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The Buddha’s Program for

Psychological/ Emotional and Social
Transformation- The Eight Factor
Path
Rodger R Ricketts, Psy.D.

The Buddha's Teachings: Seeing Without Illusion 2nd Revised ed. edition,

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murali n
 The Buddha’s Program for Psychological/ Emotional and Social Transformation- The Eight
Factor Path By Rodger R. Ricketts, Psy.D. As a chaper in the book, The Buddha’s Teachings: Seeing
Without Illusion. Copyright Rodger Ricketts, 2014. All rights reserved. Protected by international
copyright conventions. No part of this article may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever,or
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, without express permission of the Author-publisher,
except in case of brief quotations with due acknowledgement. Published through Calistro Green &
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The Buddha’s Program for Psychological/ Emotional and Social

Transformation- The Eight Factor Path
‘As an ocean deepens gradually, declines gradually, shelves gradually
without sudden precipices, so in this law and discipline there is a gradual
training, a gradual action, a gradual unfolding, and no sudden apprehension
of supreme knowledge.’
Anguttara Nikaya 8.19

‘The best of paths is the Eightfold Path...This is the only Way. There is
none other, for the purity of vision’
Dhammapāda verses 273 and 274

Psychological Transformations

The Buddha was very clear that Nibbāna was the goal of following the Eight-
factor Path. Based on his own experience, he set out quite clear and effective
guidelines and instructions to help us reach this goal. The Eight-factor Path,
ultimately, is an experiential practice of psychological transformation and not
only the acquisition of theoretical knowledge. It is through introspection,
reflection, insight, and compassion that we have a lasting and profound
psychological transformation of mind and reach the goal of Enlightenment.
The Eight-factor Path or Middle Way transforms and purifies our minds
through the training of compassion, concentration, and insight. Even though
enlightenment is not often thought of as a process of attainment, the Buddha
clearly taught that the Middle Way is a graduated path towards the
achievement of Nibbāna. Or, as Bhikkhu Bodhi stated, ‘The Buddha presents
his teaching in the form of a gradual training. Buddhist discipline involves
gradual practice and gradual attainment. It does not burst into completeness at
a stroke, but like a tree or any other living organism, it unfolds organically, as a
sequence of stages in which each stage rests upon its predecessor as its
indispensable foundation and gives rise to its successor as its natural
consequent.’1 Indeed, at the highest level of the Buddhist discipline, the eight
factors of the Path function simultaneously. This training can be accomplished
within a person’s lifetime of day-to-day practice and more intensive periods of
practice at a temple or retreat center removed from the demands and
distractions of daily life.
The Middle Way is a practical and gradual training; it is not mystical or
metaphysical. It is Bhavana (mental culture or mental development) which
aims through gradual psychological transformation or purification to cultivate
qualities as concentration, awareness, volition, energy, confidence, happiness,
tranquility, leading to the attainment of the highest wisdom – nibbana – here
and now, in this lifetime. In fact, Awakening is the psychological insight and
understanding of emptiness, the unfettered experience without the subject-
object dualistic interlude between the experience of the world, free from the
‘self’ concept. Therefore, since the Eight-factor Path is a prescription showing
us how to achieve this experience of Awakening, we need to clearly understand
the process.

Nibbāna as Goal

There is a goal set by the Buddha; do not be dissuaded from this truth. The
goal is Nibbāna.
As with every goal we start toward accomplishing, we need an orientation as
to what to do and how to achieve a particular goal. We need an orientation
that sets us off in the correct direction, and the Buddha confirms that when he
says at the beginning of the Eight-factor Path we need to have the Right View
or Right Perspective. The Right View is understanding the framework of the
Buddha’s teachings: the Four Noble Truths. The Four Noble Truths give us the
orientation, the context of the practice, and ultimately the focus to achieve the
goal of Enlightenment.
Another aspect of the attainment of any goal is that we begin our project
with the more rudimentary aspects and then move on to more refined,
complicated, and complex skills for the accomplishment of the goal. In the
Middle Way, after Right View comes virtuous conduct and thinking: Right
Speech, Right Action, and Right Thought, or sīla. Then, later, we practice the
subtle, evolving meditations.
The Middle Way: Askesis

The Eight-factor Path is a life lived between extreme self-denial and sensual
self-indulgence, a life in which the mind is cultivated and purified based on
bhavana or mind training to reach the goal of Nibbāna. It is a total spiritual
discipline involving the mind and the body, for without a healthy body the
mind is adversely affected. Through the practice of the Eight-factor Path, the
Buddha provided all the necessary practical and rational guidance needed for
us to gain peace, happiness, and release from samsara.
To reach this pragmatic goal of Awakening, an approach to living is needed
that is like the original meaning of the ancient word askesis. For the ancient
Greeks, the very broad meaning of askesis was practical physical training; later,
for the Romans, it related also to the mental discipline which is required for
any rigorous training. Finally, the ideal of askesis came to include attaining
wisdom or mental powers by developing and training the mental facilities. It
became connected with both knowledge and practice as well as the necessary
amount of self-abnegation that a person undergoes to obtain the skills and
mastery to reach various types of goals, whether they be physical, academic,
spiritual, or otherwise.
In fact, for the attainment of the goal of the Eight-factor Path, skilful
application is required in its practice and training in our daily life. Our
improved mental clarity is acquired through effort and consistent disciplined
training, or askesis. However, while we may think that this training is only
accomplished through formal meditation or practice, this isn’t the case. Many
of our everyday experiences provide ample and important practice for our
training. An example of how our practice can be accomplished through our
everyday living was given by the Buddha when he said: “The most excellent of
ascetic practices is the practice of forbearance.” By this he meant that not only
in our formal meditation but also in our ordinary daily lives, we are given many
opportunities to apply mental training when we are patient and forbearing
through the often ordinary, troubling, and difficult relationships and situations
that arise in life; this is also a form of askesis training. Persistence, equanimity,
and right effort are needed to work through these kinds of obstacles, which will
appear every day while following the Path. Our everyday exasperations are
often described as ‘teachers’ for the practioner; we should be grateful for them
and learn from them. As Bhante Henepola Gunaratana recommended:
‘View all problems as challenges.
Look upon negativities that arise as
opportunities to learn and to grow.
Don’t run from them, condemn
yourself, or bury your burden in saintly silence.
You have a problem?
Great.
More grist for the mill. Rejoice, dive in, and investigate.’2

