The Noble Eightfold Path

The Eightfold Path: Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Thought, Right Diligence, Right Faith, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. When the practice of the Eightfold Path is perfected, one departs from the eight wrong paths, aligns with the saintly nature, attains realization, and thereby enters the ranks of sages.

If a person is deceitful, malicious, base, unprincipled, unscrupulous, and given to lies and deception, they clearly do not meet the requirements of the Eightfold Path. They lack Right Speech, Right Thought, and Right Mindfulness; they pursue no Right Livelihood, and their mind lacks Right Concentration. Such a person does not possess the Eightfold Path. Therefore, even if they speak eloquently and seemingly logically, it does not demonstrate genuine insight, nor does it indicate that they have severed the view of self or attained the first or second fruition.

A person with rampant evil thoughts cannot possess meditative concentration. One who possesses meditative concentration cannot harbor evil thoughts; their mind is pure and upright, with few delusions and attachments. Restless thoughts cease, and the mind becomes straightforward. Thus, if a person is unprincipled and full of schemes, it shows their mind is not settled in concentration; they lack meditative absorption. The Right Faith of the Theravada Eightfold Path must entail faith in suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self. The Right Faith of the Mahayana Eightfold Path must entail faith that one possesses the inherently pure mind of the Tathagatagarbha, which is unborn and undying; faith that through this one can attain Buddhahood; and faith that the Tathagatagarbha gives rise to the five aggregates and all dharmas. Only when Mahayana Right Faith is perfected and one cultivates the six paramitas can one realize the mind and attain enlightenment. Sentient beings, being deluded, often enjoy being misled, favor empty theories spoken glibly, and admire those who speak eloquently. Truth is not a mere slogan; the Way is not found in words. Those who speak volubly are not necessarily enlightened. If they were, past literati like Hu Shi and others, each eloquent in speech and prolific in writing, with numerous works on Buddhism and Chan to their credit, composing lengthy discourses that inspired admiration—yet they possessed no true Way.