8 Steps to end your suffering taught by Buddhism
Around 560BCE Siddartha Gautama, later known as the Buddha, was born in Lumbini, modern-day Nepal. He lived in India at a time in which various religious and mythological narrations were being doubted. Laozi (in China), Phytagoras (in Greece) and Confucius (in China) were some of the of the influential thinkers during that time.
The dominant faith in India back then was Brahmanism, deriving from Vedism. Siddartha Gautama was the first to challenge that belief and through that introducing the world to Buddhism.
Buddhism is marked out as a philosophy rather than a religion because Buddha arrived to his conclusion through reasoning. He came to the realisation that suffering is an inherent and universal part of life’s experience. The root cause of suffering he believes to be our “attachments” (desires, expectations up until our basic instincts of survival).
To end our suffering, we must eliminate all our attachments, including our attachment to ourselves, or what today we call the “Ego”, being that which desires. The Noble Eightfold Path is in a way a practical guide of Buddhist teachings to eliminate all desires, ultimately reaching Enlightenment.
Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
Siddharta Gautama
The Noble Eightfold Path
The Eightfold Path can be divided in three main sections: Ethical conduct, Wisdom and mental discipline.
Ethical conduct encompasses Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood. It is based on universal love and compassion to all living beings whilst refraining from violence.
Wisdom involves Right View and Right Intention. It is the opposite of following any doctrine but perceiving the true nature of all things (including ourselves).
Mental discipline includes Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. Frequently practiced through Meditation, one should develop a mental discipline to see through all illusions of the mind.
In some way or another, Buddha’s whole teaching revolves around this path. He may have conveyed it to different people in different ways, according to where they stood on their individual path.
- Right understanding (Samma ditthi)
- Right thought (Samma sankappa)
- Right speech (Samma vaca)
- Right action (Samma kammanta)
- Right livelihood (Samma ajva)
- Right effort (Samma vayama)
- Right mindfulness (Samma sati)
- Right concentration (Samma samadhi)
Whether or not those aspects are to be followed in the direction portrayed is arguable. They are all interconnected, having an effect on each other simultaneously. One aspect helps in evolving the others, but also the absence of one makes it impossible to realize the rest fully.
Right Understanding
For this, one needs to also understand the four noble truths taught by Buddhism: Suffering, the origin of this suffering, cessation, and how this cessation is achieved.
The term Right Understanding does not refer to believing any dogma or outward teaching. In fact, it means quite the opposite. One has to see all phenomena as what they are, not through categories or the filtering lens of what one believes to know.
If we really understand the root causes of suffering, we won’t blindly follow teachings out of devotion. And if one does not understand the root cause of suffering, what use would the Eightfold Path as a tool be?
Right Thought
When seeing the true nature of things, we are motivated to change our old thought pattern & inclinations. Our Intentions then become empty of attachment and desire.
It is a practice of watching your thoughts diligently and being aware of your default state of mind. Nourish thoughts of compassion, understanding, love, non-violence and detachment. On the other hand, don’t fuel desire, ill-will, violent thoughts, anger or hate.
I like to think of all possible kind of thoughts as seeds. We all have inside of us seeds of freedom, equanimity or forgiveness. Naturally, we also have seeds of frustration, jealousy or judgment. By firstly becoming aware of what seeds are currently growing, we can change the garden of our mind.
Our attention is like the water and sunshine that helps the seeds to grow. It is a conscious choice made in every passing moment on where you want to turn your attention to and what state of mind you want to dwell on.
Right Speech
This contains four elements.
- Abstinence from false speech: One makes an effort to speak truthfully and to refrain from lying.
- Abstinence from slanderous speech: Words should promote harmony and unity between people.
- Abstinence from harsh speech: One refrains from hurtful, angry or bitter words. In fact, one should only speak compassionate, affectionate and gentle.
- Abstinence from gossip or idle chatter: One only speaks of meaningful, significant or purposeful things.
I also like to add that not everything that sounds nice is nice. This is practice done for yourself, so don’t fool yourself into phrasing something that sounds nice but is actually very harmful for another person. Right speech always has to stem from the right intention.
