Right Livelihood means that one should earn one’s living in a righteous way and that wealth should be gained legally and peacefully. The Buddha mentions four specific activities that harm other beings and that one should avoid for this reason: 1) dealing in weapons, 2) dealing in living beings (including raising animals for slaughter as well as slave trade and prostitution), 3) working in meat production and butchery, and 4) selling intoxicants and poisons, such as alcohol and drugs. Furthermore any other occupation that would violate the principles of right speech and right action should be avoided.
Right Effort has four parts using meditation:
To try to stop evil thoughts that have arisen
(ii) To prevent evil thoughts from arising.
(iii) To try to develop good thoughts
(iv) To try to continue good thoughts that have arisen
Right effort can be seen as a prerequisite for the other principles of the path. Without effort, which is in itself an act of will, nothing can be achieved, whereas misguided effort distracts the mind from its task, and confusion will be the consequence. Mental energy is the force behind right effort; it can occur in either wholesome or unwholesome states. The same type of energy that fuels desire, envy, aggression, and violence can on the other side fuel self-discipline, honesty, benevolence, and kindness. Right effort is detailed in four types of endeavours that rank in ascending order of perfection: 1) to prevent the arising of unarisen unwholesome states, 2) to abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen, 3) to arouse wholesome states that have not yet arisen, and 4) to maintain and perfect wholesome states already arisen
Right mindfulness is also fourfold. It is mindfulness of the body, mindfulness of feelings/sensations, mindfulness of thoughts passing through the mind and mindfulness of Dhamma. Right mindfulness is the controlled and perfected faculty of cognition. It is the mental ability to see things as they are, with clear consciousness. Usually, the cognitive process begins with an impression induced by perception, or by a thought, but then it does not stay with the mere impression. Instead, we almost always conceptualize sense impressions and thoughts immediately. We interpret them and set them in relation to other thoughts and experiences, which naturally go beyond the facticity of the original impression. The mind then posits concepts, joins concepts into constructs, and weaves those constructs into complex interpretative schemes. All this happens only half consciously, and as a result we often see things obscured. Right mindfulness is anchored in clear perception and it penetrates impressions without getting carried away. Right mindfulness enables us to be aware of the process of conceptualisation in a way that we actively observe and control the way our thoughts go. Buddha accounted for this as the four foundations of mindfulness: 1) contemplation of the body, 2) contemplation of feeling (repulsive, attractive, or neutral), 3) contemplation of the state of mind, and 4) contemplation of the phenomena
Right Concentration is one-pointedness of mind as developed in meditation.
The eighth principle of the path, right concentration, refers to the development of a mental force that occurs in natural consciousness, although at a relatively low level of intensity, namely concentration. Concentration in this context is described as one-pointedness of mind, meaning a state where all mental faculties are unified and directed onto one particular object. Right concentration for the purpose of the eightfold path means wholesome concentration, i.e. concentration on wholesome thoughts and actions. The Buddhist method of choice to develop right concentration is through the practice of meditation. The meditating mind focuses on a selected object. It first directs itself onto it, then sustains concentration, and finally intensifies concentration step by step. Through this practice it becomes natural to apply elevated levels concentration also in everyday situations.
The eight factors can be grouped into three smaller groups as follows:
GO BACK TO THW ESSAY TITLE AND RELATE ALL THIS INFORMATION TO THAT MAKE SURE THAT EVERYTHING YOU SAY RELATES DIRECTLY TO THE TITLE AND KEEP REFEREING TO IT.
SILA (Morality)
Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood.
SAMADHI (Concentrated mind in meditation)
Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration.
PANNA (Wisdom)
Right Thoughts, Right Understanding.
Sila, Samadhi and Panna are the three stages on the Path to mental purity whose object is Nirvana. These stages are described in a beautiful verse:
To cease from evil,
To do what is good.
To cleanse one’s mind:
This is the advice of all the Buddhas.
REFERENCES
Kneown D Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction. New York, Oxford University Press Inc, 1996
Thompson M Philosophy of Religion. London, Hodder Headline Plc, 1997.