The place of meditation in the Noble Eightfold Path

In the Noble Eightfold Path, meditation belongs to Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration, which stand last on the route of practice towards liberation according to the Buddha's Dharma; that is, quite high. However, nothing high up stands without being held up by things lower down. Therefore, the foundation of meditation is precisely the other factors of the Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood and Right Effort.

For the practice of meditation to be firm, the practitioner must practise the factors above thoroughly, over a long time, and abundantly. Right Action is understood as accumulating merit. The practitioner must create very great merit before they can easily gather the mind into concentration. It is precisely because they have not grasped how meditation relates to the Eightfold Path that many people have maintained that to practise meditation you must stay quietly at rest and do nothing, so as to avoid being preoccupied. In truth, the more one is occupied with doing good, the more easily one can gather the mind.

In the Eightfold Path, only Right View is learned; all the other factors are practised. In the past, Buddhist schools leaned towards study. Today the senior elders have begun to be aware of practice. Even while still at school, monks and nuns in training must be given the chance to practise what they have learned, to strengthen their religious conduct. Drawing on the experience of many earlier periods, when practice was lacking, monks and nuns leaving school were unable to do much for Buddhist work.

1. Right View

Right View is correct understanding of the Dharma and of the meaning of life. Within Right View, the law of karmic cause and effect is regarded as an important foundation. When we have a deep understanding of the law of cause and effect, we know how to restrain and control ourselves in every thought and action, and this contributes to perfecting personal morality.

Right View is also a clear orientation towards liberation, so that when we practise meditation we do not stray towards other, petty aims.

Right View also helps us to fix the goal of non-self for meditative concentration, so that our ego does not grow when there are signs of progress in practice.

Right View is like a map that marks out the road to enlightenment. If the map is wrong (wrong view), we cannot reach the goal of enlightenment however hard we practise. To have Right View, we must study the teachings. However, the forest of teachings is vast and, over many thousands of years, has truly been mixed with additions and embellishments. If we do not have good affinity and the Buddha's protection, we will not learn teachings that are accurate and correctly oriented; sometimes we will learn only the skewed views of certain individuals or of some particular school. From the very beginning of studying the teachings, we must be extremely careful and must know to ask for the Buddha's protection.

2. Right Thought

The first step in the practice of meditative concentration is always the work of purifying the inner mind until it is wholly wholesome. For a very long time, our mind has been a mixture of wholesome and unwholesome thoughts, right and wrong, correct and false. There is never a pure inner mind while evil thoughts still exist. One must go through an entire process of purifying thought until it is wholly wholesome, and only then will purity appear. The practitioner must be strict in evaluating their own thoughts frequently. We cannot yet stop thoughts, but as each thought passes, we must immediately assess whether it was wholesome or unwholesome, right or wrong. If it was a wrong thought, we must quietly repent at once. In time, taking one step further, we will give rise only to good thoughts. When the mind is wholly wholesome, the remaining problem is to resolve the matter of stillness and agitation.

Unwholesome thoughts always stir up agitation; conversely, wholesome thoughts always keep the mind on the side of calm. Therefore, Right Thought and Right Mindfulness are closely connected.

3. Right Speech

Applying meditation to speech means that the practitioner must always be able to control a sentence before it is uttered. At first the practitioner trains in weighing their words in the following five respects:

• Whether what is about to be said is right or wrong according to the Dharma.

• Whether what is about to be said should be said or not.

• Whether these people are suitable to hear it.

• Whether one is speaking in a peaceful state of mind or in an afflicted one.

• Whether it would do any harm if these things were spread widely.

At first, when we begin to practise, we will find it somewhat slow; over time, the wisdom of careful scrutiny increases quickly, and when it becomes second nature, every word carries maturity and depth. The alertness that examines the matter, and examines the inner mind, while speaking is also a form of meditation.

4. Right Action

Right Action means doing meritorious deeds, creating merit. In the work of meditative concentration, method or technique is only the surface. It is the merit from countless wholesome deeds that is the important factor quietly governing and helping us to gather the mind into stillness. Without merit, no one can gather the mind into concentration.

When we do good, our wholesome mind is strengthened more firmly than by merely thinking about good. A firm wholesome mind also means that concentration appears more readily. This is a psychological process that works according to a definite principle.

Next, when we help everyone to be happy and at ease, we sow good causes of happiness and ease for ourselves. Adding together countless such joys, we will have an inner mind that is settled and still.

From these principles of psychology and cause and effect, we must spend a whole life diligently doing good to support the work of meditative concentration. To think that practising meditation means not doing good or evil is simply a misunderstanding.

5. Right Livelihood

Right Livelihood is a means of living, an occupation, a gentle and honest way of supporting oneself. A lay person has countless occupations to choose from, so long as they both earn money and do not create bad karma. Lay people are encouraged to become wealthy so that they have money to do meritorious deeds. Lay Buddhists must also know how to help one another in their livelihoods.

Monastics, on the other hand, live almost entirely on the help and offerings of lay people. When they accept such help from lay people, 50% of the merit of their practice must be returned to the donor. Thus, those who have left the home life must practise meditative concentration very diligently and with very high quality, so that they have surplus merit left to accumulate for themselves.

6. Right Effort

Right Effort is the extreme determination that must be forged before entering the practice of meditative concentration, because the work of meditative concentration is extremely difficult, complex, painstaking and arduous. Many people follow Buddhism but cannot keep up with the path of meditative concentration for this reason. But without deep power of concentration, one cannot overcome attachment to self and attain liberation.

However, Right Effort does not encourage recklessness. The person who practises meditation must be clear-headed and know when to make an effort and when to step back and prepare further.

Question: Describe the difficulties encountered when sitting in meditation, and state how to overcome them.