The Eight-Factor Path as a Psychological Program

Askesis is a training deeply embedded in one’s life. Buddhist askesis is a life of

mental development lived daily. The Buddha outlined the necessary
discipline of training that weaves a lengthy line of progressively pure mental
states leading onward to the goal of Nibbāna. The Eight-factor Path is a model
for action and a superb prescription to change our patterns of thoughts – and,
hence, emotions and behaviors – and develop new insights, understandings,
and wisdom. Actually, the Buddha’s Eight-factor Path is quite similar to what
one sees now in contemporary literature in goal accomplishment.
To better comprehend Buddhist askesis, let us hypothetically begin to
proceed toward achievement of the goal of the Eight-factor Path. Firstly,
spiritual searches are often initiated to alleviate personal malaise when there is
a realization that our suffering needs attention and a remedy or a spiritual life
provides deeper happiness. As Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote, ‘When this insight (“I am
unhappy”) dawns, even if only momentarily, it can precipitate a profound
personal crisis. It overturns accustomed goals and values, mocks our routine
preoccupations, leaves old enjoyments stubbornly unsatisfying. A deeper
reality beckons us; we have heard the call of a more stable, more authentic
happiness, and until we arrive at our destination we cannot rest content.’3
Once we decide to alleviate our unhappiness or suffering, we are confronted
with the problem of where and from whom we should seek help. So once we
decide to seek some practical spiritual/emotional relief, we do what the
Buddha recommended to his followers 2,500 years ago: “Believe nothing, O
monks, merely because you have been told it or because it is traditional, or
because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher
tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due
examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit,
the welfare of all beings that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your
guide.” In other words, the Buddha’s advice is to find, initially accept, and trust
a teacher only after an inquiry into the teacher’s character, reputation, and
teachings.
Faith

At the beginning of our spiritual training, a certain amount of faith for our
teacher is needed. This can be a surprise to some people. “I thought,” they
might say, “you didn’t have to have faith in Buddhism.” And often they are
thinking of the type of fanatical faith that Martin Luther is often quoted as
saying: “Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding.”4
However, in Buddhism, it is a rational and tested faith we seek, not an
irrational one. We can also call it confidence or trust, and it is an important
factor to develop. We will practice the Buddha’s teachings seriously only if we
have a sense of congruence and some confidence: not only that our teacher is
knowledgeable and helpful but also that the Buddha has found and shown the
way to reach the goal of Nibbāna. We also need to trust that there is such a
thing as Nibbāna that provides the exit from samsara. So when we say: “I take
refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha,” we are expressing faith or
confidence in the Teaching and in the order of monks who have preserved it
and handed it on. With trust or faith, we free ourselves from the excessive
doubt which is one of the major obstacles to a committed and diligent practice.
While faith or trust in a teacher plays a useful role in our progress,
ultimately, we need personal insight to claim direct knowledge. The stream-
enterer (a person who has attained an intuitive grasp of dhamma) and those of
higher attainment have attained personal confidence and conviction in the
Dhamma as they progressed along the path. In fact, the Buddha’s teaching
insists that genuine confirmation of the truth of the Dhamma can only be
achieved through observation and acceptance of our personal experiental
evidence. The Buddha even invited his own disciples to inquire into his claim
of having attained full enlightenment. They were told to test his claim by
closely scrutinizing his behavior for as long as needed. So firstly, to summarize,
before entering into a teacher-student relationship, we should investigate the
teacher’s credentials and views. Then, after some time of instruction, we
should reflect on the results of the teacher’s instructions and our commitment
to the practice. If, after close examination, we find that we are satisfied, "These
qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by
the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to
happiness" — then you should enter & remain in them.', we may continue with
that teacher. All of these actions are needed to avoid doubt and to develop a
reasoned trust or faith in the Path.
Right Effort

The Buddha’s words show us that effort is very important to reach the goal of
Nibbāna:
‘If I am to achieve true happiness, the peace of the teaching of
liberation, I must begin to strive in this very lifetime.’5
‘If I do not make an effort while I have the leisure and opportunity and
this human body, a vessel so hard to gain and easy to lose, I will never
be freed from the ocean of existence or be able to cut off the stream of
its endless, diverse forms of suffering.’6
‘Exertion is most helpful for the final attainment of the truth,
Bharadvaja. If one didn’t make an exertion, one wouldn’t finally attain
the truth. Because one makes an exertion, one finally attains the truth.
Therefore, exertion is most helpful for the final attainment of the truth.’
MN 96 Canki Sutta
 ‘You yourselves must strive; the Buddhas only point the way.’
Dhammapada, verse 276

To continue, now, on the Path: after careful consideration, we have decided

to practice the Eight-factor Path, and we have chosen and come to trust a
teacher to learn from; in fact, what comes next? While faith strengthens our
determination to persevere, clearly a certain amount of energy is required to
practice the Eight-factor Path, because it is through Right Effort that we rid
ourselves of unwholesome states of mind and develop wholesome ones. Right
Effort concerns making the conscious effortful practice to positively shape our
cognitions, thoughts, and, therefore, our ‘world.’
Actually, to reach any goal, whether it is spiritual, psychological, academic,
business-oriented, or otherwise, effort is needed; inactivity will not make it
happen. Just wanting to make progress along the path is not enough. It is by
making an effort, step by step, within the framework of a program, that
eventually a goal can be reached. In fact, effort has been called the root of all
achievement. Clearly, the Buddha intentionally used effort to reach a state of
Enlightenment, and he taught that Right Effort was also necessary for anyone
to become Awakened. Attaining happiness and Enlightenment depends upon
one’s own efforts. Thus, we must put effort into the practice of Buddha’s
teachings before the desired results can be obtained.
Right Effort in Buddhism is commonly detailed as four types of endeavors
that are ranked in ascending order of perfection:
to prevent the arising of unarisen unwholesome mental states;
to abandon unwholesome mental states that have already arisen;
to arouse wholesome mental states that have not yet arisen; and
to maintain and perfect wholesome mental states already arisen.
So, the function of Right Effort is a fourfold mental effortful practice: to
prevent, abandon, develop, and maintain. Right Effort is vital in eliminating
negative and harmful thoughts and in promoting and maintaining positive and
healthy thoughts.
Mind development through these four efforts is not something that can be
gained immediately. Progress takes time and the regular practice of mental
training. Just as an athlete does not succeed with only sporadic training, the
training of the mind requires regular and constant application (askesis). For
positive results, meditation and the practice of mental culture need to be done
regularly for a considerable period. Psychological changes come slowly.
Patience is a virtue.
 So in general terms, Right Effort is the ongoing practice that directly purifies
the mind. Every time there is avoidance of ‘Right Anything,’ then Right Effort is
called for. Right Effort, also known as ‘right endeavoring,’ is the Buddhist
practitioner’s continuous effort to keep his or her mind free of thoughts that
might impair his or her ability to realize or put into practice the other elements
of the Noble Eight-factor Path that will eventually lead to Nibbāna.
From the beginning, there are five particular hindrances which have been
identified as frequently presenting major difficulties for a practitioner of the
Path; Right Effort as persistence and determination is directly applied to these.
The five hindrances or obstacles are:
craving
anger
laziness and torpor
restlessness and regret
doubt
These obstacles cover major factors that can interfere with the ability to
carry on successfully with the accomplishment of any goal and, in particular,
with continuation along the Eight-factor Path. Right Effort is used to overcome
them.
So without Right Effort, which is an act of will originating in the mind,
nothing will be achieved. However, it must be ‘Right,’ because the mental
energy that is the force behind any effort can be either wholesome or
unwholesome. The same energy that fuels fervor, envy, aggression, and
violence can, on the other hand, also fuel self-discipline, honesty, benevolence,
and kindness. So misguided effort which distracts the mind from its task and
creates unhappiness is guarded against and counteracted by ‘Right’ Effort with
the direction of Right View or perspective.
Practice ‘Right,’ Not Hard

