What's "Right" on the Eightfold Path?

The story of the Buddha’s teaching begins when he became aware of the suffering associated with birth, old age, sickness, and death. This awareness was the condition that led to the arising of his search - his quest, to understand, and ultimately transcend this uniquely human form of suffering.


After exploring many options open to him he found what is now regarded as the Buddhist Truth about human existence and our inherent suffering. What arose out of his search was the Buddha’s identification of the cause of our suffering, a realization as to a solution for this malady, and an eight-fold path by which we might attain release from our grasping nature.

This is the process from which all Buddhist commentary arose. These facts however, first needed to be illuminated by the Buddha so as to point us toward the way out of our ignorance regarding the actual nature of our existence. The main factor that needed to be overcome first was this Ignorance of the nature of human experience. We first needed to see, just as the Buddha did, that we are initially ignorant of some simple facts or truths about our existence. History tells us that the catalyst that began his search was seeing the suffering outside the walls of his father’s castle grounds, and can be seen is a metaphor for the illusions we operate under as a result of our ignorance of four facts.

The first is that all things arise under specific conditions or dependent arising. Second, this first realization points to the fact that all things are temporary, or impermanent. And this leads us to the third insight describing the nature of our universe of forms; emptiness. Emptiness is the logical consequence of a universe wherein the arising of each and every thing is dependent upon a condition, or aggregate of conditions, necessary for it to arise. And the fourth fact, which is so difficult for us to embrace, is that we too are without a separate, unique, and abiding self - better known as no-self. These are the pillars of understanding that constituted the Buddha’s enlightened awareness of the human condition.

What often seems to occur 2600 years after the unearthing of interesting facts or enlightened experiences, is a plethora of commentaries arise about the true nature of the process. And we soon forget to consider the process itself. It is my view that when we imagine that the term “Right,” as it is used in the Eightfold Path, refers to a cosmically correct choice in all situations, we have lead ourselves into a cul-de-sac of our own thinking.

In the interest of clarity I believe we have to look at how or perhaps why, the term Right refers to the culmination of the Buddha’s search. If I tell you that I have found a cure for cancer and then tell you exactly how to go about replicating that cure by saying that the Right procedure is to do “X,” I’m guessing you would have little trouble understanding that the term “right” is meant to describe the relationship between the cancer and the foundation or steps I took to achieve the intended result.

In this situation most would recognize the meaning of Right to be synonymous with “this is what works” or it is an “appropriate act leading to where I intend to go.” When looking at a map, we have no difficulty seeing what the shortest route is from Cleveland to New York. And if we were in need of getting there as soon as possible, that it would be the Right route to take. In addition we would understand that it is not the right route to take in order to get to Minneapolis. The term Right in these cases is specific to our destination.

It seems odd then, that we have so much difficulty recognizing that Right Speech, for example, points us to the speech that will specifically lead us to the very same enlightened moment experienced by the Buddha. And furthermore, that this was precipitated by his coming to see clearly the truth of Dependent-Arising, Impermanence, Emptiness, and No-self. Clear apprehension of these pillars of his enlightenment is the foundation of the path he suggested in order to reach the goal.

In order to get to the goal there are certain correct (Right) postures, attitudes, or understandings that must be acquired in order to successfully complete the journey to Enlightenment according to the Buddhist ontology. And what makes them “right” is that our thoughts and actions are based upon the correct view of Dependent-Arising, Impermanence, Emptiness, and No-self - not on the word of Buddha. Hold the correct view of the four foundations of his enlightenment, apply them in your life, and (at least in theory) you will achieve what he achieved.

Dependent-Arising

All things in the universe arise out of the confluence between conditions. We are used to speaking about such things as cause and effect but when we are dealing with the ongoing flow of existence this way of understanding the connection of all things in our universe lacks the precision required for deep understanding.


By working to understand this process, one is able to move in the directions of understanding and accepting the reason for, and manner of, all our human relations. Let’s start with some obvious examples of Dependent Arising.

Suppose we start with the conditions of sunny sky and 70 degree temperature. This is a condition we are using here but we must remember that these conditions were themselves created through other conditions within the realm of all kinds of conditions that create any and all types of weather.

These weather conditions are dependent upon others within the same type. And at the same time the ground for the arising of my desire to spend time outdoors, or sit in the sun, work on my tan, just to note a few. Suppose I choose to sit in the sun and read my book? THE CONDITION OF ME SITTING IN THE SUN READING MY BOOK CAN BE THE CONDTION FOR any number of other arising desires or outcomes not related to any desires. For instance, it can be the condition for my reading a passage which speaks directly to a problem I’ve been struggling with and this condition is one that is then the foundation, or condition, necessary for an action that positively affects my communication with my daughter.

While the weather has been instrumental in this particular case for a choice that improves communication it might also be the foundation for the destruction of enough skin cells after sitting too long in the sun, which is the condition or cause for suffering from sunburn. This might furthermore be the condition that is required for the formation of skin cancer on the top of my bald head.

If we understand that this process is fundamental to all that constitutes our world, we will be a long way toward being able to “let go” of judgments, and the personalization of what are, in truth, dependently-arising phenomena that constitute our lives. It takes a willingness to continually explore the relationship between arising conditions to be able to see immediately the mutually-arising-dependent-conditions that are the basis of what we erroneously consider unconnected events, emotions, thoughts, and experiences.

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