Eightfold Path of Buddha

The ‘eight-fold path' is a path that men can follow who hold to the teaching which flowed into human evolution through Gautama Buddha. It lists eight qualities of the human soul, usually given as: right opinions, right judgments, right speech, right actions, right standards, right habits, right memories, and right contemplations.

Before the Individuality of Buddha lives on Earth in his incarnation as Gautama Buddha, the independent development of these qualities was not possible. In order that they might gradually be developed by humanity at large, a being like Gautama Buddha had to incarnate to give the necessary impulse so that in the course of hundreds and thousands of years they might develop independently in mankind. For this it was necessary that once, and for the first time, the impulse whereby all the qualities of the eight-fold path could be developed, should find expression in a single exalted individual, in the personality of Gautama Buddha. (1910-09-07-GA123)

For the illness of suffering (see Sacrifice#Suffering) which Buddha recognized and proclaimed, the remedy has been given through Christ, Christ who dies and through His death brought life. Life has vanquished death. (1909-06-11-GA109)

Aspects

• The Eightfold Pad can be linked to:
  • the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, or
  • Daskalos' Seven Promises, see Initiation#Note 1 - Notes on Daskalos's Seven Promises
  • the exercises in Rudolf Steiner's Knowledge of the Higher World, see Rudolf Steiner and initiation
  • There is a link to the throat chakra or 16-petalled lotus flower (see 1905-03-16-GA053 and Development of the chakras)
• The law of human evolution states that a faculty destined for development in the whole of humanity must in the first place be fully evolved in a single person, and only after that can this faculty slowly pass into mankind as a whole, by degrees and through the ages and maybe thousands of years. (1910-09-07-GA123)

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.091 shows a summary overview on the eightfold path of Buddha

Lecture coverage and references

1904-03-03-GA090A

macroscopic & microscopic (p 117-120)

1905-03-16-GA053

In Buddha's teachings you are given an account of the so-called eightfold path. Now ask yourselves once why Buddha offered precisely this eightfold path as particularly important in the attainment of the higher stages of man's development. This eightfold path is: right resolve, right thinking, right speech, right action, right living, right striving, right memory, right self-immersion, or meditation. A great Initiate such as Buddha does not speak out of a vaguely felt ideal, but out of knowledge of human nature. He knows what influence the practice of such exercises of the soul will have on the future development of the body.

If we look at the sixteen-petalled Lotus flower in the average man of today we actually see very little. If I can so express it, it is in the process of flaring up again. In the far-distant past this Lotus flower was once present; it has gone backward in its development. Today it is appearing again, partly through man's cultural activity. In the future, however, this sixteen-petalled Lotus flower will come again to full development. It will glisten vividly with its sixteen spokes or petals, each petal appearing in a different shade of color; and finally, it will move from left to right. .. What everyone in the future will possess and experience is today being cultivated by those who seek in a conscious way their development in the school of initiation, in order to become leaders of mankind.

Now eight of these sixteen petals have already been formed in the far-distant past; today eight have still to be developed, if the mystery pupil wishes to have the use of these sense-organs. These will be developed if man treads the eightfold path in a conscious way, observantly and clearly, if he consciously practices these eight soul activities given by Buddha, and if he arranges his whole life of soul so that he takes himself in hand, practicing these eight virtues as vigorously as he can only do when sustained by his meditation work, thus bringing the sixteen-petalled Lotus flower not only into bloom but also into movement, into actual perception.

1909-06-11-GA109

Now think of the Buddha's teaching. Through observing old age, illness, death, and so forth, the great truth concerning suffering dawned in him. He now taught of the cessation of suffering, of release from suffering through the elimination of the desire for birth, for physical incarnation.

Now think of humanity six hundred years later. What do you find?

Humanity reveres a corpse. Men gaze at Christ on the cross, Christ who dies and through His death brought life. Life has vanquished death.

• One: To be born is suffering? No, for Christ entered into our earth and henceforward for me, a Christian, to be born is no longer suffering.
• Two: Illness is suffering? But the great medicine will exist, that is, the power of the soul that has been kindled by the Christ impulse. In uniting himself with the Christ impulse, man spiritualizes his life.
• Three: Old age is suffering? But whereas man's body becomes frail and infirm, in his real self he grows ever stronger and more powerful.
• Four: Death is suffering? But through Christ the corpse has become the symbol of the fact that death, physical death, has been vanquished by life, by the spirit; death has been finally overcome by life.
• Five: To be separated from the being one loves is suffering? But the man who has understood Christ is never separated from the one he loves, for Christ has brought light to the world stretching between death and a new birth; so a man remains united with the object of his love.
• Six: Not to receive that for which one craves is suffering? He who lives with Christ will no longer crave for what does not come to him, or is not given to him.
• Seven: To be united with what one does not love is suffering? But the man who has recognized Christ kindles in himself that universal love that envelops every being, every object according to its value.
• Eight: To be separated from what one loves is no longer suffering, for in Christ there is no more separation.

.

Thus for the illness of suffering, which Buddha proclaimed and recognized, the remedy has been given through Christ.

This turning of humanity to Christ and to the dead body on the cross is the greatest transformation that has ever come to pass in evolution.

1910-09-07-GA123

see: Individuality of Buddha#1910-09-07-GA123

1912-05-05-GA130

is on Buddhism and Christianity

internet translation of DE original

Related pages

• Individuality of Buddha
• Initiation
• Development of the chakras

References and further reading

Buddhism

• Bruno Freydank: 'Buddha und Christus : eine buddhistische Apologetik' (1902)
• Hermann Beckh: 'Buddha und seine Lehre' (1916 in DE, in NL 1992 as 'Boeddha en zijn leer')
• Adam Bittleston: 'Das Leben meistern. Zur Praxis des achtgliedrigen Pfades' (1990, 2002)
• Travers Christmas Humphreys (1901-1983)
  • An Invitation to the Buddhist Way of Life for Western Readers
  • Buddhism: An Introduction and Guide
  • Buddhism: The History, Development and Present Day Teaching of the Various Schools
  • Buddhist Poems: a Selection, 1920–1970 (1971) London: Allen & Unwin, ISBN 0-048-2102-69
  • A Buddhist Students' Manual
  • The Buddhist Way of Action
  • The Buddhist Way of Life
  • The Development of Buddhism in England: Being a History of the Buddhist Movement in London and the Provinces (1937)
  • Exploring Buddhism
  • An Invitation to the Buddhist Way of Life for Western Readers (1971)
  • Karma and Rebirth (1948)
  • One Hundred treasures of the Buddhist Society, London (1964)
  • A Popular Dictionary of Buddhism
  • Sixty Years of Buddhism in England (1907–1967): A History and a Survey
  • The Way of Action: The Buddha's Way to Enlightenment
  • The Wisdom of Buddhism
  • Zen Buddhism
  • Zen Comes West: The Present and Future of Zen Buddhism in Britain
  • Zen Comes West: Zen Buddhism in Western Society

Unqualified

• Conrad Rehbach - Sophia Institute Study Materials: 'The Eightfold Path' (2017)