Now, let’s explore why the impermanent nature of everything in the world
causes the mind to be discontent.
Second Noble Truth: Discontentedness is caused by our own cravings/
desires/attachments because the mind wants everything to be
permanent when everything in the world is impermanent. (The noble
truth of the cause of discontentedness.)
With the understanding that the unEnlightened mind is full of
discontentedness, we now explore the second noble truth which details the
cause of the discontentedness.
The cause of our discontentedness is that the unEnlightened mind has
cravings/desires/attachments, mental longing with a strong eagerness,
wanting things to be permanent when everything is impermanent except for
Enlightenment and The Natural Laws of Existence. This is how the mind pulls
in the direction towards the objects of its affection.
The mind has craving/desire/attachment to “things” including the “things” of
the past or the future. Our expectation is that things are permanent and
when they are not, discontentedness occurs. When the mind has mental
craving/desire/attachment, longing with a strong eagerness for “things” that
are impermanent while we expect them to be permanent, the mind will cause
itself to become discontent because it “wants” permanence.
This is why when there is a relationship that has ended, the mind
experiences sadness, anger, frustration, irritation, boredom, loneliness, or
other discontent feelings. The mind wanted the relationship to be permanent
and when it was not, the mind experiences discontentedness in the form of
painful feelings.
Whether the relationship ended due to a disagreement, moving away from
each other, death, or some other cause, the unEnlightened mind wanted the
relationship to be permanent and when it wasn’t, the mind experienced
discontentedness. The unEnlightened mind does not understand
impermanence and is not trained to be comfortable with impermanence and,
therefore, causes itself to be discontent.
If an unEnlightened mind purchases a brand new shiny sports car and drove
it to a store, parked and then went into the store returning to a scratch on
the car, one person could get angry or enraged blaming others for this anger
and looking to settle this through hostility and aggression. Or, a person could
exit the store observing the scratch on the car understanding impermanence
and be thankful that they have insurance or otherwise plan to get the car
fixed - remaining calm, steady, and stable with an understanding that the car
101


is impermanent and it is impossible for it to permanently be a brand new
shiny sports car.
In both scenarios, the scratch was the same but one person’s mind reacted
to the situation with ignorance (unknowing of true reality) of impermanence
and the mind is causing itself to be discontent due to craving/desire/
attachment while the other person chose to respond understanding
impermanence and made wise choices to get the car repaired. So, the cause
of the discontentedness was not the scratch or the person who created the
scratch or else, both people would have the same experience.
The cause of discontentedness is that the unEnlightened mind has
craving/desire/attachment wanting to keep things permanently and
when it encounters impermanence, the mind becomes discontent.
The mind is causing itself to be discontent due to its own mental longing
with a strong eagerness wanting things to be a certain way referred to as
craving/desire/attachment.
There is never a time where a relationship is going to be permanent or that
one’s possessions will remain in a permanently pristine condition. Therefore,
as long as the mind is unaware and unknowing of The Universal Truth of
Impermanence and The Four Noble Truths, not practicing these Teachings to
train the mind, the unEnlightened mind will continue to struggle experiencing
an untold amount of discontentedness throughout life.
Craving/desire/attachment/wants/expectations/grasping/holding/clinging are
all words that we use to describe how the mind yearns or longs for
something with a strong eagerness. The unEnlightened mind thinks that if it
just gets the objects of its affection that it will have what it needs, will
provide inner fulfillment, and it can rest.
But, the mind continually chases after the objects of its affection wanting
and desiring pleasant feelings. Upon acquiring the objects of its affection or
whatever it is obsessing over, the mind experiences pleasant feelings
(happiness, excitement, elation, thrill, exhilaration, euphoria, etc.). Because
those feelings are impermanent (i.e. temporary) the mind continues its chase
after the pleasant feelings through the next object of its affection
experiencing the burden of carrying craving/desire/attachment deep in the
mind oftentimes experiencing headaches, tiredness, or heaviness, etc. as it
carries the burden of craving/desire/attachment throughout the day.
Craving and desiring pleasant feelings the mind identifies the next object of
its affection and continues to chase after it never getting a chance to rest as
it thinks the next shiny object is just around the corner that will be ultimately
102


fulfilling and it continues to chase after them but never experiences lasting
inner fulfillment because it is basing its internal feelings on impermanent
conditions.
If the mind does not get what it wants, then it experiences painful feelings
(sadness, anger, frustration, irritation, annoyance, guilt, shame, fear, stress,
anxiety, etc.). The mind is uncomfortable with the painful feelings so it
attempts to push these away thinking that they are being caused by external
“things” so it pushes away the people, situations, and circumstances that it
attributes these painful feelings. Yet, the cycle continues because it is not
truly the external “things” that are causing discontentedness in the mind, it is
the mind’s own craving/desire/attachment that is causing itself to experience
discontentedness.
It is through the mental craving/desire/attachment in the mind that we cause
our own discontentedness.
It is possible to love, have relationships, and possessions without being
attached to them which would cause us discontentedness.
Allowing the people in our life to walk their own path without forcing behavior
or decisions is a practice of non-craving, non-desire, non-attachment or
non-clinging. Being pushy or forceful is due to the mind’s craving/desire/
attachment and will only push people away from you while hindering your
Enlightenment. Caring for another human and ensuring they have what they
need in life is a practice of loving-kindness or compassion, not craving/
desire/attachment.
A craving/desire/attachment refers to the mental attachment or mental
clinging, the way the mind pulls towards the objects of its affection with
longing and yearning - a strong eagerness. Just merely possessing
something is not a craving/desire/attachment. Should you not have the
possession, a relationship, or “thing” is the mind discontent? Is there
craving, desire or attachment, mental longing with a strong eagerness? If so,
this is a craving/desire/attachment.
It is not the relationships or possessions that are causing the
discontentedness but instead the way the mind longs for things to be a
certain way and when they are not that way, the mind becomes discontent.
Understanding that all possessions and relationships are impermanent, thus,
will leave us some day, helps us to practice non-attachment training the
mind to not hold things so tightly.
103


As unEnlightened humans, we typically place much focus on our “wants”
instead of our “needs”. Our “wants” will drive the mind to more and more
discontentedness because we never can fully fulfill our “wants” and, thus,
they result in discontentedness with the mind constantly attempting to
pursue “wants” instead of peacefulness and contentedness. The mind has
constant “cravings and desires” or “wants”.
Therefore, our discontentedness is self imposed through creating, building,
and maintaining our own craving/desire/attachment to “things”, wanting
them to be permanent in an impermanent world. With the mind wanting
things to be permanent but yet everything in the world is constantly
changing, the mind’s misunderstanding expecting permanence causes the
mind to continue to experience discontentedness over and over again until it
learns and is deeply trained through developing a comprehensive “life
practice”.
Things are going to always change so if we cling to them expecting them to
never change, we are setting ourselves up for discontentedness. So, to
obtain wisdom and a peaceful existence, we must not have craving/desire/
attachment wanting things to be permanent.
Look at your life and the “things” you are clinging too. What are they?
Material possessions, relationships, a calm environment or “stuff” that if
gone would cause you discontentedness.
If you lost your wallet, purse, mobile phone, keys, your house, your car, your
best friend, your partner, your parents/family members, your title, or your job,
how much discontentedness would you experience? These are all examples
of things you would experience a certain degree of discontentedness with
should your possession of them be lost or broken.
When you have attained Enlightenment, these things nor others will cause
the mind discontentedness but instead you will look for solutions to these
impermanent situations and circumstances.
We cannot blame others for our unhappy or unsettled mind and state of
existence. We are the only one who can cause ourselves discontentedness
and we are the only one who can attain contentedness for the mind and our
life through developing our life practice to understand and practice these
Teachings.
A person will struggle in personal and professional relationships finding it
difficult to experience total peace of mind because the mind is falsely
attributing all of its difficulties and struggles to other people, situations, and
circumstances that it feels is beyond its ability to control. The unEnlightened
104


mind will constantly blame others for the difficulties and struggles it faces
rather than accepting responsibility for its own decisions that are leading it to
discontentedness. This is “wrong view”.
Yet, the unEnlightened mind tries to control people, situations, and
circumstances to do things its way trying to find peace in getting everyone to
do things the way you want. But the work is incomplete because it is
impossible to get everyone in the world to do things your way permanently.
Instead, the mind could learn The Natural Laws of Existence gaining deep
wisdom to understand the world that it does not understand so that it no
longer struggles through countless daily interactions and decisions. Gaining
wisdom of The Natural Laws of Existence through Gotama Buddha’s
Teachings, the mind can then focus on how to eliminate discontentedness
rather than living with the burden of continuing to experience a mind that
gets shaken up by daily events and occurrences caused by its own craving/
desire/attachment/wants/expectations/grasping/holding/clinging.
Third Noble Truth: The elimination of discontentedness is possible by
eliminating cravings/desires/attachments. (The noble truth of the
elimination of discontentedness.)
Gotama Buddha’s third noble truth explains how to eliminate
discontentedness in the mind no matter how large or small the
discontentedness might be. We know from the second noble truth that the
cause of our discontentedness is from the mental craving/desire/attachment/
wants/expectations/grasping/holding/clinging to “things”.
So, the elimination of our discontentedness can only be achieved by the
elimination of our craving/desire/attachment to thoughts, emotions,
possessions, people, situations, etc. The mind needs to eliminate the mental
longing with a strong eagerness, not the possessions, people, or situations
in our life. A Practitioner needs to eliminate how the mind pulls towards the
direction of the objects of its affection wanting them to be permanent.
The elimination of discontentedness is possible through the elimination of
our own cravings/desires/attachments. This means, we know we will
experience discontentedness from our cravings/desires/attachments so
thus, we must train the mind through the remedy prescribed by Gotama
Buddha to resolve the mind’s constant longing with a strong eagerness
wanting to hold on to “things”.
The general training that is employed is Breathing Mindfulness Meditation
and a practice of generosity in daily life. Both of these are training the mind
to “let go”. These remedies are explained in more detail in this book and
105


