The Eightfold Path – A way of Life

A reflection on practice by Annie Nugent

There is a story told of a wandering ascetic on a journey in search of the Buddha to receive the teachings on freedom from suffering. Not finding him, he comes to a resting place one evening and stays the night at a lodge. As it happened, the Buddha was staying at the same place but because the ascetic didn’t recognize the Buddha, the next morning he left to continue his search. He missed meeting the Buddha who was right there! This is a compassion evoking story – to be so near, yet so far from the path to freedom.

If the question is: how do I live in the world without suffering? The answer is: by means of the Eightfold Path. It is the path to freedom, and a way of living wisely and compassionately in the world.

Thus we can see this story as being about the Eightfold path, in as much as it too is right here under our noses. But when we don’t know how to look or what to look for, we don’t see it and therefore don’t engage the path, thus perpetuating suffering.

The eight steps on the path are: Wise understanding, wise intention, wise speech, wise action, wise livelihood, wise effort, wise mindfulness and wise concentration.

In a nutshell it is about wisely understanding that our thoughts, actions and speech matter. To live in the world in this way takes not being reactive to the events and circumstances of the world, but repeatedly meeting the moment with mindful discernment. Of course, we do get seduced by the world and make mistakes since we are still learning, but that’s not what’s important – it is the willingness to begin again and again. With time we experience less suffering in our lives and greater compassion for the world we live in, because we see it with eyes of wisdom.  This tells us that we really are living the Eightfold path.  We could say that we have recognized the Buddha!