo an ancient indian medical model
when you think about it ah it's
the first truth of duca
is
disease
it actually one of the translations for duca is this ease or unease
but in this medical bottle is disease
and you have the second novel truth which is the cause of the disease which is ah to our understanding now it's bacteria or a virus or some other condition
in
buddhist terms it's craving desire ah wanting things to be different from how they are
the third noble truth is that there is such a thing as being healthy
in this medical model ah to be free of disease
and in the
buddhist version of this the for third novel truth is the truth of nibbana
there is an end to suffering
and the forest noble truth in the medical model is the cure
and in buddhist terms it is
it is market or maga the path to nirvana
and it is the eightfold path which were going to be speaking of today
i would suggest also that in the context of of our lives ah we can use the four noble choose as an analytical tool
ah and you can think of that
in social terms or in personal terms ah it's the truth of the first truth is
ah the truth of suffering
ah which is
what is the one is what a what is our experience at this moment
ah and
just to say the
in the
in the damage occurred of vitara sutra which is the suture of the first turning of the wheel buddha said
this is the noble truth of duca birth is duca aging is duca sicknesses duca death is duca sorrow and lamentation pain grief and despair or duca association with with which associated with which
with what one doesn't love or unpleasant conditions is duca separation from what we love
or separation from pleasant conditions is duca not to get what one wants his duca
and then it sums up and we'll get to this later in in our classes the five aggregates of the catchment which is the five us or duca
the second noble truth is
the noble truths of the origin of duca
which is craving which produces rebirth which is bound up with pleasure and greed you'd find the light in this and that and in other words craving for sense pleasures craving for existence or becoming and craving for non-existence
or annihilation
i think there's other ways that we can
frame the cause of dukkha
it's useful to frame it as
wanting things to be different from how they are
and another way to frame it is ah that
emotional reactivity
a stuka
that not emotion
but our reaction to emotion is suffering
so these are those are the first to try to her novel juice
the third novel truth is the truth of nevada or the truth of the cessation of dukkha
and in the damage occurred vitara sutra
the buddha says
it is the complete cessation of duca giving up renouncing relinquishing
the catching from craving
i can amaro
ah one of our god western caravan of teaching says that have he is a wonderful way of putting cessation
it's like
when you're lying in bed
and the refrigerator switches off
you know that kind of droning sound and you'll hardly notice and all and yet when it switches obviously ah
that's that's literally cessation is a cessation of that of that sound would you didn't even know was causing use some uneasiness
so that's that's a wonderful ah analogy vs station
until then we come to
the four noble truths
the fourth noble truths
simply for it is
i've wanted just to name them all
the a full path is the eightfold path which is the path the way the path to the cessation of suffering the way we can accomplish
the n live new newborn the end which is nirvana
so those
eight steps on the path or
right view right under or right understanding
right thought or right intention or right aspiration
right speech
which includes right listening
right action
right livelihood
and then there is the right effort which pertains to ah the field of the field of medication
so it's a bright effort
in our practice
the right right aware right mindfulness
which is actually a tool that applies to almost all of these and then right meditation or right concentration
can we will go into
all all of these so this
these these eight steps break down into three areas
the first area a lorry talked about this actually ha in her ah in her talk and she had an interesting way of putting it
oops
lori put it as pounds
the first two
right view and right intention are
our attitude
the attitude that we have towards life
the next three