book series. A wise Practitioner will develop a consistent daily meditation
practice to include Breathing Mindfulness Meditation. Seeking guidance with
a Teacher will help you to establish this practice and develop it to ensure the
most benefits to the mind. The Chapter titled “Identifying Cravings:
Cultivating Non-Craving and Analysis of The Mind” (Chapter 13) in this book
will provide additional ways to approach the elimination of cravings/desires/
attachments.
We can train ourselves to acquire only the things we “need” and not the
things we “want”. Eliminating craving/desire/attachment does not mean that
we need to eliminate relationships or eliminate our possessions. It means we
need to learn non-craving, non-desire, non-attachment and train the mind
not to be discontent when we do not have these “things”, based on the
impermanent nature of all “things”. We need to eliminate the mental craving,
desire, or attachment through active training of the mind.
We may “want” a big house and luxury car however to accomplish this
“want” it may require extensive discontentedness in the mind. It may be
possible that you will need to have greed or other unwholesome cravings to
achieve your “wants”. However, if we tend to only our “needs”, it can be a
more balanced and healthy life.
This is one reason why Ordained Practitioners wear simple clothing, cut their
hair, eat whatever is given to them, live where ever they need to live and use
just the bare essentials, etc. This creates a minimalist lifestyle that fosters the
best opportunity for one to pursue Enlightenment.
One can achieve Enlightenment through a household life, it’s just more
challenging and requires the utmost attention to what you are craving and
desiring, so that you can eliminate the mental craving/desire/attachment
through a disciplined approach where Ordained Practitioners practice a pre-
prescribed discipline.
It is not required that you end your relationships with partners/friends/
children/family, or give up things like a car, job, clothing, etc. It’s only
required that you seek what you “need” in life so that you aren’t driving the
mind to fulfill your “wants” which is a never achievable goal while training the
mind through these Teachings. As soon as you get what you want, your
wants change and thus the mind continues on its never ending quest to
acquire more things.
You do not need to give up everything to live the monastic life for the pursuit
of Enlightenment. You can do that and it is a route that some people prefer
to take as it creates conditions conducive for Enlightenment but is not
required.
106


The conditions of eliminating cravings/desires/attachments within the
monastic life are drastically improved. Living a monastic life does not mean
you will absolutely attain Enlightenment. You will still be required to earn your
own Enlightenment, just like everyone else, it’s just that living a holy life
within a Temple environment provides you a set of guidelines that drastically
minimize your ability to cling or have attachments while being surrounded by
a community of supportive Practitioners.
The home life or householder environment is more challenging because one
must first gain the deep knowledge of what is required for the seeking of
Enlightenment, dedicate time, create a discipline for themselves, seek
training and support for The Teachings, and then implement them into their
daily life.
If a Household Practitioner has an entire household or support system
attempting to achieve the same goals of Enlightenment, this pursuit is more
possible to achieve. However, if just one person in the household is working
alone amongst others, it can be more challenging to learn and implement
The Teachings. Having friends, family, and community who are learning,
working, progressing, and supporting each other will produce the best
results.
A monastery is a community of people who are all working towards the same
goals, however, there are communities of people throughout the world
seeking to eliminate discontentedness from their lives using the core
Teachings from Gotama Buddha.
Some communities explain it as The Teachings of Gotama Buddha and
others do not, however, The Teachings all originate from the same source,
Gotama Buddha.
Gotama Buddha is the originator and discovered “The Path” to
Enlightenment, Nibbāna, and a Higher Consciousness.
Gotama Buddha offered his Teachings to those around him and the world
without ego or interest in fame or fortune. He did not even want to teach
because he felt it would be too much of a struggle to teach others. But he
persevered and continued forward ultimately deciding to teach anyone who
was interested to learn and chose to learn.
He ordained females to provide females an ordained path to attain
Enlightenment.
107


Gotama Buddha was not interested in people even being attached to him
asking for no one to create images, statues, or likeness of him. However,
people and our “wants” decided to create these “things” because of craving/
desire/attachment and human beings are experts at craving/desire/
attachment.
A Household Practitioner will need to find ways to physically, electronically,
or otherwise gain access to The Teachings for their own life. This book series
and all the associated resources including personal guidance are available to
help you learn, reflect, and practice to eliminate discontentedness of mind
on The Path to Enlightenment.
Fourth Noble Truth: The path to eliminating discontentedness is The
Eight Fold Path. (The noble truth of the way leading to the elimination of
discontentedness.)
Gotama Buddha offers truth and reality in The Four Noble Truths. He
explains the discontent mind and its solution in just three simple statements.
He explains the problem (First Noble Truth), the cause of the problem
(Second Noble Truth), and that ending the problem is possible and the
solution for “how” to eliminate the discontentedness (Third Noble Truth).
Then, he gives us “The Path” forward to eliminate the discontentedness in
this fourth and final noble truth.
In the fourth noble truth Gotama Buddha lays out the path forward and how
we can all pursue Enlightenment. He gives us the exact formula to solve the
problem of discontentedness in the mind. He gives us a road map of how to
end our own discontentedness. Thus, he presents The Eight Fold Path.
It is The Eight Fold Path that is the way leading to the complete elimination
of all discontentedness from the mind. Through learning, reflecting, and
practicing The Eight Fold Path, a Practitioner can train the mind to
completely eliminate 100% of all discontentedness.
Right View: The Right View is to understand and practice The Four Noble
Truths to establish the proper view or understanding as we embark on the
remaining journey ahead of us.
Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right
Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration.
108


Chapter 5
The Eight Fold Path:
The Path for All Humans to Enlightenment
With an understanding of The Four Noble Truths, you can now study and
practice The Path to eliminate discontentedness from the mind and your life.
You will need a detailed and thorough understanding and practice of The
Eight Fold Path to attain Enlightenment.
Gotama Buddha gave us “The Path” forward to pursuing our own
Enlightenment. In his explanation of The Eight Fold Path, we learn exactly
how to achieve Enlightenment through a life practice or a better way of life.
You will need to learn The Eight Fold Path in detail, over time, to soak this
Teaching into the mind. A Practitioner will need to apply time and effort to
investigate this Teaching on multiple occasions to fully develop their life
practice. The Eight Fold Path is your “life practice” and The Path to
Enlightenment.
The Eight Fold Path is categorized into three (3) different sections, wisdom,
moral conduct, and mental discipline. Referring to The Eight Fold Path as
wisdom, moral conduct, and mental discipline is an easy way to reference
The Eight Fold Path and the goal of each section of The Eight Fold Path,
without needing to describe each step individually.
The following table will help you to understand the categorization of The
Eight Fold Path into its three (3) separate categories which describes the
goals of those individual steps.
For example, learning, reflecting, and practicing Right View and Right
Intention leads to the development of “wisdom”. Learning, reflecting, and
practicing Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood leads to the
development of “moral conduct”. And, learning, reflecting, and practicing
Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration leads to the
development of “mental discipline”.
111


8.) Right Concentration Mental Discipline
7.) Right Mindfulness
6.) Right Effort
5.) Right Livelihood Moral Conduct
4.) Right Action
3.) Right Speech
2.) Right Intention Wisdom
1.) Right View
You will need to put the entire Eight Fold Path into practice within your daily
life, over time, as you learn and grow.
You will not be able to achieve perfection in a couple of days, weeks, or
months. Instead, you will need to learn, implement, see results, and continue
the process of working to diligently apply all steps of The Eight Fold Path to
your life. Through gradual training and gradual practice, the mind will
experience gradual progress to becoming more peaceful and calm.
You must not master each step individually before moving onto the next.
Instead, study the entire Eight Fold Path and implement it as a way of life, a
“Life Practice”. Earning your own Enlightenment is a pursuit of life improving
steps. Having guidance and Teachers is helpful as you study and work
towards the goal of Enlightenment.
The Eight Fold Path is the way leading to the elimination of discontentedness
and attaining Enlightenment. Through practice of The Eight Fold Path, we
eliminate all unwholesome results and outcomes from our unwholesome
decisions through not causing harm to other beings. This is described as the
elimination of unwholesome Kamma through producing only wholesome
Kamma. It is our wholesome and wise decision making to acquire wisdom,
improve our moral conduct, and refine our mental discipline that we will
experience better results in the condition of the mind and our life.
By causing harm to other beings through your intentions, speech, actions, or
livelihood, you cause harm to yourself through “The Natural Law of Kamma”.
The Natural Law of Kamma is cause and effect, action and results,
essentially the results of your decisions. If you make wholesome decisions,
there will be wholesome outcomes. If you make unwholesome decisions,
there will be unwholesome outcomes. It is due to craving, anger, and
ignorance (unknowing of true reality) that the unEnlightened mind does not
112


understand what it does not understand and, therefore, makes unwholesome
decisions causing harm in the world. Then, that harm is returned to you
through others’ intentions, speech, and actions. There will be more on
Kamma in the Chapter titled “What is Kamma and How Does It Affect Me?”
(Chapter 9).
These Teachings and practices are about non-harm or harmlessness to other
beings so that you do not create unwholesome outcomes, (i.e. unwholesome
Kamma) which would be returned back to you.
Practicing “The Eight Fold Path” closely, you ensure there is no harm to
other beings practicing harmlessness, thus, you can attain inner peace,
Enlightenment, or Nibbāna through, in part, the elimination and extinguishing
of unwholesome Kamma.
113


