some time ago, i purposed to do a series of contemplation on the eightfold path. life decided to jump up and snarl the traces for a time and i did not proceed as planned. i am doing so.
this is the first of what will eventually be eight posts, upon the eightfold path as outlined in the Buddhist tradition: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration.
as with much of Buddhism, the appearance of these paths are initially seen as simple. almost childishly so. but upon closer consideration, they open themselves to a depth and intensity that is awe-inspiring. it is this that draws me again and again to think upon them, they are like a favorite path by a favorite lake… where walking only further highlights the means by which any future walkings will be more enjoyed for not having to strain to see the outline of it.
Right View, simply put, is to see things as they are and to find one’s way to realizing the profound truths that are known as ‘The Four Noble Truths’.
it sounds simple, doesn’t it? seeing things as they are, especially. i am no longer so arrogant as to think it is a simple thing. even now. seeing things as they are requires a level of internal honesty that extends well outside of the mind, even as it is based fully within it.
how much of this life is spent being nostalgic for that which is remembered as ‘good’? or looking ahead to some undefined, not-yet-arrived moment in which any number of things are feared to be present, or desired to be present?
how easy it is to look back, to look ahead. the entire world is built in support of there being three moments of existance…. past, present, future.
Right View is to understand and accept that there is only one. the only one we ever know fully, for it is the only one that is not subject to memory or hope. the only one that can ever be empty of fear, anger, and desire, for it is the only one that may be shaped or transmuted. the only one that is, for it is the only one in which we dwell, for all the world entire tells us otherwise – The Present.
how much of my life has been spent upon longing for things that were missing from my past?
how much of my life has been spent struggling and clinging to things that did not exist, may never exist?
one of the most sobering things about beginning to understand Right View is the manner in which it strips to the bone all the delusion and illusion that i have wrapped myself in… every odd attachment, every flinching of aversion… and it is a difficult thing to loose them at times.
i often want those pretty insanities. life sometimes seems better for them.
the throbbing of old hurts and memories is not enjoyable, but the impetus it lends toward continuing to walk forward, stubbornly, tenaciously, stoically… these things seem good.
the beauty of dreams and hopes seem many moments to be the only beauty i know in life, and many moments they have seemed helpful for the manner in which they incented my feet to be lifted and set forward.
but i have been blind. deliberately so. choosing not to acknowledge the suffering that comes with these things.
the memories may well motivate, but they also leech comfort or peace. there is not one step taken by their motivation that was not painful. painful for the manner in which those very motivating memories insured any step taken was slung at the heel with the suffering of ages.
the dreams and hopes may well motivate, but they also leech the same things they would bestow. often, in the very moment they motivate me to step into… that moment, which held the potential for all things, it was rendered sterile – its infinite possibilities reduced to only those i carried and, when these were unrealized in it, turning it to ashes.
i laugh to think to compare memory and hope to the wisdom of Right View. there is no comparison. but ok, i will pose the questions, loaded as they are to me here, in this moment:
which is better – to remember the past and permit it to color the present, or to release the past and let the present be as it is?
which is better – to hope for the future and permit it to constrain what the present is, or to release hope and let the present be as it is?
which is better – to savor the moment that is, or to turn in either direction and lose it?
Right View is the embrace of this moment for what it is, nothing more or less. it is to refuse to allow the past to touch it, and to refuse to allow the future to breathe upon it.
this moment, as it is, is a treasure, a gift, a thing of limitless possibility. in it, i may be free from all things and in that freedom, set my foot firmly upon the path of wisdom. for what may it be called other than wisdom to live without the ghosts of the past or the pitiful visions of the future that cannot hope to be more than pastel pale tracings of unknown things?
in this way, i realize the truth that is the Four Noble Truths. in this way, i begin to see that all of this life lends to suffering… and that suffering stems from such clinging or aversion… and that it may be loosed… and that by setting the mind, body, and spirit to this eightfold path it may be accomplished.