The Eightfold Path is used by those apart of the Buddhist religion as a guideline of how to conduct and live their lives the most fruitfully. The three essentials considered to be of importance in the Buddhist religion are ethical conduct (sila), mental discipline (samadhhi), and wisdom (panna). Ethical conduct is associated with universal love and compassion toward all living beings. Mental discipline is focused on transforming a person’s mind by the ways of meditation and other mental activities. Wisdom is known to be another form of intelligence or mental understanding gained, by unselfishness and the four noble truths. The particular component from the Eightfold Path that caught my attention was ethical conduct. Ethical conduct is understood to be the first portion Buddha’s teaching as it includes right speech, right action, and right livelihood. I think ethical conduct is probably the most commonly applicable practice of the Buddhist religion. I try to apply aspects of ethical conduct into my daily life, as it brings me the most happiness.
Right speech promotes that people avoid gossip, and any sort of speech that’s negative. I don’t like wasting my time on gossip or any talk that could be considered slanderous. I would never want to hurt anyone’s feelings from the conversations I have with other people. I understand that we’re humans and we make mistakes, so there’s bound to be some slip ups. However, I think in general gossip is pretty unproductive and a waste of time. Right action encourages people to live their lives morally and peacefully. I know specifically right action mentions stealing and other dishonest actions. Stealing has always kind of made me uncomfortable. When I was younger I accidentally stole a sweater from a clothing store. I stole the sweater by keeping it on my shoulder and forgetting to place it on the counter to pay for it. As I left, the sensors didn’t detect the sweater, and I didn’t realize I hadn’t paid for it until I was in the parking lot. I didn’t go back into the store to pay for it, because I thought I would get in trouble. I felt pretty guilty about it and I haven’t stolen since. I really do connect with the peaceful conduct portion of the right action. I try to make sure all of my interactions with people are positive and not hostile. I want to make sure that people feel comfortable while they’re hanging around me, so I try to accommodate others as much as I can. Right livelihood involves people staying away from professions that can be harmful for other living things. The Noble Truths article explains, “…trading in arms and lethal weapons, intoxicating drinks or poisons, killing animals, cheating, etc…” are considered to be harmful to others, as there can be lasting effects that will affect other living things in the long run. I would not want to have a job that would negatively impact others. I think as we get older, we gain a bigger sense of responsibility to care for others. I know there’s a lot of corruption in the world that has a lot of people working in professions that negatively impact living things. I like to think there’s some people out there that don’t want to live their lives deceitfully.
I do believe right “skillful” action would lead to less suffering in a person’s life. According to the reading right action includes, “…refraining from damaging sexual behavior (rape, intoxicated, non-consensual), harassment, cheating, or any unwise actions. I believe those kinds of actions will bring about a lot of unhappiness for a person. Unfortunately, not all of these actions are preventable. I think what matters most is how a person transitions when horrific or unfortunate events occur in their lives.
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