The Noble Eight Fold Path - The Way of Practice Leading to the Elimination of
Discontentedness
And what, Monks, is The Noble Truth of the Way of Practice Leading to the Elimination
of Discontentedness?
It is just this Noble Eight Fold Path, namely: Right View; Right Intention; Right Speech;
Right Action; Right Livelihood; Right Effort; Right Mindfulness; Right Concentration.
And what, Monks, is Right View?
It is, Monks, the wisdom of discontentedness, the wisdom of the cause of
discontentedness, the wisdom of the elimination of discontentedness, and the wisdom
of the way of practice leading to the elimination of discontentedness. This is called
Right View.
And what, Monks, is Right Intention?
The intention of renunciation, the intention of non-ill-will, the intention of harmlessness.
This, Monks, is called Right Intention.
And what, Monks, is Right Speech?
Refraining from lying, refraining from slander, refraining from harsh speech, refraining
from frivolous speech. This is called Right Speech.
And what, Monks, is Right Action?
Refraining from taking life, refraining from taking what is not given, refraining from
sexual misconduct. This is called Right Action.
And what, Monks, is Right Livelihood?
Here, Monks, the Noble Disciple, having given up wrong livelihood, keeps himself by
Right Livelihood.
And what, Monks, is Right Effort?
Here, Monks, a Monk rouses his will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts his mind
and strives to prevent the arising of unarisen evil unwholesome mental states. He
rouses his will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts his mind and strives to overcome
evil unwholesome mental states that have arisen. He rouses his will, makes an effort,
stirs up energy, exerts his mind and strives to produce unarisen wholesome mental
states. He rouses his will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts his mind and strives
to maintain wholesome mental states that have arisen, not to let them fade away, to
bring them to greater growth, to the full perfection of development. This is called Right
Effort.
114


The Noble Eight Fold Path - The Way of Practice Leading to the Elimination of
Discontentedness (continued)
And what, Monks, is Right Mindfulness?
Here, Monks, a Monk resides reflecting on body as body, dedicated, clearly aware and
mindful, having put aside craving and worry for the world; he resides reflecting on
feelings as feelings, dedicated, clearly aware and mindful, having put aside craving and
worry for the world; he resides reflecting on mind as mind, dedicated, clearly aware and
mindful, having put aside craving and worry for the world; he resides reflecting on
mental objects as mental objects, dedicated, clearly aware and mindful, having put
aside craving and worry for the world. This is called Right Mindfulness.
And what, Monks, is Right Concentration?
Here, a Monk, distant from sense-desires, distant from unwholesome mental states,
enters and resides in the first Jhāna, which is with thinking and pondering, based in
seclusion, filled with excitement and joy. And with the subsiding of thinking and
pondering, by gaining inner tranquility and oneness of mind, he enters and resides in
the second Jhāna, which is without thinking and pondering, based in concentration,
filled with excitement and joy. And with the fading away of excitement, remaining
imperturbable (unable to be upset or excited; calm; serene), mindful and clearly aware,
he experiences in himself the joy of which the Noble Ones say:
‘Peaceful is he who resides with equanimity and mindfulness’, he enters the third
Jhāna. And, having given up pleasure and pain, and with the fading away of former
gladness and sadness, he enters and resides in the fourth Jhāna, which is beyond
pleasure and pain, and purified by equanimity and mindfulness. This is called Right
Concentration.
And that, Monks, is called the way of practice leading to the elimination of
discontentedness.
(Gotama Buddha)
(Reference: DN 22)
1.) Right View: Having the “Right View” is having a clear understanding of
The Four Noble Truths and practice this Teaching so that you know it is true.
You will need to understand that The Four Noble Truths explains the wisdom
of discontentedness, the wisdom of the cause of discontentedness, the
wisdom of the elimination of discontentedness, and the wisdom of the way
of practice leading to the elimination of discontentedness.
The Eight Fold Path explains the path forward to eliminate discontentedness
in the mind. You need to accept responsibility for your own intentions,
speech, and actions realizing that you cause the mind to be discontent, not
115


anyone else or something else external. You alone are the cause of the
discontent mind and only you can eliminate the discontentedness in the
mind through learning and practicing the entire Eight Fold Path. This is
practicing “Right View”.
If you blame others for the pleasant feelings, painful feelings, or feelings that
are neither painful-nor-pleasant (discontentedness), then you are not yet
practicing Right View but instead “wrong view”.
You need to understand and observe the wisdom that no one and nothing
can create a discontent mind, only you can do that to yourself. If you will not
take responsibility for the mind blaming others for its discontentedness, then
you will find it impossible to eliminate discontentedness in the mind.
Wrong view means that discontentedness in the mind is caused by someone
else or something else so therefore, you have no ability to eliminate
discontent feelings.
Right View is accepting and seeing it as your responsibility to eliminate
discontentedness in the mind without blame of anyone else. You are solely
and 100% responsible for all discontent feelings. This means that you can
100% eliminate discontentedness in the mind. Accepting this responsibility
is the very first step towards a peaceful mind and eliminating 100% of the
discontentedness in the mind.
2.) Right Intention: The Right Intention, “right thought”, or “right thinking”, is
formed by the interest in renunciation (letting go) along with the absence of ill
will or harm in the mind. You need to practice the intention to let go of
unwholesomeness while developing a practice of non-ill-will and
harmlessness.
Goodwill, harmlessness, and wholesome intentions towards all beings is
important. Intentions based in ill will, harm, craving, anger, ignorance
(unknowing of true reality), ego, or other unwholesome mental states will
produce unskillful speech and actions thus produce unwholesome results
(i.e. unwholesome Kamma).
You must always have the “right” or “proper” intention, thoughts, or thinking
that is positive and beneficial to other beings to produce the best outcomes
for your own well-being.
116


There are three aspects to Right Intention.
Renunciation: The mind needs to practice “renunciation” or
“relinquishment”, the interest and willingness to “let go” and “give up”
unwholesomeness and the mind’s false beliefs and misperceptions of reality.
The cause of discontentedness is that the mind has craving/desire/
attachment (mental longing with a strong eagerness) which is the source of
all discontent feelings.
As long as the mind is “holding on”, then it will continue to experience
discontentedness.
Until it trains to “let go” to reside “in the middle”, the mind will continually
experience discontentedness. With the intention of letting go, or
relinquishment, the mind is prepared to abandon its harmful habits and
develop wholesome moral conduct and mental discipline through all the
other steps on The Eight Fold Path while eliminating its false beliefs and
misperceptions of reality.
Non-Ill-Will: The mind needs to develop the intention and practice of loving-
kindness, which is the opposite of ill will or “non-ill-will”. Loving-kindness is
active goodwill towards all beings without judgment. A genuine interest in
seeing all beings be well. Through developing the intention for all beings to
be well, including yourself, the mind is filled with loving-kindness and has
eliminated ill will. The mind is then uninterested to cause harm to other
beings and finds its way developing the remaining portions of The Eight Fold
Path as a well developed life practice.
Harmlessness: The mind needs to have the “right” or “proper” thought,
thinking, or intention to not be interested in producing harm to other beings.
Any harm that we cause to a being, is only going to be returned to us and be
a source to cause our own harm. Causing harm to other beings is like
kicking up sand and having it blow back into your eyes.
Knowing that any harm you cause is only going to be returned back to you,
why would the mind continue to choose to cause harm to others? A practice
or intention of harmlessness will ensure the mind is uninterested and
unmotivated to cause harm to other beings and will find it more seamless to
make all the other decisions to cultivate The Eight Fold Path and practice
The Teachings in daily life.
Right Intention helps to form a foundation of wisdom in the mind to let go,
having a genuine interest in seeing all beings be well, and a practice of
harmlessness which the remaining factors of The Path to Enlightenment are
then developed and practiced through The Eight Fold Path.
117


3.) Right Speech: The Right Speech involves ensuring that we do not cause
harm to other beings through our communication. During the lifetime of
Gotama Buddha all that existed was “verbal speech”. Today, we
communicate through verbal speech, text/chat messages, emails, posts to
social media, and many other forms of written communication. All
communication can either be “harmless and wholesome” or “harmful and
unwholesome”. But choosing to learn and practice harmless communication,
or Right Speech, you are then ensuring how you interact with others does
not cause harm so that harm is not returned to you.
To practice Right Speech, or Right Communication, a Practitioner would
need to fully develop and practice The Five Factors of Well Spoken Speech
in all conversations through gradual training of the mind. This includes polite,
kind, friendly, respectful, and wholesome speech in all forms of
communication.
Five Factors of Well Spoken Speech
Monks, possessing five factors, speech is well spoken, not badly spoken, it is
blameless and beyond reproach (disapproval) by the wise.
What five?
(1) It is spoken at the proper time;
(2) What is said is true;
(3) It is spoken gently;
(4) What is said is beneficial;
(5) It is spoken with a mind of loving-kindness.
Possessing these five factors, speech is well spoken, not badly spoken; it is blameless
and beyond reproach (disapproval) by the wise.
(Gotama Buddha)
(Reference: AN 5.198)
Proper Time: A Practitioner needs to ensure they are choosing the right time
to speak. This includes not interrupting others when they are speaking,
choosing to be patient and to speak at the appropriate time. This also
includes ensuring that your mind is prepared to speak and is choosing to
speak at a time when the mind is clear and concentrated rather than angered
or otherwise confused about the topic to be discussed. If the mind is
angered or unconcentrated, this will produce communication that is harmful
to others requiring them to sort through our own discontent feelings and
unconcentrated or unorganized thoughts.
118