One might think that Right Effort means practicing hard, but that’s not so.
Effort is the exertion of energy, but Right Effort is more subtle. In fact, an
often-cited simile that the Buddha taught to illustrate Right Effort is that
practice should be like playing a well-tuned string instrument. The Buddha
said to a monk, “Religious discipline is also like unto playing such a stringed
instrument. When the mind is properly adjusted and quietly applied, the Way
is attainable. But when you are too fervently bent on it, your body grows tired,
and when your body is tired, your spirit becomes weary, your discipline will
relax, and with the relaxation of discipline there follows many an evil.
Therefore, be calm and pure, and the Way will be gained.”7 If the strings of an
instrument are too loose, they won’t play a sound. If they are too tight, they
will break. Thus, to be ‘Right,’ effort has to be balanced; its intensity must be
adjusted according to circumstances, and we have to know when to relax and
when to be diligent. If we try too hard, we get mentally fatiqued and agitated,
and if we do not try hard enough, we stagnate. Avoiding the two extremes of
stagnation and exhaustion, we practice using the optimal balance through the
Middle Way.
If our practice becomes a hardship, it shows that we are being too fervent.
Buddha emphasized that one should be kind to oneself. Our practice should be
nourishing, not draining. What makes the effort right is that it’s skillful,
appropriate. As our effort gets more consistent, we start getting results. The
more we get results, the more we find a joy in and through the effort. We find
joy in abandoning unskillful qualities, and we take joy in developing skillful
ones. Right Effort, then, enables us to establish a positive feedback loop:
success in meditation makes us feel better emotionally and physically, and
feeling better makes us enthusiastic about keeping our practice. And the effort
given to carry out the intention is, we now know, Right Effort.
Right View/Right Intention

Now that we are confident and energetic in wanting to begin a practice, we

must accept that effort and confidence aren’t enough. It is easily seen, and
has been alluded to above, that only a ‘Right’ or balanced Effort will create
happiness and benefits, whereas misguided effort distracts the mind from its
task and creates unhappiness. Therefore, as we proceed toward Nibbāna, what
we need is a Right View or schema, which provides a framework representing a
dynamic psychological method for a correct practice, and Right Intention,
which is needed to give commitment or right resolve for a correct practice.
Right View is the correct understanding of the central teachings of the
Buddha: the Four Noble Truths. The Noble Truths – namely those of suffering,
its arising, its cessation, and the path leading to its cessation – enable us to
understand our starting point, see our destination, and recognize successive
landmarks as our practice advances. As Bhikku Bodhi so nicely states it:
‘Conceptual right view, also called the right view in conformity with the
truths (saccanulomika-sammaditthi), is a correct conceptual
understanding of the Dhamma arrived at by study of the Buddha’s
teachings and deep examination of their meaning. Such understanding,
though conceptual rather than experiential, is not dry and sterile.
When rooted in faith in the Triple Gem and driven by a keen aspiration
to realize the truth embedded in the formulated principles of the
 Dhamma, it serves as a critical phase in the development of wisdom
(pañña), for it provides the germ out of which experiential right view
gradually evolves.’8
Therefore, Right View is the benchmark of, and even the impetus for, a
correct practice. It is a correct framework of the problem and how to solve it.
To confirm the importance of right view, the Buddha places it at the very
beginning of the Eight-factor Path. Elsewhere in the Suttas, the Buddha calls
Right View the forerunner of the Path, which gives direction and efficacy to the
other seven Path factors.
Once we have a Right Perspective or schema along with faith and energy, we
then need the Right Intention or Determination to go forward correctly. Right
Intention is between Right View and the three moral factors known as sīla.
Understanding the Four Truths in relation to one’s own life gives rise to the
Right Intention. Intention involves cognition and is a purposeful act of
determining some action. Therefore, our intentions are the forerunners of our
actions.
Since the cognitive and purposive sides of the mind intertwine and interact
in close correlation, in every moment that we generate thinking we also
generate intentions that give direction to the course of our lives. On the Path,
Right Intention has three characteristics: selfless renunciation, or detachment,
which counters our intention of desires; loving kindness, or the wish for
happiness which counters ill will; and compassion, or the wish to remove
suffering, which counters harmfulness. Our actions are instruments for
expressing our aims and ideals (our intentions), and these point back one step
further to our views; these, in turn, always point back to the thoughts from
which they originate.
Right Speech/Right Action and Right Livelihood

‘Let one guard oneself against irritability in thought;

let one be controlled in mind.
Abandoning mental misconduct,
let one practice good conduct in thought.’
Dhammapada 17.223

