This week on the Insight Hour Podcast, Joseph Goldstein offers an overview of how we can practice the Buddha’s Eight Fold Path to awakening in our meditation practice and our daily lives.
The Path to Awakening
We look at the Buddha’s discourse on the last of the Four Noble Truths which explains the Eightfold Path to awakening and the end of dukkha. Joseph looks at how we can integrate the Eightfold Path into our practice.
“This, students, is the noble truth of the path leading to the cessation of dukkha. It is simply the Noble Eight Fold Path, namely, right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.” -Siddhartha Gautama Buddha
Simple But Not Easy (6:10)
Joseph discusses the three fields of training that the eight steps on the path are divided into – Śīla (ethical conduct), Samādhi (deepening meditative states) and Paññā( wisdom). He speaks about how each of these aspects of the path to awakening factor into our day to day lives.
“The particular characteristic of Mettā is that it has the capacity to embrace all beings. Other forms of desire do not – like love with desire or love with attachment. Do we have love with attachment or desire for all beings? That is not possible.” – Joseph Goldstein
Obstacles on the Path (32:08)
Joseph looks at methods for overcoming obstacles that we come along in our practice. He speaks about how living at the edge of our comfort zone can train our awareness and increase our comfort zone until there are no boundaries.
“My imagination of the Buddha’s enlightenment is that there are no boundaries. When there are no boundaries there is no fear. When there is no fear there is peace.” – Joseph Goldstein
Do you want to take a deeper dive into the Four Noble Truths? Explore the path to awakening closer with this multi-part series on the Four Noble Truths with Joseph Goldstein – starting with Ep. 30 of the Insight Hour Podcast
Image via Oliver.zs