If the mind is discontent, that is the improper time to speak. Postponing
conversations can allow the mind time to regain its calmness, mindfulness,
and concentration to then ensure one is speaking at the proper time with
wisdom. If the mind is lacking Right Intention, Right Mindfulness or Right
Concentration, that is the improper time to communicate. Allow the mind to
regain these qualities of mind and then communicate at the proper time
when you can practice harmlessness with full awareness of the mind and
with focus or singleness of mind.
It is also important that you observe and consider whether it is the proper
time to talk with the other person. If they are angered, frustrated, or irritated,
it is most likely not the proper time to have a discussion. You can consider
the topic that you have to speak about and ensure it is the appropriate time
to have a discussion on that specific topic. When people first come home or
have recently arrived to a certain destination, it is oftentimes best to allow
their mind to adjust to the new environment where they have just arrived
before discussing most topics especially topics that may be of a heavy
nature. Topics that are significant, dramatic, or those that might involve
major changes to one’s life would be best discussed at a time when your
mind, and the mind of others involved, is prepared to discuss that topic. It
could be wise to ask the other individual if it would be a good time to
discuss a certain topic before just opening up into an in-depth conversation
that could have significant impacts to one’s life. As a wise Practitioner, you
may need to prepare the mind of the individual prior to choosing to have
major conversations through asking questions if it would be a good time to
speak about a specific topic rather than opening up into a full scale
conversation.
Knowing the best time to speak with others will need to be developed
through trial and error, being best assessed in the present moment, based on
the uniqueness of the topic, while considering the mental state of the
individuals involved in the conversation.
True: Having truthful communication helps to establish that you are a truth-
speaker, one to be relied on, trustworthy, dependable, not a deceiver of the
world. A Practitioner who only speaks the truth develops the ability to be
helpful and well received by others because people become accustomed to
you only speaking the truth. It will be well known within your community that
when you speak, you only speak the truth, therefore, you will find it much
easier to help others and encourage improvement in all the various projects
and efforts you choose to participate.
Through speaking the truth, you become “one whom people listen to” well
received in the world instead of a deceiver of the world.
119


You will find that opportunities to progress in life with wholesome outcomes
will come to you more easily because in your personal and professional
relationships people know that you are not a liar but are trustworthy and
dependable. If one speaks untruths, people worry what else you could be
lying about and one’s reputation is significantly diminished creating
obstacles to your success in life.
Not only is it wise to speak the truth, in terms of, not telling a deliberate lie
but also, it is important to verify the accuracy so that all you share through
communication is 100% true. Whether you are speaking, writing, or
otherwise communicating in any way, ensuring that you have independently
verified what you share with others will ensure the best possible outcomes
and the mind can be at ease knowing that what you share is accurate and
the truth. Propagating untruths, conspiracy theories, or otherwise unfounded
content will only create harm in the world, therefore, it will produce
unwholesome results for you. Where you can talk through your own direct
experience, this will ensure you are speaking the truth, not only by not telling
a deliberate lie, but also ensuring all that is communicated is accurate and
based in wisdom.
Always speaking the truth makes it easy for the mind and unburdens the
mind. If one always speaks the truth, they do not need to sort through all the
various conversations and statements they have made in the past to
conduct conversations in the present moment. A Practitioner can just always
look to the truth, speak the truth, and the mind can rest easy knowing that at
all times you are only ever speaking the truth. This allows communication to
happen easily, seamlessly, and with minimal effort unburdening the mind.
The mind can rest and relax knowing that you are only ever speaking the
truth.
Spoken Gently: To speak gently, one needs to pay close attention to training
and then practicing gentle tone, tempo, and word choice in their
communication. Through observing what is working and not working
amongst individuals that you communicate with, you can dramatically
improve how you communicate and, thus, interact with others. You can
observe and become aware how calm and gentle words work to accomplish
your goals more readily than rushed and harsh words. You will need to
practice, observe, and adjust your communication style until the mind is
more finely tuned to practice speaking effortlessly and gently in all
conversations paying close attention to tone, tempo, and word choice.
When you do not practice speaking gently, notice how it causes harm to
others and thus, causes harm in your relationships. There are going to be
challenges for you to bring your communication style closer to speaking
gently in all conversations. As you are gradually developing your life practice
120


but still unable to practice speaking gently, you can apologize, aim to
improve, then move on applying effort to improve in each and every
conversation.
Beneficial: A Practitioner who is speaking beneficially would ensure their
communication is clear, concise, and well delivered ensuring there is
purposeful speech with an interest to help others. If one was to speak
unclearly, lacking conciseness, and with poorly delivered communication
then it would cause harm to others as they would need to sort through the
muddled conversation to determine what you are attempting to
communicate.
Through a well concentrated mind that is uninterested in causing harm to
others, you can decide to train the mind to gather the thoughts and
communicate in a clear, concise, and well delivered method that ensures the
receiver of your communication does not need to apply extensive effort to
understand what is being shared. Communication should be purposeful and
to the point without frivolous speech or pointless rambling.
If you make people work hard to understand what you are attempting to
share, people will be less and less interested in communicating with you.
People will just stop listening and “tune you out”. You will find this frustrating
and challenging to accomplish your goals in life.
To develop effectiveness in communication, your speech needs to be
beneficial to others through purposeful dialogue that is not self satisfying or
originating from selfish desires. Instead, look for ways to help others that
focus on bringing people together in harmony rather than argumentative
unbeneficial conversations through clear, concise, and well delivered
communication.
A Mind of Loving-kindness: Through a well developed practice of Right
Intention, a Practitioner should have loving-kindness for all beings. Loving-
kindness is active goodwill towards all beings without judgment. A genuine
interest in seeing all beings be well.
Through Right Intention, or Right Thought and Right Thinking brought
through into Right Speech, the mind is well prepared to deliver words with
goodwill and an interest in seeing all beings be well. If there is any ill will
inserted into your communication, this will cause harm to others, therefore,
cause harm to you.
While on the surface sarcasm may seem humorous and harmless, but in
reality the true intention behind sarcasm is oftentimes malicious and with ill
intent. While it may be the right time, true, gentle, and perceived as
121


beneficial, if there is ill intent with sarcasm through mocking or ridicule then
the speech is not being spoken through a mind of loving-kindness.
Therefore, any speech including sarcasm that has ill will is harmful and will
only come back to harm you. People will speak to you in the same way that
you speak to others. The ill intended speech with sarcasm, mocking, and
ridicule of others is only going to be returned to you as this is the speech
one is choosing to use with others. Conversely, if you speak with a mind of
loving-kindness, that is how others will choose to speak with you. Overtime,
more and more people will observe your wholesome moral conduct and
choose to treat you the same way that you treat others.
Blameless: No one enjoys being blamed for anything or made to feel as if
they are at fault. While it could be true that someone has made a mistake, it
is just a mistake or accident and if you choose to assign blame in your
communication, it is only going to serve to create division. And, if the person
truly has not made a mistake and is being falsely blamed, this is only going
to create separation and arguments - blameful speech is harmful speech.
If we choose to be blameful towards others holding them to potentially feel
guilty about their mistakes, then people are going to be uninterested to
interact with you as a family member, friend, or coworker. Rather than
focusing on placing blame, a well trained mind can let go of that desire and
instead focus on solutions to the mistake. There is no need to ensure
someone is pressured into accepting blame, but instead, the real challenge
is how to move past this impermanent situation in peacefulness and
harmony with all beings feeling whole.
Placing blame would only produce harm to others through disparaging
others’ efforts, thus, it is going to harm your relationship both personally and
professionally. Mistakes or accidents are “mistakes and accidents” so
punishing others through blameful speech is only going to drive people in the
opposite direction from you where you will lack the support you need to
accomplish the goals or objectives ahead of you. Instead of blaming others
for situations and circumstances that are in the past, focus on the present
moment and how to resolve the situation for the best outcome of all
involved. It is best to find encouraging, supportive, and motivating language
that can allow all participants to maintain their enthusiasm and interest to
work together in meeting a given goal or objective. Speech that is blameless
is speech that is harmless.
Through causing no harm in your communication, you will find that
relationships are quite enjoyable and you can be inspiring to countless
people in your life.
122


You can reflect on these Five Factors of Well Spoken Speech and the need
to speak blamelessly and how when you have not spoken in this way, your
conversations and relationships dissolved or were otherwise negatively
impacted. Conversely, you can observe how when speaking in this way, all
participants gained insight, understanding, and maintained harmony in
accomplishing certain goals.
As you observe that the mind is not practicing one or more of these five (5)
factors, make efforts and repeated efforts to improve your moral conduct
through applying energy and active training of the mind. Bring your speech
closer and closer to these five (5) factors observing how your personal and
professional relationships will dramatically improve as you focus on
improving your life practice as it relates to Right Speech or Right
Communication.
If you choose to not practice these five (5) factors in their entirety, then you
will observe the struggles and challenges associated with practicing “wrong
speech” or “wrong communication”. Difficulties in personal and professional
relationships will ensue with the result of continued struggles and challenges
making any goals or objectives more labor intensive. The mind will be
drained of its energy because it is constantly struggling to have polite, kind,
friendly, and respectful relationships.
If you miss even one (1) of these factors in a given conversation, there is the
potential for the discussion to digress into argumentative or otherwise
difficult territory that you’d wished would not have occurred. Training the
mind closer and closer to practicing all five (5) factors will only help you to
achieve better results in life. Speaking in this way is “a better way of life” that
is beneficial for others, therefore, it is benefiting you. As your life practice
becomes more and more wholesome, more and more wholesomeness will
return to you.
We should not engage in idle chatter or unpurposeful talk that includes
gossip, harsh language, false speech with lies, deceit, or slander.
Slander (Gossip): speech or communication that is damaging to the
reputation of an individual/company/organization/country/group of people,
etc., whether true or false.
Frivolous Speech (Idle Chatter): is described as speaking “unbeneficially”
and “unpurposefully”. This is typically done with the mind’s craving/desire/
attachment where one may just be rambling pointlessly without any real
purpose or need to speak but instead, just because there is a craving/desire
to talk. There is no purpose or value to the speech. In some cases, one could
123


be speaking quickly and continuously without the ability for a mutual
conversation.
Having clear, well thought out, purposeful and wholesome speech is
important. Your speech should be without blame or “blameless”.
The Right Speech is born out of the Right Intention. With wholesome
intentions practicing harmlessness, this will breed wholesome and
purposeful speech free from craving, anger, and ignorance (unknowing of
true reality) without ego.
A good practice is, “if you do not have something good to say then do not
say anything at all”. You will need to learn to have “Right Speech” to attain
Enlightenment practicing the “Five Factors of Well Spoken Speech”.
These are not rules to follow but instead, the best way to ensure the best
possible outcome in all your communication with all beings. Through not
causing harm to others through your speech, your life will become effortless
and much more enjoyable as your personal and professional relationships
will blossom.
When you do not practice speaking with Right Speech, notice how it causes
harm to others and thus, causes harm in your relationships. There are going
to be challenges for you to bring your communication style closer to
speaking with Right Speech in all conversations. As you are gradually
developing your life practice but still unable to practice speaking with Right
Speech, you can apologize, aim to improve, then move on applying effort to
improve in each and every conversation.
4.) Right Action: Our bodily actions are born from the Right Intention.
Having no interest in harming other beings through practicing loving-
kindness and all the other aspects of Right Intention, the mind can then
produce bodily actions without harm.
You need to produce the Right Actions to ensure no harm to other beings
through movements of the body. Actions should also be free of craving,
anger, or ignorance (unknowing of true reality) and ego. Our bodily actions
should be without harm or “harmless”.
Some of the most harmful bodily actions include the below and through
making the unwholesome decision to do any of these, there will be
unwholesome results (i.e. unwholesome Kamma).
124