o now that we have the Right Schema, Right Intention, initial trust and
S
acceptance in the program, and willingness to exert effort skillfully, what do
we do next? We go forward using the next three Path factors of moral
discipline (sīla) – Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood. These
three are considered as preliminary on the path, and all these ‘Rights’ interact
and support each other. Often sīla, or the three moral ‘Rights,’ are described in
a descriptive manner as actions or behaviors that support virtue and virtuous
conduct. So, for example, with right livelihood our occupations should do no
harm to other people or animals; with right speech we should do no harm to
other people in how we talk to them; and with right action we should do no
harm through our actions.
While the sīla practice might appear to focus only on behavior, it does more
than that. There are always two perspectives: a descriptive one and an
explanatory one. In this case, the descriptive explanation of sīla is that these
are behaviors that need to be consistently performed in order to live a virtuous
life. However, at a deeper explanatory level, their function is the earnest
beginning of the training of our mental states. Therefore, they are not
prescribed only as guides to action, but primarily as aids to mental purification.
In fact, these three practices are a means of developing and purifying the mind.
While the descriptive is easier to see and explain, the explanatory description
goes deeper, providing an understanding of the process of psychological
transformation inherent in the Path.
In the Buddha’s teachings, we see that mind is primary. He states: “All that
we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we
think we become. Those whose minds are shaped by selfish thoughts cause
misery when they speak or act.”9 So mind culture is the most important factor
in progressing toward the goal of Nibbāna. The mind is the key to changing
‘our world’ – the nature of our experiences. Therefore, the mind is the source of
all virtues, of all qualities – and in order to attain these virtues, one must
properly construct the mind.
How does the mind create virtuous behaviors? We know that, from the
Buddha’s perspective, the mind is first. First, there are our thoughts, which
then become an intention or plan, which then becomes volition or the
cognitive process of decision and commitment to a particular course of action,
which then becomes action. In other words, we have mind > intention >
volition > action. So when we reverse that process by control and developing a
certain mode of behavior (action > volition > intention > mind), we are actually
training the mind at the same time. While we descriptively appear to be
controlling our behavior, we are, more importantly, influencing our mind
content. For example, if I have a thought to speak angrily (not Right Speech) to
another person because I think they have insulted me, my virtuous inhibition
of that action is my thought, ‘Don’t say that; it’s not Right Speech!’ So through
directing my behavior in both a positive proactive way and with inhibition, my
thoughts are also being affected and trained. Then, later on in the Path, it is
through the more direct meditation methods that we come to understand,
modify, and purify our mind states.
 So, we see that in all aspects Buddhism is a way of life of cultivating and
purifying the mind based on mental development. As the Buddha said,
“Therefore, monks, you should reflect on your mind moment to moment with
the thought: for a long time this mind has been defiled by lust, hate, and
delusion. Through the defilements of the mind beings are defiled; with the
cleansing of the mind beings are purified.”10 The moral drawn is that the
untrained mind is conditioned by many negative influences, and only through
purposeful reconditioning can we purify our minds. If one creates wholesome
actions, wholesome thoughts must be the root of those actions. It is impossible
for unwholesome actions to originate from wholesome thoughts and vice versa.
Also, while our focus can be solely on ‘non-doing’ in terms of avoidance of
unwholesome actions, abstaining is often not enough: it involves the important
act of refraining from evil, but it doesn’t initiate the positive and proactive
wholesome thoughts and actions which are needed to purify our minds.
In more modern terms, continued unwholesome or wholesome thinking has
the effect of reinforcing those respective dispositions by further nourishing and
strengthening them. Like attracts like. If you have an unwholesome thought,
that thought attracts all sorts of unskillful thoughts in other people. Also, you
can ‘pass’ that thought on to others. Thought is a dynamic force. Thought is an
energy. On the other hand, if you dwell on a sublime thought, this thought can
attract good thoughts in others. You ‘pass’ good thoughts on to others. You
pollute the world with unwholesome thoughts, while your good thoughts help
the world.
Therefore, the starting point on the path towards our goal of well-being and,
ultimately, the liberation of our mind with the attainment of Nibbāna is the
voluntary abstention from bodily and verbal behavior originating in negative
thinking as well as the encouragement and use of wholesome activities
originating in positive or wholesome thinking through sīla.
In neurophysiology, the process of neuron adhesion strengthening has been
known for a long time; it basically works as follows: thoughts and memory
strengthen by repetition. So, if you entertain evil thoughts or good thoughts,
these negative or good thoughts have a tendency to recur. Thoughts are like
‘birds of the same feather which flock together’: as we entertain a certain type
of thought, all sorts of similar thoughts reinforce each other; we may also seek
behavioral stimulation to foster those thoughts. If you entertain a good
thought, other good thoughts join together. The lesson is that the untrained
mind can be and has been conditioned by many negative influences and that it
is only through purposeful reconditioning that we can purify our minds.
The practice of sīla also encourages harmony on a social level. The principles
of sīla help to establish harmonious interpersonal relations, in which conflict is
reduced if not eliminated. While training in sīla fosters the ‘public’ benefit of
inhibiting socially detrimental actions, more importantly it creates the
personal benefit of mental purification by preventing the defilements from
influencing our conduct. The final purification of mind will be completed,
however, in a deeper and more thorough way with the next two Path factors of
samādhi and wisdom.
We see with sīla that while the focus of the practice remains in our behavior,
importantly, we come to understand that our actions are preceded by our
intentions, which are preceded by our thoughts. Through this lesson we are
less likely to act impulsively, instead, we become more reflective and proactive
as to how our actions are prompted by our beliefs, attitudes, and thoughts and
how we can create positive and beneficial consequences for our well-being and
that of others. Also, since we are reducing conflict between others and using
positive thinking in ourselves, we experience a calmer, less stressed, and
happier mind.
Morality/Ethics
‘The morality found in all the precepts can be summarized in three
simple principles: ‘To avoid evil, to do good, to purify the mind.’ This is
the advice given by all the Buddhas.’
Dhammapada, 183

‘Purity of morality has only the purity of mind as its goal.’

Daniel Coleman Buddhist Publication Society11

‘In the Buddhist doctrine, mind is the starting point, the focal point,
and also, as the liberated and purified mind of the Saint, the
culminating point.’12
Nyanāponika, Heart of Buddhist Meditation

o with all this talk about virtuous behavior, what does Buddhism say about
S
ethics? Well, to begin, ethics has to do with our actions and decisions and is
concerned with whether we are acting in accordance with our beliefs. Morals,
on the other hand, are values which we attribute to a system of beliefs and, in
this case, to Buddhism. Often morality and ethics overlap in answering
questions regarding what is good and evil, what is right and wrong, what
justice is, and what our duties, obligations and rights are. In other words, ‘How
should we act?’ However, Buddhist ethical discipline has one purpose:
preparation for Enlightenment through ‘preparation of mind,’ not only by
practising restraint but also through the positive effects of compassion and
equanimity. The ethical training is the very positive practice for achieving
liberation or Enlightenment.
Morality and ethics do not exist separate from the elements of the Eight-
factor Path, but they are especially emphasized by sīla. The Path in Buddhism
is based on a moral transpersonal psychology and uses various techniques to
help us overcome unwholesome dispositions and encourage wholesome ones
in our mental experiences. ‘Wholesomeness’ is understood to be the absence of
greed, hate, and delusion which can lead one toward meditative states of purer
consciousness and finally to Nibbāna. The Buddha says that the mind is the
source of all mental states, the source of all merits and virtues. Since action is
precipitated by thought, unwholesome tendencies first exist in the mind.
Buddhist ethics are based on this truth: that the mind is the basis of action and
that the ethics of an action depend on the mental state from which the action
originates.
Mind is the key to changing the nature of our experience. As mind is
important in all spheres of activity, mental development has an extremely
important role in the practice of the Noble Eight-factor Path. Mental traits that
support our spiritual lives and the attainment of Nibbāna are, therefore,
considered ‘right views’, or good, while any mental trait that hinders clarity of
mind and mental composure and becomes an impediment to the attainment of
Nibbāna is considered a ‘wrong view’, or evil. ‘Evil’ here means something that
is a cause or source of suffering, harm, or injury; it is anything that is harmful
to progress toward Nibbāna.
Buddhist ethics recommend positive actions which cultivate wholesome
dispositions and restraint in behavior that reinforces and habituates
unwholesome dispositions. Optimistically, Buddhism says that there is always
a possible positive side in human life that all people should try to achieve. So in
Buddhism, morality and ethics are very important, and the moral principles are
subordinate to the path’s governing goal: final deliverance from suffering.
Ultimately, ethical behavior is a method of keeping one’s mind and life pure
and free from negative influences. To illustrate this, we can use the analogy of
keeping one’s blood and liver clean and fresh to maintain good physical health;
the mind, too, is regarded as a stream which should be kept clean and
constantly checked for impurities which, if found, must be removed for good
spiritual health to be maintained. The cultivation of dāna (giving) and ethical
conduct refine a practitioner’s consciousness and create a positive, less
stressed, less conflicted environment.
The core ethical code of Buddhism for a lay Buddhist is known as the Five
Precepts – no killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, or intoxicants – while
the Buddhist clergy, known as the Sangha, are governed by 227 to 253 rules
depending on the school or tradition. One ‘takes,’ or accepts, the Five Precepts
as a code of behavior. Unlike ethical points of view based on obedience to
divine laws, the Five Precepts are not meant to be commandments (such as
‘thou shalt not’) but are training rules or ‘principles of training’ that we apply
in order to live a better life and, ultimately, achieve Nibbāna. Consequently, to
avoid confusion, the Buddha often avoided the words ‘good’ and ‘evil’ and
instead used ‘wholesome’ and ‘unwholesome’ or ‘desirable’ and ‘undesirable.’
Buddhist ethics are founded upon true insight into the hazards of greed,
hatred, and delusion and the inherent values of love, equanimity, and
compassion.
Buddha developed these guidelines out of compassion, to help us avoid
bringing problems and suffering on ourselves and others. The guidelines of
ethical behavior in Buddhism are based on the twin principles of pragmatism
and relativity. ‘Pragmatic’ means ‘for some practical purpose,’ while ‘relative’
means ‘in relation to something else,’ that is, as a means to an end, and not an
absolutist end in itself. So, in this system of practice, everything has a
pragmatic and a relative value with regard to the accomplishment of the
ultimate goal: Nibbāna.
Therefore, recommendations – about the beneficial way to act, for example,
or what to refrain from – are based on Right View and compassion and the
purification of our minds to attain Nibbāana. There are many methods that
help us to develop ethical self-discipline. This has been called labored
development, because we have to develop it with intention, labor, and effort.
But eventually it becomes effortless and we don’t need to remind ourselves to
act according to the precepts; moral, ethical behavior just comes naturally.
When our ethical self-discipline becomes unlabored, it has become well
integrated into our cognitive systems; it’s not forced. So in the beginning the
practices that we develop can feel artificial. Through repetition, resultant
familiarity and congruence, they become natural and integrated. They are
adopted freely and skillfully and put into practice, and with these positive
thoughts and intentions we can often experience emotions of happiness and
even joy.
We are able to enter into deep meditation only if we lead an ethical life.
When we have led the moral life, we build up the other steps of purity in our
minds. Then we can cultivate the mind in concentration and can devote
ourselves fully to meditation. The more we lead the moral life and the more we
meditate, the greater the likelihood that we will enter into samādhi, which can
help to liberate us from the round of births and deaths and can confer the bliss
of Nibbāna.
Honesty and Responsibility