which is right speech
right action and right livelihood are
the area of conduct or moral behavior
and then she said that the third is meditation which is commonly the way it's framed in that that consists of right effort right awareness and right meditation or right concentration
the
again one of our terror avada teachers
talks about the eightfold path as a way to return to integrity
and so you have
attitude is
under another way of expressing prajna or wisdom
in terms of a a physical model
that is the area of our head
ah sheila
which is the
attitude the witches the the expression of code of conduct or morality
is sheila
and that it
that is synonymous with her body
in samadhi
which is technically means concentration ah but more broadly means meditation is the heart
so we have the head the body in the heart has creating the integrity of our whole physical be
so
these are not
these are not stages these steps are not stages but they're all arising and been practiced as appropriate in any given moment
and also they have a circular movement or circular route which supports and amplifies each to each other
i think laurie said this also on saturday that in a sense the first two steps
of
right view and right intention we tried the wisdom steps on this past
are actually the precondition
for morality and the precondition for meditation
and so morality and meditation in turn
further cultivate
her nurtures the ground of wisdom
what's interesting to me as i was thinking about it is week his that
this is resonant with
dogan expression of practice realization
in our in our framing of the xin that we practice coming from dogan
we understand that
we don't practice realization we don't practice ah meditation in order to become enlightened
we practice meditation has an expression of are already enlightened nature
so in this sense
with
with wisdom as the ground in the first two steps as the novel of the of evil bad
ha morality or ethical conduct
and meditation or the expression of the wisdom that we already have so it's really synonymous with duggan's notion of practice enlightenment
so
the other thing i want to say about this before i want to stop and take some some questions but ah
all of these steps of
the eightfold path are
the word right
is attached to them right view right intention
right speech right action right livelihood and so forth
right means
in this in this context right means normal or natural
ha
that's who we are
when our habits and ourself self regarding patterns or set aside
we think and we act from the place of oneness than that is what is what we might think of as right
so as if has with
been thinking about this all of our buddhist
practices all those lists the factors of enlightenment the park beaters the precepts the eightfold path and so forth are
he's they're all in a sense they are virtues
they are expressions of
the enlightened activity of buddhas and bodhisattvas
the natural expression of them
it's right natural normal
and at the same time for those of us who are
somewhat deficient in the realization of our buddha-nature
they are practices
to be cultivated
that lean a that lead to
the realization of our buddha-nature the realization of ourselves as body surface so for a body sought for our buddha the eightfold path is just natural activity
that's what they do they don't have to think about it they just do that for us who are still on the pass
to becoming goody bodhisattvas these are actually practices that we have to cultivate
so i want to stop there and see if you have any thoughts or questions in this tigger take a breath and
please raise your digital hand santa was the stop for a moment address that so please feel free to ask questions

i see a question from kelsey
because gone i am
i am curious if if ray is normal and natural in this context is there are wrong yes
there is a wrong
is that a brunette girl why is that unnatural
it's on natural it
what is it is deluded
wrong is a self centered view
wrong wrong proceeds from the view of
oneself as a self that has an interest
and has a a self concern
an all kinds all of our diluted behavior proceed from that
we'll talk about that a little more but arm yes this is the choices that we have our
quite simply put
the the right
right effort is actually with his flat rate effort is proceeding from valve proceeding from the bodhisattva vow proceeding from the vow to
to wake up and wrong if you will is to allow ourselves to be pulled around or pushed around by our habits and our karma because that makes sense
you know in early buddhism
there's of in early buddhism there's it's very unambiguous
ah something is wholesome or something is unwholesome
and it's just it it's easy to discern that in mahayana buddhism
ah
and i think it you know in sandwiches my bosom it gets a little more complicated because what is in what is a wholesome
intention on a conscious level
if we are not bodhisattvas or buddhists may actually have
elements of the outcome that are that are unwholesome
ah and so this is this is something that we can i think we can talk about an investigate further but i think you find ah
generally my sense is that early buddhism is
quite unambiguous
and my on buddhism ah looks to it it still is there's clear it's clear about what's right and what's wrong but it's not clear about what's right and what's wrong in every situation because those situations than themselves
elves highly condition
zomig sense
yeah i think it's bringing up for me sort of what is actually a self centered action
thinking about like am i doing this to take care of may south
in a non selfish way or am i doing this to take care of myself into their a self serving way or if you know something like that
why think that this calls for us to really scrutinize our thoughts and our actions very closely which is actually the heart of the practice
and
another way to
examine or explore this is too
ask our friends and teachers
you know we are capable because we are karmic beings we are capable of deluding ourselves
and that's why we have good dharma friends and teachers to ah to reflect what something looks like
good thank you john
i i i think that you i have added the same question and you may have covered it but i got a little distracted was trying to compose my question and and so that the word natural always kind of throws me off because it all
this raises a red flag when i see it on foods and that led you know you can see pants from the the forties back in the old days you know natural food and it was and i think and i was intentionally deceptive
it seems that way so i i just got a little thrown off and and what is natural
you know and i think it does tie in to
there's something about you know our actions self center or in are we tried to take care of ourselves or we you know i'm recognizing something and ourselves that's not quite right and so we're paying a lot of attention to ourselves so maybe can just touch on the word natural just a
little red eyes
well i'm i didn't say organic ah
ah
natural
to me implies well to go back
it's interesting in
the context of christianity which most of us have in our background whether we're christian or not believe growing up in this country we have the note that we have the notion of a
original sin
right
i think that buddhism has the notion of original enlightenment that is what is natural
what is natural is that
the way of being that is not
conditioned by karma
so on and i'm gonna get into that in the next actually the exception ah but that's that's what i'm using as ah as a as a rough guide to to natural and have okay
yeah joe
hello yes sir i was get like the emotional sadaqah
which is what are right in his righteousness from to represent her from jewish treasure yes okay i thought that's what i thought that's what the reference was on
perhaps so
perhaps out hum