A Practitioner should develop their life practice to:
- Refrain from killing
- Refrain from stealing
- Refrain from misusing of sexual conduct that would harm
- Refrain from substances that would cause heedlessness
- Refrain from gambling
These actions are largely part of The Five Precepts which should be
practiced by all people. Through practice of these Five Precepts and The
Eight Fold Path, one is conducting a good moral life.
While Gotama Buddha never explicitly said, “do not punch someone in the
face” as part of Right Action, we know that if we cause harm through our
bodily actions this will cause harm to us. If you were to hit someone either a
friend or a person unknown to you, the harm you cause will be returned to
you. They could hit you, their friends could attack you, you could go to jail,
or you might even get murdered. Any bodily actions that are harmful will
cause harm to others and there will be harm that returns to you.
It is important to purify your bodily actions to ensure that you are practicing
in such a way that there is no harm being produced through your bodily
actions so that no harm will come to you. We do not judge others,
discriminate, or otherwise form harmful bodily actions. These are not
commandments but the best way one would live in harmony with others.
5.) Right Livelihood: A livelihood is how you earn your living through daily
life to sustain your life in a career, profession, or lifestyle. Our livelihood is the
work or activities we do on a daily basis such as an occupation or lifestyle to
sustain our life (i.e. stay at home parent, volunteer, retired person, holy life,
administrative support, waste removal, cleaning services, doctor, politician,
entrepreneur, etc.). A livelihood to sustain our life should not cause any harm
to other beings. If we cause harm to other beings in order to sustain our own
life, this is going to produce harm in our own life.
For example, are you a doctor, nurse, auto mechanic, street cleaning
engineer, food server, waste removal technician, etc.? Are you conducting a
livelihood that is wholesome and helpful to society and humanity? “Yes”?
This is a Right Livelihood. You should not cause any harm through your
livelihood.
Each person has a livelihood whether the goal is to acquire financial support
or not. A livelihood is the career, profession, or lifestyle one chooses. In
some cases, a person may choose to pursue personal interests and skills
rather than financial goals or a career. A stay at home parent is still a
125


livelihood as this is a contribution to society and humanity providing life
sustaining activities but may not have a direct salary associated with the
day-to-day responsibilities.
A livelihood is not necessarily solely to make money or produce wealth but
instead is how we choose to contribute our time, effort, and energy towards
life sustaining activities for us and our family. Finding life supporting
activities, a livelihood, that allow us to generate income to support our life
through helping others or just purely providing life sustaining activities that
we perform as a role in society, is our livelihood. Through finding a livelihood
that you enjoy while also providing income or life sustaining needs will
ensure a successful livelihood.
For those who do generate income through their livelihood, focus on finding
something you enjoy that happens to also provide financial support. This will
ensure the best outcome and enthusiasm for your daily life. If you select a
livelihood solely on the bases of making money, acquiring wealth, power,
prestige, or a specific title, then you will find the mind will struggle to perform
your duties and responsibilities on an ongoing consistent basis perhaps even
becoming bored or disinterested.
If you find a livelihood that is helping others, you enjoy the profession,
and you happen to be able to acquire financial income to sustain your
life and the life of those close to you, this will be the best match.
The mind will be motivated and enthusiastic to perform the daily
responsibilities of the livelihood with ease. Finding a livelihood where you can
acquire an income, help others, and you enjoy the activities required on a
daily basis, will ensure that you never “work” one day in your life. Your
profession will not feel like “work” but instead it is just one way that you help
the world through your daily efforts and it happens to generate life sustaining
resources for you and your family. Your livelihood is part of your life practice
and we can make conscious and wise choices to ensure we are meeting our
goals while also helping others through our livelihood.
Gotama Buddha gave us five livelihoods that we should not engage in as
they cause harm to other beings, thus, unwholesome Kamma production:
business in weapons, business in living beings (animals, slaves, human
trafficking), business in meat, business in substances that cause
heedlessness, and business in poisons. These all cause harm in the world,
thus, if we choose to sustain our life based on these “wrong livelihoods” then
we will experience harm.
126


Trades Not to Be Plied
Monks, a Household Practitioner should not engage in these five trades.
What five?
Business in weapons,
business in living beings,
business in meat,
business in substances that cause heedlessness,
and business in poisons.
A Household Practitioner should not engage in these five trades.
(Reference: AN 5.177)
—————
And what, Monks, is wrong livelihood?
Scheming, flattery, hinting, belittling, pursuing gain with gain: this is wrong livelihood.
(Gotama Buddha)
(Reference: MN 117)
These are aspects of practice that one is being guided to avoid while
practicing one’s livelihood.
Scheming: corruption or deception.
Flattery: excessive and insincere praise, given especially to further one’s
own interests.
Hinting: suggest or indicate something indirectly or covertly. Not being
direct, clear, and to the point with one’s work activities.
Belittling: talking down to others in negative and disparaging ways in the
attempt to diminish others’ work.
Pursuing gain with gain: doing work just for profit or greed, without a real
interest to provide benefit to humanity through one’s livelihood.
As long as your livelihood is not involved in any of these five (5) wrong
livelihoods, you are not pursuing a livelihood solely for the purpose of “gain”
or selfish desires (i.e. solely for fame or fortune), and you conduct your
livelihood with high ethics (i.e. without scheming, corruption, or deception),
you are practicing “Right Livelihood”.
127


Ordained Practitioners have guidance from Gotama Buddha beyond these
five (5) livelihoods that are considered “wrong livelihood”. For example,
Gotama Buddha provided guidance that Ordained Practitioners who provide
tattoos, palm reading, spells, predictions based on astronomy, and other
types of “livelihoods” are practicing “wrong livelihood”. Gotama Buddha’s
Teachings have much more details on “Right Livelihood” for Ordained
Practitioners.
Gotama Buddha’s objective for Ordained Practitioners was to keep them
focused on learning, practicing, and sharing these Teachings so that they
could eliminate discontentedness in the mind for themselves and guide
humanity in eliminating the discontentedness in their mind. Therefore,
Ordained Practitioners who focus on livelihoods other than learning,
practicing, and sharing The Teachings are not practicing “Right Livelihood”.
Ordained Practitioners are sustained through offerings by Household
Practitioners. So it is important that they develop their own practice of these
Teachings and then share those Teachings with Household Practitioners so
they can benefit from The Teachings and improve their life. If Ordained
Practitioners are not learning, reflecting, and practicing The Teachings so
that they can then share The Teachings with Household Practitioners, they
are benefiting from the offerings and hard work of Household Practitioners
without providing anything in return that is beneficial to Household
Practitioners. This was not how Gotama Buddha intended The Community of
Ordained Practitioners to function, thus, he established many “wrong
livelihoods” that involved distracting Ordained Practitioners from their work
to develop a life practice and then teach others.
Recently, marijuana has become known as a substance once thought of as a
“drug” but now many people are realizing its medicinal qualities. For one to
sell this medication through proper legal channels as a “medication” with the
intention to help, that would still be considered a “Right Livelihood”. You will
find more on the topic of marijuana in the Chapter titled “The Five Precepts: A
Householder’s Guide to Daily Practice” (Chapter 7).
Detailed explanation of Right Livelihood is available in this same book series
found in Chapter 14 of the book “Lowly Arts” (Volume 12).
128


6.) Right Effort: Right Effort has four (4) aspects to it that need to be
understood and practiced.
To apply Right Effort, you will need to:
A.) Prevent unwholesome mental states that have not arisen from
arising in the mind.
B.) Abandon unwholesome mental states that have arisen in the mind.
C.) Produce un-arisen wholesome mental states to arise in the mind.
D.) Maintain wholesome mental states that have arisen, not allowing
them to fade away and work to increase their growth in the mind.
Prevent unwholesome mental states that have not arisen from arising in
the mind
A good example of this aspect of Right Effort would be that you most likely
have no interest in killing another human being currently in the mind. The
unwholesome mental state of killing another human being is un-arisen in the
mind.
Applying this aspect of Right Effort would be to prevent this unwholesome
mental state and all other unwholesome mental states that have not arisen in
the mind from arising.
Abandon unwholesome mental states that have arisen in the mind
A good example of this aspect of Right Effort would be that if you are
currently in a relationship yet have a craving and desire to have sexual
contact with another, you should apply Right Effort to abandon this
unwholesome mental state that has arisen in the mind. Eliminate the
unwholesome mental state of craving sexual contact as you already have a
partner and having sexual contact with another would cause harm.
Another example of this would be when you feel the rise of anger inside of
the mind along with the physical sensations of a burning and irate feeling
arising. Do you let it come through in your speech and actions or do you
make the “Right Effort” to abandon this unwholesome mental state?
By applying “Right Effort” we can abandon the unwholesome mental state
prior to reacting through our speech and actions, thus, eliminating any
potential unwholesome Kamma production through our speech and actions.
129