The Eight-factor Path requires of its practitioners self-honesty and

responsibility in normally difficult areas, especially in the evaluation of our
intentions and in understanding the consequences of our actions. If we can’t be
honest with ourselves about our thoughts and intentions, how can we clearly
perceive, for example, our craving or anger in real time to abandon it? If we
don’t recognize what have been called psychological defense mechanisms, we
will often ignore or deny or project or rationalize the fact that our thoughts
and impulses are unwholesome and our actions have caused unwholesome
effects, and we will have more difficulty in overcoming ignorance. Ignorance is
caused mostly by a lack of self-awareness and self-honesty, not a lack of
information. We need to see clearly that unwholesome processes take place
within ourselves and not always outside. This is the importance of
understanding that the evil one, Mara, is really a personification of our possible
inner mental states. Therefore, progress in the Eight-factor Path lies in our
ability to recognize and ‘own’ any unwholesome, harmful dispositions and
effectively counter them with wholesome, beneficial ones.
Also, we do not debilitate ourselves with feelings of guilt or obsess over our
errors. As the Buddha stated, feelings of guilt can’t undo the past error, but
they can debilitate and sap the mind of the strength that it needs to keep from
repeating old mistakes. So instead of guilt or excessive shame, an appropriate
response to our unwholesome action would be regret, or ‘appropriate’ shame,
which acts as our ‘conscience’ to help us try to behave in a manner that is
Right. There is a personal recognition and sense of responsibility for an
unskillful thought and action, but it isn’t debilitating.
Since, in Buddhism, there is no question of a higher power intervening to
redeem us, the notion of personal responsibility is central. There is the
recognition that our actions and corresponding consequences are determined
by our present and past thoughts. Having recognized that through our memory
and neuron adhesion, the past essentially continues to live in the present, we
make a conscious effort to resist the temptation to fall into old unwholesome
patterns, and we train ourselves to act with new, different, positive behaviors.
But this is not always easy.
In Buddhist mental development, it’s essential that we train ourselves to
make considered, conscious decisions in the present based on Right View. In
moments of difficulty, we often think of protecting the fictitious ‘self,’ but with
practice and with a deliberate act of intention, we can set aside our ego pride.
As we move through the stages of the Path, we become increasingly honest,
heedful, and capable of living an authentic life. We cannot have meaningful
and honest interactions with others if we persist in clinging to dishonest,
psychologically unwholesome states.
Accepting responsibility for those problems for which we are accountable is
a prerequisite to changing our lives. We need to see that the teachings in the
Buddhist texts point directly to the fact that the defilements and the dhamma
are within ourselves, not hidden elsewhere, external, apart from ourselves. It is
a matter of personal ability: if we deny our capacity to create destructive
consequences, refusing responsibility for having (often unconsciously) done so,
where will the insight to transform one’s life and relationships come from? The
fact is that the maturing of our practice requires that effort be directed
correctly and that we recognize the subtle tactics of our inner tendencies
(Mara) that seek to send us down the wrong path. Therefore, the good news is
that through the Eight-factor Path, which focuses on the mind and its
purification, self-honesty and responsibility, we can come to know ourselves,
train ourselves, and free ourselves from unwholesome factors and, in the end,
achieve our goal of attaining the highest of all freedoms: Nibbāna.
Right Concentration

At this point along the Path, we are following the framework of our mental
schema of the Buddha’s program to begin to purify our minds in
wholesomeness through the practice of sīla, and we have more trust and
confidence in the Dhamma and sangha because we are happier, have a better
relationship with the world, and experience uplifted thinking. Because of these
positive results, we are more determined to continue and to put the correct
amount of effort into our practice to achieve further good results.
So we are ready to move on to another of the eight factors of the Path: Right
Concentration (meditation) or Samma Samādhi. Right Concentration is
intensified concentration that results from a deliberate intention and mental
effort to raise the mind to a higher, more purified level of awareness. The main
function of samādhi, as wholesome concentration, is to collect the ordinarily
scattered stream of mental states to create a unified mental state. The mind
that is trained in concentration can remain focused without distraction, and
this induces a more open and serene mind to insight.
Two important features which distinguish a concentrated mind from an
unconcentrated mind are absorbed attentiveness to an object and the
subsequent tranquillity of the mental functions. The untrained mind exists in a
scattered manner which has often been compared to a monkey moving and
swinging randomly through the jungle trees. An untrained mind cannot
maintain a fixed attention but rushes from thought to thought, from stimulus
to stimulus, without much inner control. Such a distracted mind is often
overwhelmed by worries and stress and can be constantly influenced by the
defilements.
To stop the mind from wandering off to other objects and, instead, have it
maintain a fixed attention, there are many types of meditations teaching the
absorption or concentration of the mind on a single object. For example, a
common practice of Right Concentration is to choose a tranquilizing object,
the breath, and pay full attention to the sensations of inhalation and
exhalation. Eventually we experience a quiet and tranquil mind because all
other distractions are eliminated and the body has become calm. A sense of
oneness with the object occurs; this is called ‘one-pointed’ concentration or
absorption. This is a tranquillity or ‘calm-abiding’ practice. The ability to
concentrate is, however, limited in its duration, because distracting thoughts
eventually arise in our minds. Therefore, although concentration meditation
can be a very pleasurable state of mind, these results are impermanent and,
therefore, not indicative of true liberation.
The Stages of Concentration