i get tangled up myself coming from a jewish background ah
i have all kinds of karmic formations about that so but i think that there is
there's certainly the notion of what is wholesome and what is unwholesome that is very clearly defined in it actually all of it all of the traditions of the of the book
ah and there is probably some this residence there
ah so ah
maybe i should leave it there
sergei
okay anything else before i proceed any other questions or thoughts

so there are
the past two marga
has
two dimensions
which is really
ah
it away it's a reference to the to the two truths in buddhism
there's the mundane truth
there's a mundane path
and there's the supra mundane truth or the top
so this is conventional and there is transcendent there's a
mundane super monday
and the know the for eight no need for path can be seen
in
each of those contexts
so the mundane path
is actually
what we are following
when we try to
really a ten to the circumstances of our life
and what i like about the eightfold path and with this the a full path is the path to
the cessation of duca it's the past through nevada
but if you look at it talking about your view to saw
your speech your your have your action your livelihood which your job your
your effort in the various aspects of your meditation this is the picture of a whole life
so in the mundane dimension of the past
it's
a question of laying out standards for how each of us lives
this actually mirrored
it's really mirrored in the zen tradition in a wonderful way
because in the same tradition
we have our medication
we cook for ourselves we serve for each other we have worked period
we return to meditation we have elements of everyday life that are
embedded in the form of our practice day
and monastic practice is exactly like that you go from one of these activities to another without really distinguishing one one is not higher than the other
cooking serving
work period or
also expressions of right effort
right mindfulness and right concentration
they are also the taste of the food
that the tensile cooks the way it is served in cure play the way somebody
cut the grass or paints or paints the house are
also expressions of their wisdom of their view and their intention
and so this is to me what is wonderful about the practice that we have is a completely expressive have the entire a full bath
and
it's different than say going on a meditation retreat where you where you're just you're really ensconced in meditation
ended there's a staff that serves you well that cooks that cooks the food and serves you and is no war period because the staff is actually doing the work this is a very different i don't mean to be critical but this is a very different
modality of practice then ha
what i think we find
in in our tradition and i did you find it in other traditions as well
so this is
the mundane pad
he is
what happens when we try to clarify
our discipline
clarify the practices that we do
which developed concentration and arouse day to day insight
whether this is in are walking around lives or in our ah in session or retreat
mundane doesn't necessarily mean worldly
ah in other words it's not of the cultivating the mundane for path is not
a road to
wealth or fame
or worldly success
the mundane pass actually is
a necessary pass on the way to enlightenment
and in fact we actually have to practice the mundane path
before we reached the super mundane path
ah
and
i think we will come to what the distinction is but in the mundane pair it means that you are still we are still seeing conditioned things
we're seeing things
we've seen other people as things are objects as things and so forth were seen conditioned things
and we are working with them has the substance of our
lives as the substance of our practice
the supra mundane past
is
the direct directly seen
the reality of conditioning
it's not looking at the conditioning the conditioned object but it seems that everything we look at his subject to conditions and when we see that conditionality
we are actually by seeing seen that conditionality we are we are having a glimpse of new bar
you have to cultivate the mundane before you can have the insight into the super monday
and in fact
one of the problems that can occur to someone in meditation is having
a glimpse of
conditionality of the universal nature of conditionality without having the grounding
in the monday was having without having reached it by that by that past
ah
so
when we practice the mundane path our understanding gets deeper and deeper
and sometimes when we when we
have done that for a long time then we have a glimpse ah a radical shift in perspective where we're seeing the nature of conditionality itself
this is this is a kind of spiritual maturity
ha
and
when the mind turns to this way of looking at all that we see
then
we are free from were when we see conditionality then we're not free from conditionality but we're free within conditionality