Produce un-arisen wholesome mental states to arise in the mind.
A good example of this aspect of Right Effort would be if you know the mind
is not generous or compassionate, then you apply Right Effort to produce
these un-arisen wholesome mental states to arise in the mind. Practice
generosity and compassion through your actions and all other wholesome
mental states that need to be arisen to attain Enlightenment.
Maintain wholesome mental states that have arisen, not allowing
them to fade away and work to increase their growth in the mind.
A good example of this aspect of Right Effort would be if the mind currently
has loving-kindness and sympathetic joy. Then you apply Right Effort to
maintain these wholesome mental states that have arisen, not allowing them
to fade away and work to increase their growth in the mind.
Right Effort Summary
In applying Right Effort, you actively work to prevent and then abandon
unwholesome mental states such as craving, anger, and ignorance
(unknowing of true reality) or ego from arising along with other unwholesome
mental states that would be in conflict with The Five Precepts or other
Teachings. It is important to cultivate wholesome mental states such as
generosity, loving-kindness, wisdom, and humbleness (the opposites of
craving, anger, ignorance, and ego).
You can apply Right Effort to cultivate the wholesome mental states of
compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity, along with the wholesome mental
states shared as guidance in The Five Precepts and all other Teachings
shared by Gotama Buddha.
You will also need to apply Right Effort to develop a meditation practice on a
consistent and ongoing basis. A Practitioner will need to apply Right Effort to
abandon the unwholesome mental state of complacency and arise the
wholesome quality of developing and practicing meditation daily.
After implementing this important practice in applying “Right Effort”, over
time you will notice it becomes easier and easier to abandon the
unwholesome mental states and arise wholesome mental states.
Over time and as you better train the mind, when events happen in your life
where you once experienced anger or other unwholesome mental states,
you won’t even have a rise of the unwholesome mental state - at all. You will
not experience any anger, frustration, irritation or other unwelcome feelings.
You will notice that you can completely and entirely eliminate 100% of all
130


unwholesome mental states through actively cutting off the arising of
unwholesome mental states and through cultivating wholesome mental
states.
Breathing Mindfulness Meditation and generosity is training the mind to
easily “let go”. Then, in daily life as unwelcome feelings and unwholesome
mental states arise, a Practitioner can more easily apply Right Effort to “cut
off” and eliminate the unwholesome, arising the wholesome. Through
determination, dedication, and diligence to apply Right Effort in daily life,
over time, the mind will gradually eliminate any arising of discontentedness.
This requires a committed and consistent meditation practice along with
learning and implementing all the other Teachings including Right Effort.
Right Effort will help you to attain a peaceful, calm, and stable mind no
matter what events happen in your life. You will not be attached to the
speech nor actions of others nor events that happen around you. You will
ultimately attain an unshakeable content mind. The mind will need gradual
training to accomplish this result.
Training the mind in this way, you can work towards liberating the mind
through wisdom. It is a permanent place for the mind to reside, content and
peaceful.
The same applies to unwholesome mental states like sexual desire that
would break The Five Precepts, or other unwholesome mental states. Do you
allow this unwholesome mental state to continue to arise and then apply
speech and action to fulfill your desire or do you make efforts to abandon
this unwholesome mental state?
We must apply “Right Effort” to abandon unwholesome mental states and
produce or maintain wholesome mental states.
With “Right Effort” you prevent unwholesome mental states that have not
arisen from arising, abandon unwholesome mental states that have arisen,
produce un-arisen wholesome mental states, and maintain wholesome
mental states that have arisen, not allowing them to fade away and work to
increase their growth in the mind.
7.) Right Mindfulness: Mindfulness is to be aware of the mind in the present
moment, not allowing the mind to dwell in the past or the future. To purify the
mind, you will need to have awareness of mind and what currently exists in
the mind. Additionally, to apply Right Effort you will need to have full
awareness of the mind at all times. This is developed gradually over time.
131


For a Practitioner who is just starting out, you can think of Right Mindfulness
as “awareness of mind”. However, as you progress in this book series and
seek guidance with a Teacher, a Practitioner will need to learn and practice
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness.
These are explored in the book “Breathing Mindfulness Meditation” (Volume
7) of this same book series.
For completeness, The Four Foundations of Mindfulness will be listed here
and then Teachings on these will be found in the book “Breathing
Mindfulness Meditation” (Volume 7) of this same book series and through
training classes with the author of this book series.
A Practitioner can consider Right Mindfulness “awareness of mind” until they
are able to more fully explore The Four Foundations of Mindfulness and
develop these in their life practice.
What Are The Four Foundations of Mindfulness?
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness are four aspects of awareness the
mind needs to develop to have “awareness of mind”, then, actively and
skillfully work with arising unwholesome thoughts, ideas, and feelings to
eliminate them from ever arising again.
It is through developing awareness of bodily sensations, feelings, conditions
of the mind, and mental objects that the mind can then eliminate
unwholesome qualities and cultivate wholesome qualities.
Through developing The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, a Practitioner can
then more readily and actively “cut off the thoughts” and “let them go”
training the mind to eliminate discontentedness.
Rather than allowing the mind to become polluted with unwholesome
feelings, conditions of the mind, or mental objects, a Practitioner can instead
cut off and let go of any arising thoughts, ideas, and feelings when they are
only bodily sensations.
This allows the mind to not experience the pollution of arising
unwholesomeness and trains the mind so that unwholesome thoughts,
ideas, and feelings no longer arise at all.
Without The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, a Practitioner would not be
aware of the bodily sensations, or the resulting feelings, conditions of the
mind, and mental objects to then be able to cut off and let go of the
132


unwholesome thoughts, ideas, and feelings prior to polluting the mind so
that eventually, they will never arise.
Through developing The Four Foundations of Mindfulness a Practitioner will
be able to get to the point in their training that through the constant cutting
off of unwholesome thoughts, ideas, and feelings that the mind can reside
peaceful, calm, serene, and content with joy because unwholesomeness will
never arise.
It is the constant cutting off sooner and sooner that the mind can experience
liberation through the non-arising unwholesome thoughts, ideas, and
feelings. The mind will eventually get tired and will submit to never arise
unwholesome thoughts, ideas, or feelings.
The non-arising of unwholesome thoughts, ideas, and feelings is
experienced through a well liberated mind - an Enlightened mind.
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness
Body as Body Observing/Awareness of
Bodily Sensations
Feelings as Feelings Observing/Awareness of
Feelings
Mind as Mind Observing/Awareness of
Conditions of the Mind
Mental Objects as Mental Objects Observing/Awareness of
Mental Objects
To develop awareness of mind, you should not allow the mind to be lost in
daydreams, anticipation, indulgences, worry, or dwell in other discontent
feelings. With awareness of the mind that the mind is not in the present
moment during daily life, cut off those thoughts and bring the mind to the
present moment.
Cultivating mindfulness or awareness of mind is accomplished through
meditation practices and carried into everyday life through implementing
awareness of the mind in each moment of your normal activities.
To cultivate mindfulness, you will need to learn Breathing Mindfulness
Meditation in the positions of seated, lying, standing, or walking. Breathing
Mindfulness Meditation and the four (4) body positions for meditation are
described in the Chapter titled “Meditation: Developing Your Practice”
133


(Chapter 11). Using Breathing Mindfulness Meditation, you can establish
mindfulness or awareness of bodily sensations, feelings, conditions of the
mind, and mental objects while learning to “let them go” to eliminate
discontentedness.
If you continue to have reoccurring thoughts during the day or during your
meditation sessions, a Practitioner could find the “cravings/desires/
attachments” of why this discontentedness exists and learn how to eliminate
them from the mind with the guidance of a Teacher.
Eliminating cravings/desires/attachments will clear the mind and uncover
your ability to “concentrate” in the present moment. Right Concentration is
the last and final step of practicing the entire Eight Fold Path.
The word “mindfulness” or “mindful” has become a popular word as part of
common language. The use of the word “mindfulness” or “mindful” is most
often being used in replace of “careful”.
While the vast majority of the world is using these words in a different way
than that of The Buddha, it is important that you understand and use the
word “mindfulness” and “mindful” in the same way as Gotama Buddha. This
will bring the mind to a better understanding of The Path to Enlightenment
and allow you to cultivate the mind to attain Enlightenment. Even though
others may choose to misunderstand this word and use it in replace of
“careful”, now that you understand the definition of this word more deeply,
you can use it as described as part of The Eight Fold Path so that you can
train the mind based on these Teachings.
Mindfulness is “awareness of mind”.
Be sure to continually practice “Right Mindfulness” during all waking
moments. Implement mindfulness into your daily life in all that you do. This
will assist you to be aware of the mind, clear the mind of cravings/desires/
attachments to the past or future, and to eliminate aversion, thus allowing
the mind to reside in the present moment being “satisfied with what is” with
a more peaceful, calm, serene, and content mind with joy.
8.) Right Concentration: Concentration is the practice of meditation and a
by-product of a clear and pure mind that is practicing the entire Eight Fold
Path. A mind that has eliminated cravings/desires/attachments along with
practicing all these Teachings will have a focus and high degree of
concentration. This is referred to as “singleness of mind”.
134


