CHAPTER V
THE FOURTH NOBLE TRUTH:
MAGGA:
‘The Path’
The Fourth Noble Truth is
that of the Way leading to the Cessation of Dukkha (Dukkhanirodhagāminipatipadā-ariyasacca).
This is known as the ‘Middle Path’ (Majjhimā Patipapā),
because it avoids two extremes: one extreme being the
search for happiness through the pleasures of the senses,
which is ‘low, common, unprofitable and the way of the
ordinary people’; the other being the search for happiness
through self-mortification in different forms of asceticism,
which is ‘painful, unworthy and unprofitable’. Having
himself first tried these two extremes, and having found
them to be useless, the Buddha discovered through personal
experience the Middle Path ‘which gives vision and
knowledge, which leads to Calm, Insight, Enlightenment,
Nirvāna’. This Middle Path is generally referred to as the
Noble Eightfold Path (Ariya-Atthangika-Magga),
because it is composed of eight categories or divisions:
namely,
1.
Right
Understanding (Sammā ditthi),
2.
Right
Thought (Sammā sankappa),
3.
Right
Speech (Sammā vācā),
4.
Right
Action (Sammā kammanta),
5.
Right
Livelihood (Sammā ājiva),
6.
Right
Effort (Sammā vāyāma),
7.
Right
Mindfulness (Sammā sati),
8.
Right
Concentration (Sammā samādhi),
Practically
the whole teaching of the Buddha, to which he devoted
himself during 45 years, deals in some way or other with
this Path. He explained it in different ways in different
words to different people, according to the stage of their
development and their capacity to understand and follow him.
But the essence of those many thousand discourses scattered
in the Buddhist Scriptures is found in the Noble Eightfold
Path.
It should not
be thought that the eight categories or divisions of the
Path should be followed and practised one after the other in
the numerical order as given in the usual list above. But
they are to be developed more or less simultaneously, as far
as possible according to the capacity of each individual.
They are all linked together and each helps the cultivation
of the others.
These eight
factors aim at promoting and perfecting the three essentials
of Buddhist training and discipline: namely: (a)
Ethical Conduct (Sila), (b) Mental Discipline
(Samādhi) and (c) Wisdom (Paňňa).
It will therefore be more helpful for a coherent and better
understanding of the eight divisions of the Path, if we
group them and explain them according to these three heads.
Ethical
Conduct (Sila) is built on the vast conception of
universal love and compassion for all living beings, on
which the Buddha’s teaching is based. It is regrettable that
many scholars forget this great ideal of the Buddha’s
teaching, and indulge in only dry philosophical and
metaphysical divagations when they talk and write about
Buddhism. The Buddha gave his teaching ‘for the good of the
many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for
the world’ (buhujanahitāya bahujanasukhāya lokānukampāya).
According to
Buddhism for a man to be perfect there are two qualities
that he should develop equally: compassion (karunā)
on one side, and wisdom (paňňa) on the other. Here
compassion represents love, charity, kindness, tolerance and
such noble qualities on the emotional side, or qualities of
the heart, while wisdom would stand for the intellectual
side or the qualities of the mind. If one develops only the
emotional neglecting the intellectual, one may become a
good-hearted fool; while to develop only the intellectual
side neglecting the emotional may turn one into a
hard-hearted intellect without feeling for others.
Therefore, to be perfect one has to develop both equally.
That is the aim of the Buddhist way of life: in it wisdom
and compassion are inseparably linked together, as we shall
see later.
Now, in
Ethical Conduct (Sila), based on love and
compassions, are included three factors of the Noble
Eightfold Path: namely, Right Speech, Right Action and Right
Livelihood. (Nos.
3, 4
and
5 in the list).
Right speech
means abstention (I) from telling lies, (2) from
backbiting and slander and talk that may bring about hatred,
enmity, disunity, and disharmony among individuals or groups
of people, (3) from harsh, rude, impolite, malicious and abusive language, and (4) from idle, useless and foolish babble and gossip. When one abstains
from these forms of wrong and harmful speech one naturally
has to speak the truth, has to use words that are friendly
and benevolent, pleasant and gentle, meaningful and useful.
One should not speak carelessly: speech should be at the
right time and place. If one cannot say something useful,
one should keep ‘noble silence’.
Right Action
aims at promoting moral, honourable and peaceful product. It
admonishes us that we should abstain from destroying life,
from stealing, from dishonest dealings, from illegitimate
sexual intercourse, and that we should also help others to
lead a peaceful and honourable life in the right way.
Right
Livelihood means that one should abstain from making one’s
living through a profession that brings harm to others, such
as trading in arms and lethal weapons, intoxicating drinks,
poisons, killing animals, cheating, etc., and should live by
a profession which is honourable, blameless and innocent of
harm to others. One can clearly see here that Buddhism is
strongly opposed to any kind of war, when it lays down that
trade in arms and lethal weapons is an evil and unjust means
of livelihood.
These three
factors (Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood) of
the Eightfold Path constitute Ethical Conduct. It should be
realized that the Buddhist ethical and moral conduct aims at
promoting a happy and harmonious life both for the
individual and for society. This moral conduct is considered
as the indispensable foundation for all higher spiritual
attainments. No spiritual development is possible without
this moral basis.