so let me stop there for a moment and and see if this ah provokes you in any way
evidently us here's ross
he is a good evening and would set me to be
reality i'm sorry a you broke up what does it mean to you to be free within conditionality we see it but were free from it as opposed to being can abound are trapped or hooked
i think it means we are freire to make
choices that are in alignment with our vow to awaken with all beings
otherwise short of that we're still gonna be pulled by these subtle or not so subtle ah
tugs of our habits and what we perceive as there's herself
so it sounds like the decisions or choice we make are still conditioned which is a different quality to the relationship is that we realize and gonna new world of unconditioned well
i can't really say because i'm not there
ah but my understanding is that
we've constantly turning towards the unconditioned
we're turning say when we're when we're when we take the bodhisattva vow to awaken with all beings were awakening with all beings because we see that all beings are ourselves that there is no separation between you and me and so ah to work for
for
that benefit the benefit of all beings is
to work for my own liberation and your elaboration
oh so it sounds like we we practice the ordinary and then there's a realization that it's actually extraordinary
that's that is what that's what the traditional teaching the say yes how can it is what it's saying and hum
i think that

in the zen tradition you know you've been studying dogan for long time
ah in the zen tradition what he's but i but i feel like dogan is saying and others are saying is that
the transcendent the super mundane is there all the time who it's everywhere and even in
it's it's there even in what we see as condition but we see it as conditioned because it's very hard to get free from our mind that sees this as condition and gender exactly yeah so that's yoga chara teaching yoga char teaching is that
everything that we see is
a function of our perception
right arm and yet it's also saying there's something there's something beneath or beyond that that we can get a glimpse of are within that like used to have the right reddit great the amateurism thank you judy
my son hi everybody i
i i realize i'm getting sort of lost in the sauce of language especially the these terms of the the mundane and as the super monday in which it is that and always land kind of abstract for me and i realized that where it's it's it's
landing in my body you know in my heart space is just a reflecting on our our recent council practice and they incredible intimacy and warmth
they came forth and people sharing just two minutes each on what was alive for them in the moment and how a corporatist spectrum of experience from
because the whole range of human emotion and loss and joy and you noticed everything and that from that somehow what emerged
as a collective seem like shared recognition shared intimacy and you know love and how important that is to me that i really felt sanga is something very real and alive and so i'm wondering if there's a
way to speak to this one day and super mundane air conditioning that any of that stuff that language thing that speaks to intimacy
and relationship like how do we really practice with this well i don't think there's really a distinction there between mundane and super monday bed
if we look at when we go through the eightfold path which were just about to do on when we talk about conduct
which is of course
influenced it it's conduct is the expression of our wisdom
ah conduct is also what grows out of hopefully what grows out of our meditation conduct is completely about relationship
don't write speech is about relationship right action is about relationship right livelihood is about relationship these are the manifestations of our our connection and our love
ah and they exist on the mundane and so-called the super mundane level and this is for me t-shirt
these are themselves provisional descriptions for you're not absolute descriptions i mean of course in the zen tradition we we is two steps and stages
what i'm giving you is an overview of of a traditional perspective and we have to figure out how that manifests in our in our practice but it is about love
it's about connection and i would say ah as it's kelsey kelsey was asked him you know if there's wholesome is your own wholesome
and i think it's a very simple distinction
wholesome
is about the cultivation of connection
an unwholesome is about ah
the activity of division
and that is a had a simple framework but so far it's worked for me
so on
i want to go into each one of these oh there's another gary has a question