Right Concentration, or singleness of mind, is developed and maintained
with a consistent and regular practice of The Eight Fold Path including a well
established meditation practice to train the mind.
Through training the mind in Breathing Mindfulness Meditation, a Practitioner
applies Right Effort to develop Right Mindfulness training the mind to “let
go” to eliminate craving (mental longing with a strong eagerness). As a
result, the mind becomes more aware and concentrated. Then, in daily life
one should train the mind to only focus on one thing at a time to develop
higher degrees of concentration or “singleness of mind”.
It is not physically possible for the mind to do more than one thing at a time.
If a Practitioner attempts to do multiple things at one time through “multi-
tasking”, you are essentially training the mind to rapidly cycle from one task
to another. The mind is not actually doing multiple tasks at one time but
instead is being trained to become overactive cycling through tasks so
quickly, it will find it challenging to do any particular task well. The mind will
then lack concentration and find that from the over stimulation that it is
difficult to calm and relax the mind at other times in your day.
Through training the mind to do only one task at a time, a Practitioner will
increase their productivity because each task will be done well with
wholesome decisions and wholesome results (i.e. wholesome Kamma). You
will not need to clean up any situations where you rushed through the
decision making process producing unwholesome results. Instead, each
decision will produce wholesome results because it was executed with Right
Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.
The mind needs to take the effort to develop singleness of mind performing
tasks one-by-one with full awareness of mind so that the mind can have well
developed concentration ensuring the best possible outcome.
The increased and high degree of focus, concentration, and memory with
clarity of mind is attained through a well developed practice of The Eight
Fold Path but more specifically through daily training in meditation and
through practicing “singleness of mind” in daily life. Performing one task at a
time in daily life over a consistent long term basis is a practice of “singleness
of mind” and will readily develop Right Concentration outside of one’s
meditation sessions.
A Practitioner uses meditation to train the mind but then moves the benefits
of these sessions into daily life through their life practice. Focusing the mind
on the breath in Breathing Mindfulness Meditation trains the mind to have
singleness of mind. Then, the Practitioner will need to apply the effort to
ensure they are only performing one task at a time throughout their day in
135


daily life. This fully brings the mind into the present moment through fully
practicing singleness of mind in-and-out of meditation to accomplish the
goal of Right Concentration.
A Practitioner then benefits from the increased and high degree of focus,
concentration, and memory with clarity of mind being able to apply them to
your personal and professional life creating beneficial outcomes.
As taught in The Four Noble Truths, The Eight Fold Path is the “life
practice” that leads to the complete elimination of discontentedness to
attain Enlightenment. The Eight Fold Path needs to be deeply
understood through detailed study and practiced in daily life to attain
Enlightenment.
By eliminating cravings, you will “lay down the burden” of carrying these in
the mind. Gotama Buddha used this phrase when describing Enlightenment.
Upon attaining Enlightenment, one has “laid down the burden” or “laid down
the stress” of carrying the heaviness of mental cravings.
The practice of meditation allows you to practice every step of The Eight
Fold Path at one time for a given period of time, Right View through Right
Concentration. This is why it’s so effective at creating wellness and a healthy
mind.
During the time of meditation, one is conducting the entire Eight Fold Path
for that timeframe. It’s like “restarting” the mind with full execution of The
Eight Fold Path in multiple moments strung together. Those moments then
lead to the next moments of a healthy and stable mind that generates
concentration. And it is implementing The Eight Fold Path as a “life practice”
that will allow you to attain a peaceful, calm, serene, and content mind with
joy - Enlightenment.
There are multiple forms of meditation that can be useful in training the mind.
Breathing Mindfulness Meditation in the positions of seated, lying, standing,
and walking along with Loving-kindness Meditation are the main forms of
meditation needed for attaining Enlightenment. This will be explained more in
the Chapter titled “Transforming The Three Poisons: Craving, Anger, and
Ignorance” (Chapter 8) and “Meditation: Developing Your Practice” (Chapter
11).
You will find many meditation techniques and styles taught throughout the
world, however, focusing on the types of meditation mentioned here will
bring the best results in practicing The Eight Fold Path as taught by Gotama
Buddha. Other forms of meditation can be used as needed for specific goals
136


or tasks the mind may need for continued training and liberation. (More on
meditation in later Chapters.)
Many people start with meditation as their entry point into attempting to
work towards Enlightenment. That is fine, however, one must understand
that meditation alone will not produce Enlightenment if the entire Eight Fold
Path is not practiced throughout your daily life in a life practice.
You cannot meditate your way to Enlightenment through wishful thinking
while having improper intentions, speech, or actions and have a harmful
livelihood. You could not attain Enlightenment without meditation but you
also would not be able to attain Enlightenment with only meditation.
To attain Enlightenment, you will need to learn and practice the entire
Eight Fold Path with meditation and other Teachings.
Through a regular practice of meditation to train the mind, quiet the mind,
and eliminate cravings, you will gain higher and higher degrees of
concentration. With a mind full of discontentedness, it’s very hard to have
concentration. But with continued practice of the entire Eight Fold Path that
includes meditation, you will experience a high degree of concentration as
you pursue the goal of Enlightenment and a higher state of consciousness.
Gotama Buddha taught Four (4) Jhānas or degrees of concentration that are
attained as you progress closer and closer to Enlightenment as part of Right
Concentration. Jhāna is the Pāli word for meditative or mental absorption,
and refers to states of deep and subtle concentration. The Jhānas are
preliminary phases the mind moves through prior to entering into the first
Stage of Enlightenment.
Gotama Buddha gave details that describe each of these Jhānas. However,
your goal should be to attain Arahantship, in other words, become an
Arahant. This is the highest Stage of Enlightenment and the mind is then
Enlightened. The Jhānas are impermanent while Enlightenment is
permanent. The goal is to achieve Enlightenment.
This means, you will need to practice the entire Eight Fold Path closely and
eliminate The Ten Fetters along with eliminating and cultivating various
attributes of the mind.
There is no use trying to understand each individual Jhāna and which Jhāna
you have or have not attained. It is best to develop and maintain a solid
practice of these Teachings while pursuing The Path to Arahantship by
staying focused on The Ten Fetters and eliminate these from the mind.
137


Obtaining the human state is rare and your time in this form is always limited.
So there is no need to focus the mind on figuring out which Jhāna you are in,
that you are headed toward, and where you “want” to be. This will take you
away from learning The Teachings and practicing The Teachings that lead to
complete liberation of the mind.
The Jhānas are temporary and not the goal of these Teachings. The mind is
not meant to reside there so there is no need to focus extensive time and
effort to understand each Jhāna but instead, apply dedication and
commitment to eliminating The Ten Fetters in the goal of attaining the Stage
of Enlightenment as an Arahant. Knowing you are attaining the Jhānas can
help you to understand you are headed in the right direction but you should
not crave or want a specific Jhāna.
If you “want” a specific Jhāna, then you are craving and you will not
attain complete Enlightenment. All craving must be extinguished
including the craving to attain a specific Jhāna or even the craving to
attain Enlightenment. You will need to pursue it as an interest, goal, or
objective without craving.
Another reason why there is no need to determine which Jhāna you are in is
that there is no need to compare or evaluate your “status” on this path
compared to anyone else. This is a personal pursuit and one that you are
walking alone with Teachers and guides to assist you. Comparing your
progress to another person will only slow your progress as this will create
judgment and ego. Both judgment and ego, along with other qualities of the
mind, need to be fully extinguished on The Path to Enlightenment.
You will attain “Right Concentration” as you progress along The Eight Fold
Path and practice all The Teachings deeply to include meditation.
There are no short cuts to achieving Enlightenment. You must start at the
bottom in order to get to the top of the mind. A higher state of
consciousness or “Enlightenment” is not given to you. Personal
responsibility, personal improvement, and an independent journey with the
guidance of Teachers is required in order to earn Enlightenment. You can
maintain a normal, healthy, and productive life while pursuing Enlightenment.
In fact, your life will actually continuously improve as you work your way
towards Enlightenment.
You will notice ease and smoothness in areas of your life where you
previously had roughness. Enlightenment is not something to prop up the
138


ego against that you hold as a higher status over others, in fact, it’s just the
opposite. To achieve Enlightenment, one needs to let go of their ego.
As you pursue Enlightenment through practicing The Eight Fold Path, you
will most likely be interested to help others attain Enlightenment as well. It is
best to refer new Practitioners to Teachers who are prepared to guide
Students in developing a deep understanding and practice of these
Teachings. If you attempt to help others while you are still gathering
understanding yourself, then the work to help others will only hinder
progress. It is best to refer anyone who is interested to pursue this path to a
Teacher who is capable of guiding them while still allowing you time to
progress. Then together, both of you can discuss The Teachings supporting
and encouraging each other.
Enlightenment, and its path, is life changing. You will see the results of
implementing The Eight Fold Path into your life as you constantly pursue
Enlightenment.
To maintain the quality of Enlightenment, continue to work at maintaining a
healthy and pure mind through continuous attention to practice The Eight
Fold Path using meditation as a tool to develop and maintain a content
mind. Develop and maintain a wholesome “life practice” for the best results.
Right Intentions, Right Speech, and Right Actions will produce wholesome
Kamma creating a life of ease and smoothness. Another way to understand
these are Kind Intentions, Kind Speech, and Kind Actions.
Enlightenment is a continuous pursuit of knowledge and the result of fully
practicing The Eight Fold Path, but it is also the starting point to fully apply
your practice with a liberated mind.
Enjoy the journey, enjoy the learning, growing and developing. Enjoy
knowing that you can achieve Enlightenment through the process of earning
your own Enlightenment.
You will never fear death because you know without a doubt that you are
finished with discontentedness and the suffering it causes. Through pursuing
Enlightenment and attaining it, you will never be reborn. The mind will have
inner joy and inner fulfilling peace that is unshakable.
139


