The Noble Eightfold Path

The Noble Eightfold Path: right speech, right action, right livelihood, right thought, right effort, right faith, right mindfulness, and right meditative concentration (samādhi). Only when the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path is fulfilled, one has departed from the eightfold wrong path, and one's mind accords with the noble nature, can one realize the fruits and thereby enter the ranks of the noble ones.

If a person is treacherous, sinister, despicable, crooked of mind, unscrupulous, and given to lies and deception, this clearly does not meet the requirements of the Noble Eightfold Path: it is not right speech, not right thought, lacking right mindfulness, not pursuing right livelihood, and the mind is not in right meditative concentration—such a person does not possess the Noble Eightfold Path. Then even if such a person expounds the principles with eloquence and fluency, speaking in perfect order, this cannot show that the person has genuine insight, nor can it show that this person has eliminated self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and realized the first or second fruit.

A person in whom wrong thoughts blaze fiercely cannot have meditative concentration. A person who has meditative concentration cannot harbor wicked intentions; the mind is tranquil and upright, with few delusive thoughts and little grasping at conditions, restless thinking ceases, and the mind is honest and straightforward. Therefore, if a person is crooked of mind and full of schemes, it shows that the mind is not in concentration and lacks meditative concentration. As for right faith in the Hinayana Noble Eightfold Path, one must have faith in suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self. As for right faith in the Mahayana Noble Eightfold Path, one must have faith that within one's own body there is an unborn and unceasing, intrinsically pure mind, the tathāgatagarbha; faith that by virtue of this one can attain buddhahood; and faith that the tathāgatagarbha can give rise to the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) and all dharmas. Only when Mahayana right faith is complete and one cultivates the bodhisattva's six perfections can one awaken to the true mind and attain realization. Sentient beings are foolish and always like to be hoodwinked by others; they delight in glib talk and idolize those who speak fluently and at length. The truth is not a mere catchphrase, and the Path is not on the lips. Those who speak eloquently do not necessarily possess the Path. If eloquence sufficed, then the literati of the past, such as Hu Shi, each of whom had ringing eloquence and brilliant writings, whose works on Buddhism and Chan piled up as tall as themselves, with lengthy discourses that made people envious—yet they did not possess the Path.