hey
would you would you say that like during session when i'm kind of the bottom drops out that you know periodically that happens once in awhile
would you call back to a superman bay vs yeah it's a glimpse of the super monday okay to agra mundane yes yes okay it's if you know i think that
at the risk of
cliche or oversimplification
when that happens
we feel
we experience
oneness
it's not that we think about it it's not that we have an idea about it we're actually just
at one
where is
all that we are all that
we experience
so that that's one way and that can be
that can be a large cataclysmic experience it can also be a a a very quiet subtle experience and the thing is if we're really tune into ourselves if we we do as we actually take our practice
from the meditation all into the world
and our practice being
really looking at looking at our minds
then we might see that act that these experiences are not so unusual
so that's what i would say
job
no thank you herself
with the supra the super monday
like you said the superman day path but so far i'm not clear about the path this is the super day on it seems like you say to be wrong he saw the world doesn't include a if that makes sense like i am hearing
specific times where we have a sense of that we the bottom is fallen out like a session
a maybe i'm getting hung up on the idea of paths i think more yeah
i'm looking for some fuel and second yeah

these are not steps they appeared there aspects their facets of
so depending on what you're looking at you may see one
as better one component or another
ah they're not they're not steps that allah
that are going step by step toward something yeah
for the aspects that it would seem like so the promote monday appear in all like in the library book there it is
livelihood context and there would be or urine on the were you're speaking and something
open saw for me that's harder for me to imagine on because a pc for me dimension pm that happens what happens when you were mellors someone like just says this thing and when anyone yeah
the so it's like
the month the cyber monday and manifests in all these aspects
ha
yes okay look at that helps that helps l of these aspects are manifestations of
at that point their manifestations of gabbana their manifestations of
an ansel on self centered be
okay okay i want to buy you on if that's okay
ha and go through
the
the full path
so by the way i want to say i think that you know there's an it
in the ticknor handbook ah it's
it's kind of extended goes on for a number of chapters and very good
there's really good good material there ha and
the best i can do is to allude to it and you can you should read it i think ah
so
right view
right understanding
is the true foundation
in a sense it's the right view of the other stages of the path
in other contexts the right view is the view of
nirvana
ah
in one of dogan also talks about it is review is looking at the nature of impermanence
i'm so it's not something that one
reads in a book
without right view
everything is really cloudy or on clear
it's also right view is not a particular view
what the way i've come to see it is
right view is

it can be a view of what is right in front of you and that can be near or far
according to the demands of the circumstance right right now my right few my right views expressed in my view of the screen and my scene of you
i'm at another time
my right right view for me might be
looking at what is happening in me and
look at what is happening in israel palestine
to recognize that that is that is also my world
and i have responsibility to it and for it so right view is not a is not a fixed set a fixed focal nice if that makes sense
there's all kinds of
formulations are a few one is that are
right view is the recognition at one per a person is the owner of their karma
that nobody else owns your activities but you do
and what you do in the world
what effect that has is dependent upon your activities
another way is that is to see that
is to look at right view as the view of the four noble truths
that everything is subject to arising and said everything is subject to cc

not harm talks about bad you
when you look at a piece of paper
right view his view that sees
the tree the sun the soil the rain
the paper mill the paper mill
worker
the person behind the counter read office depot
that right view is seen the entirety
of the
amazingly complex reality that puts that puts this piece of paper in front of
and when you look at a piece of paper right view is to see all of that conditionality

you also might say that right view is seeing that in our
usual world
there is no single right view
that my right view of something
is different than say
bronze or karen's or stands
you know that we see things differently and we don't even know exactly how differently b c things
but that our view
is
base is also conditioned on our karma
and that it's not a
an accurate
flawless
mental representation of whatever is it were in-country

right view you could also say did not hunt says that
ah we look at the cause of suffering
and
until we have right view
when we lot when we look at the cause of suffering we tend to blame others for our unhappiness
that's a tough one
because our world is completely interactive
and often when am even i hear myself when i say that the yes but
a ticket on house perspective his arm
very tough minded
so again this comes back to owning one's own karma when you own your until you own until one owned ones karma
one doesn't have the ability to change one's arm
and the reality of
the buddhist notion of karma which different than other say notions of carmel in indian religion is that ah karma is not fixed
karma can be transformed
and so another way of looking at right view is that
it's the potentiality
of change
and of our agency in that change according to our vow

