Welcome to another episode of the secular Buddhism podcast. This is episode number 83. I am your host Noah Rochetta and today I'm talking about the eightfold path.

As always before I jump into the topic, keep in mind the Dalai Lama's advice, do not use what you learned from Buddhism to be a Buddhist. He's a to be a better whatever you already are.

So with that I want to recap in the last podcast episode. I talked about the four noble truths or the four truths for those who would be noble or the four tasks. However you want to think of that framing with the acronym ELSA, which E is embrace the instance of suffering, the first truth.

L, let go of the reactive pattern. And remember what we're letting go of is the pattern, not reactivity itself. I think this is a misconception that I want to be clear about. It's not that we let go of reactivity and now we won't react in any negative way when something arises. That's not what this is about. This is the reactive pattern. It's that one thing leads to another that leads to another that leads to another.

And somewhere in that chain of reactivity, you can pause, you can see the stopping of reactivity, which is the third one, the S in ELSA. And when you see the stopping of the reactivity, it's the pattern. You let go of the reactive pattern. That's not the same thing as letting go of reactivity. I just want to be clear about that.

And with this process of seeing the stopping of reactivity, it's like asking yourself is the observer of the emotion also experiencing the emotion. That's kind of what it's like to see the stopping of the reactivity, which leads us to the fourth one, the A in ELSA is act skillfully.

And keep in mind, this word skillfully is used deliberately because it's not about acting the right way versus the wrong way. It's about understanding ourselves, our intent, and trying to make the most skillful choice with whatever it is that we're about to do, whatever the situation I hand is.

So the podcast episode for today, the eightfold path is essentially this act skillfully. How do we act skillfully and what areas of life? So that's what I want to talk about in this podcast episode.

So the word that's used in the original writings when referring to the four noble truths, the fourth truth is a word that's called the word is maga. And it's a poly word, and it means path.

So the idea here is that what we're talking about is a path and the Buddha taught in all of his teachings, he dealt with this concept of the path in one way or another. And it may have been explained differently to different people, according to where they were on their own individual paths.

The Buddha was known for that kind of speaking to people and explaining things from where they were, not, you know, not explaining something that would go over their heads.

But the essence of the Buddha's many discourses and teachings can essentially be found in this idea of the eightfold path often referred to as the path of liberation or the path to the cessation of suffering.

So I want to talk about this a little bit. The eight parts of the path are typically grouped into three categories. And these categories are wisdom, ethical conduct, and mental discipline.

So we'll go through this and the afold path, keep in mind, this isn't meant to be followed in sequential order. All eight areas are typically developed simultaneously in an ongoing way.

So they're all linked in the sense that each one helps with the cultivation of the other parts of the path. So the eight parts of the path grouped in their three categories, the first category is wisdom, the parts of the path that pertain to wisdom are skillful understanding and skillful intent.

So understanding and intent are the first two. The next three fall into into this category of ethical conduct. And these are skillful speech, skillful action, and skillful livelihood.

And then the final three fall under the category of mental discipline. And these are skillful effort, skillful mindfulness, and skillful concentration.

So again, the eight fold path is not a path that we walk once or in a particular order, like you master this, then you move on and you master that one. It doesn't really work that way. You'll notice how various segments of the path seem to overlap and rely on each other.

And some of them flow into or relate back to each other as well.

It's also not a moral code that's intended to be followed in the sense of like the ten commandments or something in Christianity. It's not really like that.

The components have the word right typically, like if you pick up a book on Buddhism, you'll probably find that the fold path is explained with the word right, right understanding, right intent, right speech, right action.

And I think that can be a little bit misleading because in our Western way of thinking and our dualistic way of thinking, right has an opposite, it has a wrong.

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