January 30 – Eight steps

Dear Friends,

I’m on retreat until Tuesday afternoon, but I’ve queued up some emails to keep you inspired while I’m away.

Continuing with Bhante Gunaratana’s discussion in Chapter 13, now on the eightfold path.

The eightfold path lists steps we can follow to realize the release from suffering caused by craving. In brief, they are:

• Skillful understanding – we understand that our actions lead to effects
• Skillful thinking – we cultivate positive thoughts, like generosity and kindness
• Skillful speech – we tell the truth and avoid harsh talk or gossip
• Skillful action – we try to live our lives in a way that won’t harm others or ourselves
• Skillful livelihood – we conduct ourselves in our work with integrity and honesty
• Skillful effort – we work to release and prevent unskillful states of mind, and foster and continue skillful states of mind
• Skillful mindfulness – for example, by having a regular meditation practice, and bringing mindfulness into our daily lives
• Skillful concentration – we train our minds to become focused

We could spend months going over each of these, and you can find many books and talks on the subject… Maybe a good topic for emails another year!

Meanwhile, I invite you to keep practicing, to keep noticing what it is that leads to peace and well-being. How does your experience fit into the categories above?

With best wishes,
Andrea