so right thought or right
intention
is
comes from right view
so it is right a right intention is the intention to be free
and i would say it to be free
on
you're in the mundane dimension it to be free from the shackles of our society are the conditions that we've been subject to
by virtue of birth by virtue of
language skin color gender etc
hum
it's the bee's it's
linda the in a super mundane it's to be free and ultimately an intern linda in the early buddhist tradition is to be free from the cycle of birth and deaths
ah
right intention is also
connected to
renunciation
i'm announcing of
self gratification
of our of our
attachments
and the flip side of that of renunciation is right view is the view of generosity
of giving what we can to people
with respect to what they need
right view is
blogging kindness
it's compassion
and in the my and condition it is
the for vous
the bodhisattva vows or right view
and to raise those vows right view is to raise bodhicitta the raise
the mind that wishes for the awakening and are latent of all beings
which include ourselves
so those are the first to those has a the wisdom aspects of the bat we move onto the the conduct section which is right speech right action and right livelihood i know a lot of you have had
les ordination
ah some of you not yet i wonder how many if you have had ordination never read a long paragraph that's at the bottom of your kitchen jaco
ah good to take it out and read it
so one of those sections in my country morocco
says
the monk or you sajjan guy oh show in the inner room of vincent van zandt shinji which is at tassajara affirmed and revealed to me
on khushi key that the perceptual vein of the buddha is the one great causal condition of our lineage gate
in other words
the element of conduct the element of the precepts
is the essential aspect of our
lineage you can put that in two ways one way you could say
if we're not acting in alignment with wholesome con with wholesome conduct then we are not manifesting
right view and right intention were not an manifesting wisdom and then you can turn it on its head and say
if we are not embody and wisdom
then we're not going to be capable of the manifestation of right conduct
sides it's a beautiful line that the perceptual vein the precepts will vein of the buddha is the one great causal condition of our lineage gate
so the first of these three the the third novel truth is right speech
which is
put first in this
oh
in this section on conduct because
ah often speech leads are thought and are action
and also because as we may have noticed it has the greatest potential
for
wide ranging harm
ah so right speech means not lying
not slandering or tail telling not been rude or indulging in harsh speech or idle talk and again to come back to what i
was seen to judy
ah
right speech
means words that unite and connect us rather than words that divide us
and one thing that i like about
ah ticknor hands
ah teachings is that the flip side of right speech with the nessus another necessary element is listening
instead of speaking
when we're not speaking we should be listening and i think that the ratio of speaking to listening
ah
should favor listening hold onto a very poor job of it tonight because i'm supposed to speak ah
but listening this is what this is what the practice of council
he's about
ah it's mostly listening if you have twenty people there's
you're gonna listen to nineteen of them
can you are going to speak once
ah so the percentage of listening to speaking is are very high
the force
of the eightfold path is right action
and this covers a number of the
of the sixth of the of the ten body sought for precepts
ah but it mean read action means promoting wholesome an honorable conduct
it includes
the form includes at least for precepts in improve any includes the precept of not killing
not stealing
not using intoxicants
and not misusing sexuality
and again i would say
right action means bringing people together
creating harmony creating community
as opposed to creating dissension
the fifth novel truth
he's right livelihood
which means livelihood that sustains other beings
and
doesn't bring harm to them
so very particularly what spelled out is not making or selling weapons
not selling intoxicants her drugs
not gambling or promoting gambling
not being a butcher and so forth ah that's right livelihood and ah it's
i think it's a delicate question these days because there are many things that we do that are just a job ah
ha
hamburg the discussion era engaged buddhist seminar where
the presenter was talking about bringing mindfulness to
the offices of nike
ah sneaker company
and he was he went on and on and tested the question came up with got very short shrift in response was
mindfulness been offered to the factory workers and the philippines
and also
is it right livelihood to be making sneakers that cost a hundred and fifty dollars
this is a very this is a difficult question some places it some things are really clearly let right livelihood but somethings are are quite ambiguous and we have to figure this out
can know she told a story wants a bad having a a student who
was really gung-ho present practice and are
he owned a liquor store
and he said both how should i think about this
unique and what she said well in a year
most likely either you will sell liquor store or you will stop practicing
and
know he ended up not continue his practice that's kind of anecdotal
but i think that in our world the question of right livelihood is one that we have to examine really closely it's a murky question
but it's still quite relevant
i'm aware of the time ah the sixth
step on a footpath is right effort or diligence
this simply means