Next comes
Mental Discipline, in which are included three other factors
of the Eightfold Path: namely, Right Effort, Right
Mindfulness (or Attentiveness) and Right Concentration.
(Nos.
6, 7
and
8 in the list).
Right Effort
is the energetic will (I) to prevent evil and unwholesome states of mind from arising, and (2) to get rid of such evil and unwholesome states that have already
arisen within a man, and also (3) to produce, to cause to
arise, good and wholesome states of mind not yet arisen, and
(4) to develop and bring to perfection the good and wholesome states of
mind already present in a man.
Right
Mindfulness (or Attentiveness) is to be diligently aware,
mindful and attentive with regard to (I) the activities of the body (kāya), (2) sensations or feelings (vedanā), (3) the activities of the mind (citta) and (4) ideas, thoughts, conceptions and things (dhamma).
The practice
of concentration on breathing (ānāpānasati) is one of
the well-known exercises, connected with the body, for
mental development. There are several other ways of
developing attentiveness in relation to the body-as modes of
meditation.
With regard
to sensations and feelings, one should be clearly aware of
all forms of feelings and sensations, pleasant, unpleasant
and neutral, of how they appear and disappear within
oneself.
Concerning
the activities of mind, one should be aware whether one’s
mind is lustful or not, given to hatred or not, deluded or
not, distracted or concentrated, etc. In this way one should
be aware of all movements of mind, how they arise and
disappear.
As regards
ideas, thoughts, conceptions and things, one should know
their nature, how they appear and disappear, how they are
developed, how they are suppressed, and destroyed, and so
on.
These four
forms of mental culture or meditation are treated in detail
in the Satipatthāna-sutta (Setting-up of
Mindfulness).
The third and
last factor of Mental Discipline is Right Concentration
leading to the four stages of Dhyāna, generally
called trance or recueillement. In the first stage of
Dhyāna, passionate desires and certain unwholesome
thoughts like sensuous lust, ill-will, languor, worry,
restlessness, and skeptical doubt are discarded, and
feelings of joy and happiness are maintained, along with
certain mental activities. In the second stage, all
intellectual activities are suppressed, tranquillity and
‘one-pointedness’ of mind developed, and the feelings of joy
and happiness are still retained. In the third stage, the
feeling of joy, which is an active sensation, also
disappears, while the disposition of happiness still remains
in addition to mindful equanimity. In the fourth stage of
Dhyāna, all sensations, even of happiness and
unhappiness, of joy and sorrow, disappear, only pure
equanimity and awareness remaining.
Thus the mind
is trained and disciplined and developed through Right
Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.
The remaining
two factors, namely Right Thought and Right Understanding go
to constitute Wisdom.
Right Thought
denotes the thoughts of selfless renunciation or detachment,
thoughts of love and thoughts of non-violence, which are
extended to all beings. It is very interesting and important
to note here that thoughts of selfless detachment, love and
non-violence are grouped on the side of wisdom. This clearly
shows that true wisdom is endowed with these noble
qualities, and that all thoughts of selfish desire,
ill-will, hatred and violence are the result of a lack of
wisdom-in all spheres of life whether individual, social, or
political.
Right
Understanding is the understanding of things as they are,
and it is the Four Noble Truths that explain things as they
really are. Right Understanding therefore is ultimately
reduced to the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. This
understanding is the highest wisdom which sees the Ultimate
Reality. According to Buddhism there are two sorts of
understanding: What we generally call understanding is
knowledge, an accumulated memory, an intellectual grasping
of a subject according to certain given data. This is called
‘knowing accordingly’ (anubodha). It is not very
deep. Real deep understanding is called ‘penetration’ (pativedha),
seeing a thing in its true nature, without name and label.
This penetration is possible only when the mind is free from
all impurities and is fully developed through meditation.
From this brief account of the Path, one may see that it is a way of
life to be followed, practised and developed by each
individual. It is self-discipline in body, word and mind,
self-development and self-purification. It has nothing to do
with belief, prayer, worship or ceremony. In that sense, it
has nothing which may popularly be called ‘religious’. It is
a Path leading to the realization of Ultimate Reality, to
complete freedom, happiness and peace through moral,
spiritual and intellectual perfection.
In Buddhist
countries there are simple and beautiful customs are
ceremonies or religious occasions. They have little to do
with the real Path. But they have their value in satisfying
certain religious emotions and the needs of those who are
less advanced, and helping them gradually along the Path.
With regard
to the Four Noble Truths we have four functions to perform:
The First
Noble Truth is Dukkha, the nature of life, its
suffering, its sorrows and joys, its imperfection and
unsatisfactoriness, its impermanence and insubstantially.
With regard to this, our function is to understand it as a
fact, clearly and completely (pariňňeyya).
The Second
Noble Truth is the Origin of Dukka, which is desire,
‘thirst’, accompanied by all other passions, defilements and
impurities. A mere understanding of this fact is not
sufficient. Here our function is to discard it, to
eliminate, to destroy and eradicate it (pahātabba).
The Third
Noble Truth is the Cessation of Dukkha, Nirvāna, the
Absolute Truth, the Ultimate Reality. Here our function is
to realize it (sacchikātabba).
The Fourth
Noble Truth is the Path leading to the realization of
Nirvāna. A mere knowledge of the Path, however complete,
will not do. In this case, our function is to follow it and
keep to it (bhāvetabba).