Right Samādhi is the state of mind that is not attained all at once but develops
in stages. The initial stage is called ‘preliminary concentration with a
preliminary object.’ The meditator sustains a constant selective attention on a
chosen object (respiration sensations) and constantly monitors their quality of
attention for when the mind strays, one mindfully or attentively observes this
quickly, and with Right Effort redirects or brings it back gently but firmly to
the concentration object, doing this over and over again as often as is
necessary. At this level of practice, we already see clearly the different Path
factors working together to produce the desired results of Samadhi. Then the
mind begins to relax and settle into the practice – but five obstacles are likely
to arise. Sometimes they appear as thoughts, sometimes as images, and
sometimes as obsessive emotions such as desires, resentments, agitation, or
doubts. These ‘hindrances’ can be a difficult barrier, but with patience and
sustained effort they can be overcome. If a particular obstacle becomes strong,
a countermeasure to use is to temporarily put aside the primary subject of
meditation and take up an opposing subject. Another countermeasure is
persisting by bringing the mind back again and again to the primary subject.
Often a teacher can be very helpful in choosing the method. With any skilful
effort in concentration, helpful mental factors can be activated. They are
application of mind, sustained application of mind, capacity to smoothly
disengage and redirect the mind, rapture, happiness, and one-pointedness.
Linked together, and directing the mind towards Samadhi, they are called the
Jhana factors, or the factors of absorption.
Jhana

Interestingly, the development of samādhi is not exclusively Buddhist. Yogis

before the Buddha practiced concentration meditation, and the future Buddha
– Siddhartha – even studied with two meditation masters and attained all of
the jhanas. With the jhanic meditation experience, Siddhartha developed
samādhi, and each level of the jhana took him to more refined levels of ‘divine’
mental states with corresponding mental delight, pleasure, and increased
insights. He realized a greater happiness than the normal sense-based
happiness. However, not finding true liberation, Siddhartha searched beyond
the jhanic mental states and later came to find complete peace and deliverance
– Nibbāna.
While the jhanas were not the direct portal to Nibbāna, the Buddha
repeatedly encouraged practitioners to cultivate samādhi through the jhanas,
for on the Path of mental purification, these lead to higher wisdom and the
ending of the unwholesome mental states. Meditative development of these
sublime states is aided by reflecting often upon their qualities, the benefits
they bestow, and the dangers of their opposites. As the Buddha said, “What a
person considers and reflects upon for a long time, to that his mind will bend
and incline.”13 Importantly, the jhanas come into being when the way has been
prepared by purifying our virtuous minds and ending obstacles to our practice.
In this way we can keep the necessary focus. Also, especially with the jhanas,
the services of a qualified teacher who can give the suitable meditation
explanation and instruction are important. The meditation teacher should be
knowledgeable and should give guidance and advice based on his or her own
practice and experience. Since much has already been written, and because
practical experience with proper instruction is so important for the
concentration practices, we won’t spend much time detailing them in this
book. For our purposes, a general overview is all that is necessary for the ‘Right
View’ scope of this book.
Samādhi Factors

The cultivation of Samadhi requires attention to various factors; a simile that is

often used is that of minding a fire. In the early stages, the flame of Samādhi
must be kindled closely and carefully (Right Intention and Effort) with adverse
influences such as too much wind (desire) controlled. After that, with the
flames becoming stronger and more consistent, wood logs still must be placed
carefully (effort and attention carefully focused). Then, when Samādhi is
burning energetically, when the fire has become deep (serene effort and
mindfulness flow), it will burn by itself with very little attention needed apart
from periodic fuelling. Samādhi becomes the resultant mental state with
particular qualities. In fact, the Jhanas are qualities of mind resulting from the
application of the mind. They do not arise out of nothing but depend on Right
Conditions.
A modern, cognitive neuroscience description of attention process has
parallels with the above simile. Both scientists and experienced meditators
recognize that the ability to focus and sustain attention on a chosen object uses
the skill of monitoring the focus of attention, detection of a distraction,
disengaging from the distraction and redirecting and engagement of attention
on the desired object. At first, this mental behavior requires the activation of
several specific brain systems and energy through effort. As one’s skill
increases, the regulative mental processing are activated less frequently and
our sustaining attention becomes progressively effortless.
Eight Levels

Samādhi, or the stages of absorption or one-pointedness, is traditionally

divided into eight levels of jhanas, each marked by greater depth, purity, and
subtlety than its predecessor. The first four states of mind, metta, karuna,
mudita, and upekkhā (or loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and
detachment) represent the highest levels of mundane consciousness. This
meditation is called Brahma-vihara-bhavana: the meditative development of
the sublime or ‘divine’ states. The meditations on love, compassion, and
sympathetic joy produce the attainment of the first three absorptions, while
the meditation on equanimity leads to the fourth jhana, in which equanimity is
the most significant factor. The second group of four jhanas also form a set: the
four immaterial states (aruppa). The eight need to be attained in progressive
order.

The Path of Concentration

Material States
Access
Hindering thoughts overcome; other thoughts remain.
Awareness of sensory inputs and body states.
Primary object dominant thought. Feelings of rapture
happiness, equanimity; initial and sustained thoughts of
primary object; flashes of light or bodily lightness.
First
Hindering thoughts, sensory perception, jhana, and
awareness of painful body states all cease.
 Loving-kindness.
Initial and unbroken, sustained attention to primary
object. Feelings of rapture, bliss and one-pointedness.
Second
Feelings of rapture, bliss, and one-pointedness.
Selfless joy.
No thought of primary object.
Third
Feelings of bliss, one-pointedness, and equanimity.
Compassion.
Rapture ceases.
Fourth
Equanimity and one-pointedness
detachment.
Bliss and all feelings of bodily pleasure cease.
Concentration imperturbable. Breath ceases.
Formless States
Fifth
Consciousness of infinite space.
Equanimity and one-pointedness.
Material States
Sixth
Objectless infinite consciousness.
Equanimity and one-pointedness.
Seventh
Awareness of no-thing-ness.
Equanimity and one-pointedness.
Eighth
Neither-perception-nor-non-perception.
Equanimity and one-pointedness.