Right action
Rightful action refers to us leading a peaceful and honorable life whilst helping others to do so as well. It also promotes abstinence from killing or violence towards any living being, abstinence from cheating or stealing (this includes mental properties as well) and abstinence from illicit sexual relations (including sexual relations without inner connection, rape, seduction or adultery).
“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”
Mahatma Gandhi
I deeply believe that life isn’t determined by those big crossroad situations but instead in those thousands of incremental moments in-between. We act every second. Non-Acting is an act as well. If you see a stranger crying, give them a word of comfort. Give your colleagues a heartfelt smile. Let a stressed person pass you in the waiting line.
Right Livelihood
One should refrain from attaining a profession that brings harm to others or oneself. Professions like that would be anything that involves killing (animals included), weapons, cheating, intoxication of drinks and poison, sex trade and prostitution.
The profession we choose should be honorable and blameless. Especially nowadays, this can be very tricky. I.e., an advocate can do a very important, honorable task but also bring a lot of harm to people.
So firstly, think about what and whom you want to serve with your profession. If it is to gain more power, money or status, no matter the job of choice a lot of harm will eventually be done. If you instead keep your core values close to heart, you can deepen your spiritual practice in this.
Right Effort
No matter the life circumstances, one should make an energetic will to:
- Prevent unwholesome and ill states of mind from arising
- Clearing out already arisen unwholesome and ill states of mind
- Generating good & wholesome states of mind
- Nurturing and perfecting those already arisen good & wholesome states
For me, this has to be tackled from two sides. Firstly, you should make an effort to continue in your spiritual practice. Make your practice, whatever this looks like for you, a solid part of your routine. Don’t meditate one day and let it slip of for the next week. Just like you brush your teeth every day, give your practice a solid stand in your life.
Secondly, as I said before, I think of those “good and bad states” as seeds that have to be nourished. This happens outside your dedicated practice time. Only saying a prayer every day before going to sleep won’t do anything If you think and act out of a place of ill-will throughout the rest of your day.
In my opinion, every second is an opportunity to practice. Every second is an opportunity to take a deep breath and focus back in, to nourish a state like compassion or to give a heartfelt smile to a stranger.
Right Mindfulness
This goes hand in hand with the realisation that all there is, is the present. No matter what you do, you should always make an effort to be mindful and present. This includes mindfulness of the body, feelings, mental states and mental activity.
Through practicing Mindfulness, one becomes aware of the arising and disappearing of all phenomena. Meditation is the most common way to practice mindfulness, especially through watching your breath. But as there are many different types of meditation, mindfulness can be practiced in different ways.
Try being mindful outside your meditation practice. Try to eat mindful. Try to go to bed mindful. Try to walk your dog mindful.
Right concentration
In this state, an unification of the mind is achieved. The preferred tool to developing this state of focused concentration in Buddhism is Meditation. Whilst practicing Right concentration, one undergoes the 4 stages of Dhyana (often referred to as trance, which is highly arguable):
- Desire’s and ill thoughts disappear. Feelings of Joy and Happiness are sustained, along with some mental activities.
- All intellectual activities vanish. One feels bliss, tranquility and a sense of “one-pointedness” in mind.
- All active sensations like joy and bliss disappear. One remains in a general state of well-being and equanimity.
- All sensations disappear. Only pure awareness and equanimity remain.
Final Words
Following the Eightfold Path is a life-long (or even multiple life-long if one believes in reincarnation) task. Considering it as a “Path” is often misleading. It should not be approached in order to “reach” a certain state or point in life.
Rather, it is about living it. Samadhi or Enlightenment, often seen as the end goal, is something that ultimately follows when all desires, illusions and distractions are overcome. If Enlightenment is put as “seeing all as what all is”, it is already there, only covered by multiple layers one can get rid of by following the principles of the Eightfold Path.
To come back to the title of the article on how to end your suffering taught by Buddhism, this quote encapsulates it perfectly:
“You only lose what you cling to”.
Siddartha Gautama