not so simply avoiding the unwholesome and cultivating the wholesome
and if you can figure out what does are by yourself great if you can't didn't get help in
contemplating them ah
right effort also means mean someone was speaking me with me today ah about
what should they be doing his practice
and i really take to me right effort is sojourn she spoke to this and said right effort is just
to set an intention and keep it
so if your intention is if you say i've been set a period of in on tuesday april eighteenth
if you keep it that intention that is right effort
if you don't then that's not right effort
so we keep our practice read effort means ah setting an intention a realistic intention and keeping it and that's an intention of practice that's also an intention of how we how we manifest or conduct in the world
how we how we
have we provide our livelihood
all of that is a matter of
right every diligence
the chapter on bright the seventh on right mindfulness is the richest i think in kichler hands book here i'm not even gonna go into it ah it's billy excellent and detailed when for kicked out on what he does is he takes right mindfulness
and he has it has a bridge he he puts it up to the third step on the past
because he feels that right mindfulness is the bridge
between wisdom
and those aspects of conduct and meditation and i think that makes a lot of sense
any in that chapter he outlines
he goes into ah the i think it's the seven miracles of mindfulness which is written a whole book about had also goes into the four foundations of mindfulness mindfulness of the body
ah mindfulness of the feelings mindfulness of thoughts and mindfulness of the dharmas and i think that it's important to recognize when we talk about mindfulness sometimes we really dumb it down
to think of it as just
being in the present
but it's been in the present in our body
it's being in the present in our feelings which are in buddhist terms of feeling to very simple they're just bear perceptions of what's pleasant unpleasant or neutral
being
in mindfulness in my full awareness of our thoughts which are i thought formations what stories are we tell him what what are we making up about
built on our perceptions what narratives a recreating about our lives
and what they mean what interpretations
and then the fourth foundation of mindfulness is mindfulness of the dormice which is a highly active practice it's not just being in the present moment it's actually applying its applying the eightfold path to what we pay
receive it's applying the power meters has practices are supplying the factors of enlightenment so it's applying his dormice systems it's like putting lenses are in your glasses and looking at the world through those lenses
ah which means actually affecting and changing our perception
and the final the eighth step on the eightfold path is
right
concentration or right meditation
and
what's interesting it did not have talked about this as one point goodness
but he also
explains that the chinese character
for
ah
concentration
he is
has the implication of evenness
so of of balance of having a very even way of meeting one's mind and i like that a loss because we can mistake concentration for something very intense
and the notion of concentration as evenness clara
takes the edge of accomplishment away
so concentration or made it his guitar meditation and our meditation of course involved
it involves effort involves or her sitting upright ah which is effortful and involves mindfulness
mindfulness is
another translation of the word mindfulness the correct translation smirky or saki means remembering
since remembering where we are
and within our medication that's a constant effort that we are making
so those are with gone through
the full past year ah
there's more that i could say but i'm going to stop because we're almost at a time ha
can't leave the last minutes for for questions and comments ah
ross i see your end up logan was on take you i have a question about right livelihood yeah
as you explained it sounded like for me that vv seems habit an office manager are involved are engaged in right livelihood because there are supporting a practice for awakening in our fargo
and it seemed to have i look at the screen i'm wondering who will have a glass of wine at dinner drink a beer have a bottle of scotch for warming up in cold days for like that and are supporting liquor store owners or wine shops or what have you how
do we reconcile that as right or wrong
wholesome or unwholesome
the other question about the you know the practice place like have a most people are engaged in working in a other places yeah
i think it's good to leave that as an open question
i'm so long as
i'm gonna have a glass of wine
ah it's a little hard for me to take a high moral stand towards the towards the person who's selling me the wine
ah
you know i'm again i'm giving you the traditional yeah interpretation here and ah
i have a glass of wine or i'll have a glass of bourbon ah i'm not doing that to intoxicate myself but
i still have questions about doing it or not doing it that's okay for yourself but not the prevailed from my thought that the death very different to bring it back to me right yeah yeah or oneself thank you he has offered her shirt
that's where i have to i think that's where i have to start you know if
if i'm saying that selling alcohol is not right livelihood
and i'm drinking alcohol or eating a hamburger then there's a disconnect right and ah
yeah as you said if it should be with exerts telling duty is something as including for your included with the liquor seller or the hamburger purveyor right and not separating from it yeah right
get you thank you so much yeah other questions or thoughts