In the first level, after the access level, arise delight and happiness. The
progressive states of jhana refine these until later only equanimity is left. Even
though each of the first four jhana develops a quiet and alert mind, there is still
a small amount of disturbance. The first jhana constitutes the five absorption
factors: initial application, sustained application, rapture, happiness, and one-
pointedness. As samādhi deepens, in the second jhana, the mind becomes
more tranquil and more unified, but , even its stillness and delight become
annoying. When that is surpassed, the result is the third jhana; even then, in
the greater stillness of the third jhana, the pleasure itself becomes a vexing
distraction in the mind. So we exert ourself to surpass the sublime happiness of
the third jhana. When we succeed by means of letting go or non – attaching,
we enter the fourth jhana, which is defined by two factors: one-pointedness
and a neutral feeling. It has the perfect purity of both equanimity and
mindfulness.
At this level of jhana, Right Effort ceases as intentional effort is unnecessary.
Just as in the above simile, in which the fire dries out the woodpile used to feed
it and becomes self-sustaining, samādhi settles into a deep jhana of its own and
effort is not needed or desirable.
These first four states – loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and
equanimity – are also known as the boundless states because, in their true
nature, they are unlimited, impartial, and have no limit caused by preferences
or biases. It is impossible for a mind during the attainment of these states to
harbor hatred or other defilements.To achieve a mental attitude of wholesome
impartiality, we use the four qualities of metta, compassion, sympathetic joy
and equanimity as principles of conduct, objects of reflection, and as subjects
of methodical meditation.
Another practical benefit of the ‘divine’ states is that if our everyday conduct
is directed by these sublime states of mind, we will experience much less
resentment, tension, and irritability, and our meditation periods will be more
responsive to wholesomeness. Since our everyday life and thought has a strong
influence on our meditative mind, it is easier to attain a steady meditative
progress and achievement of the highest aim of our practice when there is little
difference between the everyday and the meditative mind.
Beyond the first four jhanas lie the four immaterial states, levels of
absorption in which the mind transcends even the subtlest perception of
visualized images sometimes persisting in the jhanas. The four attainments are
named after their respective objects: the base of infinite space, the base of
infinite consciousness, the base of nothingness, and the base of neither-
perception-nor-non-perception. They stand at the height of mental
concentration, the absolute highest degree of unification possible for
consciousness. However, they still lack the wisdom of insight, and are not
sufficient for gaining Nibbāna. Ultimately, Buddhist meditation goes beyond
tranquility meditation and any identification with, or clinging to, calm and
tranquility. Meditation becomes a transcendence of a more radical type of
insight, allowing us to see through into the relativity of world concepts, their
falsifying nature, and the perception of permanence underlying them. It allows
one to achieve Awakening.
Mindfulness

Going back to our hypothetical practice of the Eight-factor Path: as we are

progressing well on it, we have come to understand the basic schemata or
guidelines to follow to achieve the goal of Nibbāna: we have ‘Right’ perspective,
desire, effort, energy, and intention to skillfully maintain wholesome thoughts
and behaviors; we are now able to collect our ordinarily scattered stream of
mental states and create a unified mental state, which has easily induced an
open and serene mind more available to insight; and, finally, we strive
earnestly to be honest with ourselves about our intentions. But how do we
keep the necessary focus or remain in the observation mode needed to
continually monitor ourselves to stay on the Right Path and not become
heedless? This is the function of mindfulness. Clearing up our mental muddle
calls for increased and consistent self-observation and insight, and these are
accomplished through mindfulness.
Mindfulness is vital in the Buddha’s techniques of mental purification. The
Buddha said that constant mindfulness and heedfulness are necessary to avoid
ill and do good. Our thoughts and emotions need constant care and
watchfulness to direct them and to stay on the correct path to Nibbāna.
Purification is accomplished through perseverance and watchfulness; and the
Buddha often warned against heedlessness or carelessness as detrimental to
our progress toward Nibbāna.
If we neglect mindfulness or constant watchfulness, we will neither promote
and maintain wholesome thoughts nor put aside unwholesome ones. Right
Effort and Right Mindfulness go together to check the arising of unwholesome
thoughts and to develop and promote good ones. If craving, envy, and
aggression flare up, we must first diligently observe them arising in our mind
and then energetically counteract them by promoting the other side with
honesty, benevolence, and kindness.
So the person who is mindful is being aware of his or her thoughts, words,
and actions. With Right Mindfulness, we guard against deviating from
wholesome thinking and we continue to behave virtuously. In other words, if
we are mindful or aware of our inner thought processes, then we are able to
distinguish positive from negative thoughts; in turn, this then allows us to
skillfully make any necessary interventions.
The Buddha recommended that Right Mindfulness be applied to each and
every thing that we do. In all of our movements, we are expected to remain
heedful or observant – to be mindful. When we walk, stand, sit, speak, eat,
keep silent, and drink, all of the detailed motions that we perform are to be
done mindfully and ‘wide awake,’ or with full consciousness. The Buddha said
“mindfulness, good monks, I declare, is essential in all things everywhere.”
Pristine mindfulness comprises the balancing of attention/concentration to
discipline a wandering mind and awareness/introspection to understand
Kamma/volition.
The preferred method for cultivating mindfulness is to precede it with
training in the jhanas. Having some degree of mastery in mental development,
we then apply our power of samādhi to the task of mindfulness. There is,
however, another method called ‘bare insight,’ in which these practices are
undertaken without previous attainment in jhana concentration. With bare
insight, the prerequisite level of absorption or concentration is attained
through the practice of mindfulness itself. During the first stages of bare
insight, the meditator’s mind will be interrupted by wandering, hindering
thoughts. Sometimes they will be noticed, sometimes not. Gradually the
concentration of mind in real-time noticing will strengthen until virtually all
stray thoughts are noted; any negative thoughts can then be counteracted, and
the practice will resume. Finally, the straying of the mind will be stopped and
then the noticing of sense and cognitive processes will proceed without
interruption. This is functionally equivalent to the access concentration level.
In the suttas, the primary description of the techniques of Right Mindfulness
is in the Satipatthana Sutta, also called the Four Foundations of Mindfulness
(cattaro satipatthana); these Four Foundations include the mindful
contemplation of four objective spheres:
1. Mindfulness of body (kayasati)
2. Mindfulness of feelings or sensations (vedanasati)
3. Mindfulness of mind or mental processes (cittasati)
4. Mindfulness of mental objects or qualities (dhammasati)
For this practice, we need to be constantly aware of (1) what our bodies are
doing, (2) what we sense and feel, (3) what we are thinking about, and (4) our
biases, preferences, subjective attitudes and facts in general.
The first form of observation and reflection is on our bodies and regards the
nature and functioning of our body systems. We want to understand the body:
its composition; its operation; its functions, such as breathing, moving, and
habit formation; and its impermanent nature. Through observation and
reflection on the body, we come to know our body’s limitations and
capabilities and we can act in accord with its well-being. The second form of
observation and reflection is awareness of our senses and feelings. We reflect
to understand our various feelings: pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral in regard to
our sense experiences and aesthetic experiences. Third is observation and
reflection on our thoughts, our cognitive constructions. We pay attention to
how we construct thoughts and images in our mind and how they come and go
like clouds floating in the sky. Regarding this third aspect, the Buddha said,
“Therefore, monks, you should reflect on your mind moment to moment with
the thought: for a long time this mind has been defiled by lust, hate, and
delusion.” The lesson drawn from this is that our minds are the source of both
defilement and purification.
Fourth, we observe and reflect on our preferences, biases, and the subjective
attitudes that we hold in relation to our cognitive constructs and facts in
general; these distinctions include good/bad, better/worse, like/dislike,
subjective/objective, and more. With Right Mindfulness, we constantly reflect
to gain an understanding of our experiences, thoughts and life with regards to
the practice of the Eight-factor Path. We try to always be aware of the correct
objectives and how to achieve them.
Mindfulness as attention or awareness in Buddhist meditation is very
significant. Mindfulness as a capacity of non-reactive monitoring is a form of
introspection allowing us to be aware and heedful of our ongoing mental states
and processes. The process of honing, using the ability of mindfulness is a
means to identify our cognitive and emotional habitual patterns. In fact, long-
term practice of mindfulness meditation has been reported to result in lasting
mental and brain functions which fosters ongoing non-reactive, non-deliberate
selective awareness; reduces elborative thinking stimulated by evaluation or
interpretation of attended objects and enables greater emotional flexibility.
Interestingly, the physical basis of mindfulness is possibly the processes
involved in montoring the body’s internal state(e.g. temperature change, pain)
or ‘interoceptive awareness’.
Observing Ego

