You may be confused in that I wrote the Third Noble Truth is “The Truth to the Cessation of Suffering” and now I am saying “The Path To End Suffering”. I was confused about it as well but in layman’s terms the Third Noble Truth equivalent to “don’t despair, there is truth to ending what inflicts you” and the fourth says “Practice these steps and you are on your way to end suffering”.

Those steps are:

The Noble Eightfold Path

I have seen these listed in various different ways, sometimes in different order but here is the Noble Eightfold Path:

Right Speech
Right Action
Right LivelyhoodThe_Great_Buddha_Kamakura_Japan
[Ethical Conduct/Morals]

Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration (or Meditation)
[Mental Discipline]

Right Understanding (Insight/View)
Right Resolve (Thought/Aspirations/Intentions)
[Wisdom]

In my previous blogs I have asked you to make a list of your suffering (Anger, Infliction..etc), work at understanding where the suffering is coming from and begin working on those item on your list.  My next blog will cover each of the 8 items above (and the 3 bracketed items) in more detail but what I would like for you to do for your homework is: Take your list, continue to add items that inflict you, continue to work on the items on your list and then see if you can apply any of the above items to your list of problems.
For Example:
“If I use the (Right Speech) when talking to my co-worker, they will not feel like I am yelling at them”
“if I am (Mindful) I can remember to help out my spouse” and let’s hop in my car again:

“If I use (Right Action), stay (Mindful) of the driver in front of me and understand they may have a fear of driving (Right Understanding) , I realize I should probably slow down and wait for an appropriate time to pass (Right Resolve) .”

See if you can make this work for you. It is easy to try it once and forget it but it takes practice to change it. My quote for today is:

“When attempting to learn a new way, Practice! It is easy to fall back on behaviors learned throughout the course of your life”

Please feel free to comment!

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