The below table shows The Eight Fold Path grouped into its sections of
Wisdom, Moral Conduct, and Mental Discipline.
8.) Right Concentration Mental Discipline
7.) Right Mindfulness
6.) Right Effort
5.) Right Livelihood Moral Conduct
4.) Right Action
3.) Right Speech
2.) Right Intention Wisdom
1.) Right View
There are two additional steps on The Path to Enlightenment referred to as
The Ten Fold Path. The two additional steps described as part of The Ten
Fold Path are not taught but instead experienced. The steps of Right Wisdom
and Right Liberation are added to The Eight Fold Path to describe The Ten
Fold Path.
Right Wisdom and Right Liberation do not have specific Teachings that are
shared to produce these factors of The Path to Enlightenment but instead are
the results of fully practicing The Eight Fold Path and all the other Teachings
to attain Enlightenment.
An Enlightened being will be practicing The Ten Fold Path where they will be
experiencing Right Wisdom and Right Liberation as a result of fully practicing
The Eight Fold Path.
9.) Right Wisdom: is a Practitioner’s deep understanding of The Teachings
and being able to communicate them with ease. A Practitioner will have fully
eliminated The Unwholesome Root of Ignorance (unknowing of true reality)
which is also described as a fetter/taint/pollution of mind as part of The Ten
Fetters.
10.) Right Liberation: is that a Practitioner’s mind is fully liberated
experiencing freedom from discontentedness through having eliminated The
Ten Fetters. The mind is Enlightened.
140


You do not need to do anything special to focus on these two additional
factors of The Path to Enlightenment but instead, they will be developed as a
result of all the other training you employ.
Do Not Be The Last One
…And, therefore, I say to you Ānanda, what is the good practice? It is The Noble Eight
Fold Path…
When there are two men living, he under whom there occurs a breach of this good
practice - he is the last man among them.
Therefore, Ānanda, I say to you: continue this good practice instituted by me and do
not be the last man.
(Gotama Buddha)
(Reference: MN 83)
Author’s Thoughts: Through this Teaching from Gotama Buddha to one of his closest
Students “Ānanda”, with understanding of all other Teachings of Gotama Buddha, we
understand that Gotama Buddha is providing guidance that we should continue to learn
and practice The Eight Fold Path.
This is The Path that leads to the complete elimination and destruction of all
discontentedness of the mind to attain Enlightenment. Understanding The Eight Fold
Path thoroughly and in detail is highly important for the pursuit of Enlightenment.
Further, Gotama Buddha understood that his Teachings are meant to fully liberate the
mind of all of humanity bringing peace to all humans.
Until we attain Enlightenment, we will constantly be reborn through “The Cycle of
Rebirth” until we attain Enlightenment during this very life or at death. Over time as all
of humanity attains Enlightenment, eventually, human existence will cease to exist
because there will no longer be any beings to be reborn.
Nothing lasts forever, all “things” will cease to exist including all of humanity.
So, do not be the “last one” to attain Enlightenment. Pursue this good practice…
thoroughly and in detail learn and practice The Eight Fold Path to liberate the mind with
the help of Teachers. The Eight Fold Path is your “life practice” to liberate the mind and
attain Enlightenment so that you will no longer be reborn through “The Cycle of Rebirth”
and you can attain a peaceful and serene mind and life. “Do not be the last one.”
141


Chapter 6
The Middle Way:
Walking The Middle Way
Throughout literature, Gotama Buddha teaches and encourages us to “Walk
The Middle Way”. But what does this mean and where do we find it?
During Gotama Buddha’s lifetime, he noticed that there was a stringed
instrument similar to a “sitar” that only played beautiful music when the
strings were tuned perfectly to “the middle”.
If the string was too tight, the instrument did not play as it was intended to
play. The music did not sound beautiful.
If the string was too loose, the instrument did not play as it was intended to
play. The music did not sound beautiful.
It was only when the musician had tuned the string perfectly that it would
play beautiful music as the instrument was intended to play. He observed
that the string needed to be tuned perfectly to “the middle”. And, when the
string was tuned in this way, the instrument played beautiful music as it was
intended to play and those around enjoyed the music.
He then compared this to the human mind. That the human mind is exactly
the same. When the mind holds onto things too tightly, the mind is muddled
and unconcentrated. The mind does not perform optimally. When the mind is
143


too loose, the mind is muddled and unconcentrated as complacency and
laziness will arise. The mind is muddled and unconcentrated.
It is only when the mind is tuned perfectly to the middle by the Practitioner,
that it plays beautiful music as it was intended to play. It is only when the
mind is tuned perfectly to the middle, that it will experience focus,
concentration, and memory with clarity of mind. And, it is The Buddha’s
Teachings to understand The Natural Laws of Existence that the mind can
learn, reflect, and practice to tune the mind perfectly in “the middle”.
This is one of the most simple, yet profound, Teachings that you will learn
from Gotama Buddha. Tuning the mind perfectly to the middle is exactly
what is happening as one progresses on their journey to Enlightenment.
There are countless Teachings to learn and understand so that you can
practice. But there is no Teaching that is more simple to understand and that
can be readily applied to your life, right now today, that will have more
impact.
Whether it be how one chooses to engage with their personal or professional
relationships, the mind needs to find the middle. If you are looking at
financial decisions within your life, the mind needs to find the middle. If you
need to make decisions regarding maintenance of your home or other
possessions, the mind needs to find the middle way.
Even as it relates to learning and practicing these Teachings, the mind needs
to find the middle way.
If the mind pushes too hard and forcefully attempts to move the mind in the
direction of Enlightenment, this is not the middle and it is only going to cause
the mind to be discontent. The mind will become frustrated, irritated, and
annoyed because it is not walking the middle way.
If the mind is too complacent, laid back, and not interested to apply energy
and effort to learning and practicing these Teachings, this is not the middle
and is only going to cause the mind to be discontent. The mind will become
dull, lazy, and lethargic.
It is only when the mind finds the middle and stays there that it will perform
optimally moving gradually towards Enlightenment. So, where is the middle
as it relates to learning, reflecting, and practicing these Teachings?
A Practitioner should be determined, dedicated, diligent, and motivated to
learn, reflect, and practice The Teachings. Here, the mind can find the middle
and reside there peacefully, calmly, in serenity, with contentedness and joy.
144


The mind can know that it is applying constant energy and effort to learning
and progressing - neither holding these Teachings too tight nor too loose.
Now, the goal is to take this lesson and apply it to everything in other areas
of your life.
Whether it be with your children, life partners, parents, friends, career,
personal possessions, goals, financial needs, etc., always look for the middle
way.
Keep in mind that while a Practitioner will need to pursue certain goals in life,
holding those tightly the mind will experience discontentedness. But also, if
a Practitioner never applied effort and energy to improve their life, the mind
would be too loose not being able to experience beneficial outcomes. A
Practitioner will need to find the middle where it can pursue goals and
objectives but also find time for rest and relaxation. The constant work and
drive craving certain successes is only going to create “burn out” where the
mind is no longer enjoying life but instead is highly discontent with stress,
anxiety, and exhaustion not having time to gather one’s thoughts and reflect
on making wholesome life choices.
Understanding that inner peacefulness is created through a balanced
lifestyle (i.e. the middle way) not through the acquisition of physical or mental
objects, is highly important. If the mind is constantly pursuing and chasing
the objects of its affection, not enjoying the journey, this can result in many
difficulties and struggles. So, be sure to pursue goals and objectives but also
find time for rest and relaxation. You may need to train the mind to rest and
relax as this quality is not natural but instead, oftentimes the mind needs to
be trained to just relax and view that as being productive for your life and life
practice. It is ok to stop and smell the flowers.
The mind will tell you when it’s not in the middle. The discontentedness of
mind that is experienced is the “red light” on the dashboard alerting you that
the mind is not in the middle.
If the mind is discontent, it is not in the middle. The mind is not playing
beautiful music as it was intended to do. It is The Buddha’s Teachings that
will provide you the remedies of how to move the mind to the middle.
- A pleasant feeling (happiness, excitement, elation, thrill, exhilaration,
euphoria, etc.)
- A painful feeling (sadness, anger, frustration, irritation, annoyance, guilt,
shame, fear, stress, anxiety, etc.)
- A feeling that is neither painful-nor-pleasant (boredom, loneliness,
shyness, displeased, uncomfortable, unsatisfied, etc.)
145


If the mind is experiencing any discontentedness whatsoever of pleasant
feelings, painful feelings, or feelings that are neither painful-nor-pleasant,
then the mind is not tuned to the middle and there is more work to be done
to further tune the mind and get it to stay there through developing a life
practice based on The Eight Fold Path.
This requires you to develop a life practice through consistent and
comprehensive learning, reflecting, and practicing these Teachings with
guidance from a Teacher.
Progress will be gradual, but within a short period of time you will notice a
difference as the mind gradually becomes less and less discontent. There
will be situations that once produced anger, sadness, frustration, irritation,
and annoyance in the mind, but those same circumstances will arise and the
mind will be able to maintain its calmness and composure. This is how you
will know The Teachings and practices you are implementing are working.
You will see the truth for yourself. You will not need to believe these
Teachings as you will see the truth that the mind is gradually becoming more
peaceful, calm, serene, and content with joy in countless situations until
eventually, the mind is perfectly tuned to the middle and stays there
permanently. This is a mind that is experiencing Enlightenment.
If we are sad and feeling down, we aren’t walking the Middle Way. There is
discontentedness of mind. But this is a temporary emotion and we know it
will not be forever, because Gotama Buddha teaches us that everything is
impermanent except for Enlightenment and The Natural Laws of Existence.
You can see this truth for yourself as the mind constantly moves from feeling
to feeling, emotion to emotion. You can observe this as truth that no feeling
is indeed permanent. Your sadness will eventually dissipate and you will slide
into other emotions even if that takes, hours, days, weeks, months, years,
etc.
But some of us dwell in the sadness, feeling so sad and thinking that we are
going to be in this condition for so long. We keep repeating these sad
thoughts in the mind over and over and over. So, what we get is sadness
because that’s all we are thinking. One moment leads to the next so we are
filling up this moment with sadness, so we get sadness in the next moment.
So what we experience is a feeling of never ending sadness. We are highly
discontent in this situation and certainly not “Walking The Middle Way”
because we are sad.
Perhaps feeling sadness, we turn to happiness thinking that will save us. We
turn to happy friends, happy occasions, happy situations, but somehow the
mind keeps returning to the sadness or perhaps it stays in the happiness
146