With practice, we can learn to automatically monitor our thoughts and actions;
this is particularly helpful in the initial stages of the Path, because especially
diligent monitoring is vital in the early phases. When we ‘monitor,’ we can gain
new awareness and insights about our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Actually, mindfulness as described by the Buddha is similar to the modern
psychological term of ‘observing ego.’ First, we need to remember that the term
‘ego’ used here describes the conscious mind based on perceptions of the inner
and outer environment.
 The observing ego is the mechanism of our consciousness that has the ability
to monitor our thoughts, actions and behaviors in real time. The idea is that we
all have an inherent ability to observe our own behaviors, thoughts, emotions
and actions as they are being created. The more we become aware of how these
forces are coming into effect, the better our ability to make the proactive
changes necessary to avoid unwholesome thoughts and consequences and to
create positive ones. This helps us stay on our path rather than putting energy
into everything that momentarily fascinates us. Similarly, with Mindfulness,
when you are mindful of something you are observing it, not caught up in it
and not psychologically identified with it.
Therefore, for a meditative practice, time spent in secluded introspection is
necessary and very beneficial. A formal practice at a weekend retreat or longer
at a temple or retreat center strengthens our ability in meditation and
purifying our minds. Also, an ‘informal’ practice as an everyday activity is very
instructive and useful.
Gaining awareness and insight into the workings of our inner experience is
the most important application of mindfulness – not only in the selection on
the contemplation of the body, but also in the sections on feelings, mind, and
mind objects we find this mode of insight development. None of the objects
taken up for the purpose of developing mindfulness is tenaciously grasped. It is
through insight into the dependent arising of our inner experience that we
come to understand that it is our mind that creates our suffering. It is through
insight, not samādhi, that all phenomena are seen to be nothing more than
interdependent temporary manifestations that come and go. It is eventually
through Awakening that one has the ability to understand the nature of the
mind, the subject-object duality and emptiness; as a result, it is this Awakening
that allows the letting go of attachment to craving. It is through insight that
one becomes enlightened and liberated. The net result of developing this
insight is expressed in Buddha’s words: ‘He abides independent and does not
cling to anything in the world.’ While words and concepts have to be utilized
to describe the attainment of Nibbāna, the aim is only the increase of
mindfulness and knowledge. Once their purpose is served, the concepts and
mental constructions are dismantled, like a scaffolding for a building, without
being a bother to the mind.
Purification of Mind/Development of Wisdom

Even though Right Concentration is usually listed last among the factors of the
Eightfold Path, concentration is not the path’s culmination. The ability to
concentrate makes the mind still and steady, unifies all aspects, and creates
bliss, serenity, and force. But by itself it isn’t sufficient to reach the highest
accomplishment, Nibbāna. Concentration cannot eliminate latent tendencies
toward defilement, since to overcome them calls for wisdom (pañña), which is
insight into the emptiness of phenomena.
Up to the point of insight meditation, Right View and Right Intention have
performed a preliminary function. With vipassana, they are raised to a higher
level. Right View becomes Right Understanding – a direct personal seeing into
the real nature of phenomena which was before only grasped conceptually –
and Right Intention becomes a letting go, nonattachment, or renunciation.
So it is Wisdom alone that is the remedy for ignorance, the deepest and
strongest of the defilements. Ignorance is not only a lack of Right Knowledge;
it is an active, unwholesome, and ensnarling mental state influencing all
aspects of our cognitive ‘world’. It distorts our cognition, dominates our
volition, and can determine the entire quality of that ‘world.’ Since ignorance
pervades our perceptions, thoughts, and views, we distort our experiences with
multiple levels of mirage. As the Buddha said: “The element of ignorance is
indeed a powerful element.”14 So the Buddha’s teaching is to finally let go, dis-
identify and transcend even the wonderful experience of equanimity with pure
experience. For if we view any of our experiences on the path to enlightenment
as ‘special states’, we still retain layers of attachment. As the Buddha is
reported to have said, “When the mind that was in darkness becomes
enlightened, it passes away, and with its passing, the thing which we call
Enlightenment passes also. Enlightenment exists solely because of delusion
and ignorance; if they disappear, so will Enlightenment.”15 In the ultimate
disidentification, enlightenment itself is ‘nothing special’.
Special Experiences

The Buddha talked about ‘special experiences’, and they are often reported by
people who have meditated. In the suttas, there are six super-knowledges: the
exercise of psychic powers, the divine ear, the ability to read the minds of
others, recollection of past lives, knowledge of the death and rebirth of beings,
and knowledge of final liberation. These knowledges are achieved by highly
advanced meditators. They occur simply because the factors are right, and they
have no special significance. These experiences are not indicative either of
enlightenment or of progress towards enlightenment, since they are not
necessarily associated with the Right Knowledge leading to enlightenment. The
correct attitude towards them as they occur is simply to observe them. These
experiences are like many others in meditation. The prescribed approach is just
be mindful that they are occurring, without attaching any particular
significance to them, and let them go when they pass. In other words, the aim
is non-clinging.
Notes
Bhikkhu, Bodhi, “Nourishing the Roots: Essays on Buddhist Ethics”, Access to Insight,
June 2010 (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/wheel259.html).
Retrieved on 20 August 2013.
Gunaratana, H., Mindfulness in Plain English (Boston, Massachusetts: Wisdom
Publications, 2011), 47.
Bhikkhu Bodhi, “The Noble Eightfold Path: The Way to the End of Suffering”, Access to
Insight, 16 June 2011
(http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/waytoend.html). Retrieved on
22 August 2012.
Martin Luther (1483-1546), a German priest and scholar whose questioning of certain
Church practices led to the Protestant Reformation.
Rabjampa, K. L., “Jeweled Garland of Four Topics”, (http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com).
Retrieved on 23 August 2013.
Ibid.
“Kalama Sutta: To the Kalamas” (AN 3.65), translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu
Thanissaro, Access to Insight, 29 August 2012
(http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an03/an03.065.than.html). Retrieved
on 30 August 2012.
“Sammaditthi Sutta: The Discourse on Right View” (MN 9), translated from the Pali by
Bhikkhu Ñanamoli & Bhikkhu Bodhi. Access to Insight, 14 June 2010
(http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.009.ntbb.html). Retrieved on 20
August 2012.
Dhammapada verse 1.
“Gaddula Sutta: The Leash (2)” (SN 22.100), translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu
Thanissaro. Access to Insight, 29 June 2010
(http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.100.than.html). Retrieved on
22 August 2012.
Goleman, D., “The Buddha on meditation and higher states of consciousness” The Wheel
publication, no. 189/190 (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1973), 11.
Nyanaponika Thera,The Heart of Buddhist Meditation (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1973),
54.
Goleman, D., “The Buddha on meditation and higher states of consciousness”, The Wheel
publication, no. 189/190 (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1973) 34.
SN 14:13.
Kyokai, B. D., The Teachings of Buddha (Tokyo: Buddhist Promoting Foundation, 1996) 59.