THE EIGHTFOLD PATH

Hello Guys! Welcome back, I hope everyone had a wonderful Monday.

I hope you started your week with the right intentions, and manifested positive things for the rest of the week. Mondays are my Saturdays, so they are usually my chill, relax days where I am able to unwind from the chaos of the previous week.

I hesitated a lot whether to make this my next post, specially since I still have not figured out if to write every week or twice a week. I decided to do it as fast as possible, since I got so much positive feedback from so many people and they were interested in continuing learning the teachings of Buddhism. So this post is coming quite quick after my last one where I spoke about The Four Noble Truths in Buddhism and how they have helped me. So lets' dive in..

"ALL THAT WE ARE IS THE RESULT OF WHAT WE HAVE THOUGHT" - THE BUDDHA

The Eightfold Path

We finished the last blog with talking about the Fourth and final Noble Truth which was the "how" and which path to take into achieving enlightenment and the cessation of suffering. Even though I did not call it enlightenment in my last post and it is for a reason. Every single time I tell someone I practice Buddhism, they say "So you want to be Buddha?". As amazing and peaceful as that sounds, I absolutely do not want to be The Buddha, neither do the majority of Buddhist honestly. I feel the pressure of achieving enlightenment is what might scare some people off from learning and applying this lifestyle into their lives. Even though that is essentially the goal, to achieve YOUR enlightenment and reach Nirvana (Which means to be in a state of profound peace and wisdom and be liberated from suffering). We will get into Nirvana later.

The Eight fold past is:

Right View: Understanding. Literally it is as simple as understanding The Four Noble Truths. Understanding there is suffering.

Right Intention: To live a selfless life, with no violence and bad intentions towards people, animals and the planet.

Right Speech: Using your speech positively. Do not speak ill of others. (if you have nothing nice to say then just do not say anything at all)

Right Action: Acting as a selfless person. Do not cheat, and do not hurt people.

Right Livelihood: Living a nonviolent life, do not hurt the planet or people. If you have the right morals literally just be a good person.

Right Effort: Help others and distance yourself from wrong situations, and people.

Right Mindfulness: Understand your emotions but do not cling or attach to them. ( This is a difficult one). Accept emotions but do not overthink them.

Right Concentration: My favorite one. Meditation. Understanding that it is the best way to come into complete concentration with the universe and yourself.

They seem more complicated than what they actually are. With that, you know the first two and most important teachings of The Buddha.

You're probably saying "But I already do these things!". If thats so, which I am sure you do 80% of them then I am happy for you and you are more than half way into accomplishing what a lot of people struggle with.

The reason why I even started writing these blogs is because I knew I always had a lot to say and share with the world, I just always struggled with believing anyone actually wanted to listen. Recently I have been struggling with my own beliefs and practices, getting caught up in my personal problems and losing myself in the process. I am constantly looking for ways to ground myself, there is absolutely nothing wrong to have your mind and dreams in the clouds as long as your feet are planted to the ground, because honestly that is what keeps us sane.

Buddhism is my grounding. I am a dreamer, I have struggled for years with career choices and wondering what I want to do with my life. Always putting myself down and being my hardest critic. When I found Buddhism I found a home, I found something that could be mine and I could always fall back on when ever I felt like I was going off the tracks. Recently having panic attacks when I had not had one in over a year, definitely reminded me that I had this home, but this time around I wanted to share it with everyone.

The Eightfold path is not a dogma, they are not telling you if you do not do this then you are a bad person. They are simple eight rights to go by, when you do not have anything to hang on to, when you do not know whether your actions were right or wrong. You remind yourself that you have the right view and you understand that things like these happen, that in life we have problems. You understand that your actions were not meant to cause any harm, and that if you talk it out use your right speech with selflessness people will listen.

Nirvana: to be in a state of profound peace and wisdom and be liberated from suffering

The Buddha talked about reaching nirvana in his sermons and wanted people to understand that once you had reached enlightenment and accomplished these things, there was a place you went to. Though not quite like heaven like some religions teach. This place was a state of mind, a place in this lifetime where you were at peace with your life and the world, and you did not feel like the world was out to get you (I know I feel like that sometimes). As amazing as it sounds to reach that place, I do not go by that.

I like to think when I started practicing Buddhism, I took on a journey that would never end. I will constantly be challenging myself, learning from myself and from others. I aspire to get to a peaceful place, but also understand that Buddhism will help me get through the now.

I hope this blog was somewhat helpful and now you have something to look back on and hopefully practice in your every day life. Like I said I am not an expert, I am simply someone that has found Buddhism as well as other means to understanding life. I have questioned things my entire life, always looking up and asking questions. I hope to use this platform to share with the world all those things, because Buddhism is only one and I plan on writing and sharing more about them.

Thank you so much for reading, See you all on the Next Post !

"REMEMBER TO LOOK UP AT THE STARS, NOT DOWN AT YOUR FEET, TRY TO MAKE SENSE OF WHAT YOU SEE & WONDER ABOUT WHAT MAKES THE UNIVERSE EXIST. BE CURIOUS." - STEPHEN HAWKING

- NAMASTE

(Daisy Gonzalez)