so it's a little bit like drinking from a firehose here tonight but ah i hope you'll excuse me you can always go back and listen arm yeah so we we do have a couple minutes and if anyone has something to to ask or
to put forward please

sue
this has been a real journey on i didn't get through all that noble eightfold path in the book because it's so much material and i actually haven't read this book before
oh so wanna thank you for giving us how working on your presentation and i thank you very much it's
then quite a journey
thank you and i look forward to future classes and think it's a very good book and dog yeah the saturday class is gonna be on know
the three marks of existence to for marks of existence ah however you want to contemplate it are and we're going to unpack that
it's not so complicated that is as complex as lists but it's it's important
anyone else
ah mary beth
and not didn't know god
what
mary beth and in carol and kelsey and then probably have to end this is just a quick question i wasn't sure what the three marks of existence wherein the book is at the same as the three dorm seals yes thank you yes is the three domiciles skill
hum
i will refrain from saving cow
do we have lots of lists in vienna in our practice soils and some of them overlap yet again and in so many ain't no i'll read about these are the most important that was something back on her of that machine but
is the way
cross over to the show or audacious if you want in your life and
what how what do you lose what do you think is the most important
of all these lists to willing
can
it seems like it's hard to follow
how are the study amount of really like when you
body and mind and everything
do you have what the ice yes i always return to the four noble truths
which of course includes the a four bed four noble truths are really my touchstone and because i can because i can use them
in the context of looking at meditation and i can use i use them as an analytical tool for
ah the circumstances that are problematic you know you can use them to look at social questions you can use and look at questions in your family or questions at work out what is the suffering watch hurting right now or what feels out of balance what's the cause or the
causes of it and look very widely and those causes what would it look like for them to and what would what would them what would the appearance of harmony or ah
ah peace look like and how do you get there and so that applies to us as individuals in the context of our meditation practice but it also applies to communities that applies to nations he replies to ah
work situation so i go back to the affordable choose because as the first thing that the buddha taught
and so that's that's like the point of departure to me
and it's common to every traditional buddhism that i know
ah all the rest the rest is commentary
the last question kelsey
i think i kind of
answered this question myself that i'll put it out there which with right livelihood
i was kind of feeling
i feel there's like a judgment of other people's livelihoods that comes up and then i started thinking well maybe there's the judgment of every single one of these carts the tax and that's not really what we're concerned with is if someone else has right you are right understand or right livelihood for can
learned about do we have right view right livelihood
yeah so this is actually a spin off of your earlier question
right
ah and what i will say and is something that
i discussed with with bhikkhu bodhi ah the you might know of him method
a really significant translator and scholar ah and what would he said was early buddhism recalls terroir buddhism ah
there was no ambiguity something was wholesome or unwholesome who's quite binary
ah
i don't think we see the world quite that way
and yet we still have to decide
i i'm much more interested in the question in in what i was saying to to judy what connects and binds us and what divides us and the problem there is sometimes
the same thing might connect some people and divide others we have to we have to we have to decide what to do and live with the consequences so it's not so binary
i think you're right that the wake even by the the formulation of the application of the were right
there's this implication of this ah binary nature so we have to figure out what right means for us that's the best we can do and the fact is we have a community so we can check this
we can check out our perception with our
good friends and teachers
and that means we're not left to our own devices just simply to figure something out but actually
share and the were deliberate and do our best
that's the best i can offer so