Editing Noble Eightfold Path (section)

== Practice ==

=== Order of practice ===
Vetter notes that originally the path culminated in the practice of ''dhyana/samadhi'' as the core soteriological practice.{{sfn|Vetter|1988}} According to the Pali and Chinese canon, the ''samadhi'' state (right concentration) is dependent on the development of preceding path factors:<ref name=BMaha /><ref name="cbeta.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T01/0026_007.htm |title=Madhyama Agama, Taishō Tripiṭaka Vol. 1, No. 26, sutra 31 (分別聖諦經第十一) |access-date=28 October 2008 |publisher=Cbeta |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122103247/http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T01/0026_007.htm |archive-date=22 November 2008 }}</ref><ref name="Taishō Tripiṭaka Vol p. 814">{{cite journal|url=http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T01/0032_001.htm|title=unknown|journal=Taishō Tripiṭaka|volume=1|issue=32|page=814|access-date=28 October 2008|publisher=Cbeta|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122092756/http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T01/0032_001.htm|archive-date=22 November 2008}}</ref>
{{blockquote|The Blessed One said: "Now what, monks, is noble right concentration with its supports and requisite conditions? Any singleness of mind equipped with these seven factors{{snd}}right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, and right mindfulness{{snd}}is called noble right concentration with its supports and requisite conditions.|Maha-cattarisaka Sutta}}

According to the discourses, right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, and right mindfulness are used as the support and requisite conditions for the practice of right concentration. Understanding of the right view is the preliminary role, and is also the forerunner of the entire Noble Eightfold Path.<ref name="BMaha">{{cite web|url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.117.than.html|title=Maha-cattarisaka Sutta|access-date=6 May 2008|publisher=Access to Insight|last=Thanissaro Bhikkhu|archive-date=26 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726000945/https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.117.than.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Cbeta">{{cite web|url=http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T01/0026_049.htm|title=Madhyama Agama, Taishō Tripiṭaka Vol. 1, No. 26, sutra 189 (中阿含雙品 聖道經第三)|access-date=27 October 2008|publisher=Cbeta|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122083750/http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T01/0026_049.htm|archive-date=22 November 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref>

According to the modern Theravada [[Bhikkhu|monk]] and scholar [[Walpola Rahula]], the divisions of the noble eightfold path "are to be developed more or less simultaneously, as far as possible according to the capacity of each individual. They are all linked together and each helps the cultivation of the others."<ref>Rahula 46</ref> Bhikkhu Bodhi explains that these factors are not sequential, but components, and "with a certain degree of progress all eight factors can be present simultaneously, each supporting the others. However, until that point is reached, some sequence in the unfolding of the path is inevitable."<ref name="accesstoinsight.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/waytoend.html|title=The Noble Eightfold Path: The Way to the End of Suffering|access-date=6 May 2008|publisher=Buddhist Publication Society|last=Bhikkhu Bodhi|page=14|archive-date=28 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190828222920/http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/waytoend.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The stage in the Path where there is no more learning in [[Yogachara]] Abhidharma, state Buswell and Gimello, is identical to ''[[Nirvana]]'' or ''[[Buddhahood]]'', the ultimate goal in Buddhism.{{Sfn|Buswell|Gimello|1994|p=204}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Rinpoche Karma-raṅ-byuṅ-kun-khyab-phrin-las|title=The Dharma: That Illuminates All Beings Impartially Like the Light of the Sun and Moon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N4wVW91BLAYC |year=1986|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-88706-156-1|pages=32–33}}; Quote: "There are various ways of examining the Complete Path. For example, we can speak of Five Paths constituting its different levels: the Path of Accumulation, the Path of Application, the Path of Seeing, the Path of Meditation and the Path of No More Learning, or Buddhahood."</ref>

=== Sila-samadhi-prajna ===
The Noble Eightfold Path is sometimes divided into [[Three disciplines of Buddhism|three basic divisions]], with right view and right resolve concluding the sequence:{{sfn|Prebish|2000|p=40}}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! style="background:#eee; text-align:center;" | Division!! style="background:#eee; text-align:center;" |Eightfold Path factors
|-
| style="background:#cfc;" rowspan="3" | Moral virtue{{Sfn|Harvey|2013|p=83-84}} (Sanskrit: ''[[śīla]]'', Pāli: ''sīla'')|| style="background:#cfc;" |1. [[#Right speech|Right speech]]
|-
| style="background:#cfc;" | 2. [[#Right action|Right action]]
|-
| style="background:#cfc;" | 3. [[#Right livelihood|Right livelihood]]
|-
| style="background:#fc9;" rowspan="3" | Meditation{{Sfn|Harvey|2013|p=83-84}} (Sanskrit and Pāli: ''[[samādhi]]'') || style="background:#fc9;" |4. [[#Right effort|Right effort]]
|-
| style="background:#fc9;" | 5. [[#Right mindfulness|Right mindfulness]]
|-
| style="background:#fc9;" | 6. [[#Right concentration|Right concentration]]
|-
| style="background:#cff;" rowspan="2" | Insight, wisdom (Sanskrit: ''[[Wisdom in Buddhism|prajñā]]'', Pāli: ''paññā'')|| style="background:#cff;" |7. [[#Right view|Right view]]
|-
| style="background:#cff;" | 8. [[#Right resolve|Right resolve]]
|-
|}

This order is a later development, when discriminating insight (''prajna'') became central to Buddhist soteriology, and came to be regarded as the culmination of the Buddhist path.{{sfn|Vetter|1988|p=13}} Yet, Majjhima Nikaya 117, ''Mahācattārīsaka Sutta'', describes the first seven practices as requisites for right samadhi. According to Vetter, this may have been the original soteriological practice in early Buddhism.{{sfn|Vetter|1988}}

The "[[Buddhist ethics|moral virtues]]" (Sanskrit: ''[[śīla]]'', Pāli: ''sīla'') group consists of three paths: right speech, right action and right livelihood.{{Sfn|Harvey|2013|p=83-84}} The word ''sīla'', though translated by English writers as linked to "morals or ethics", states Bhikkhu Bodhi, is in ancient and medieval Buddhist commentary tradition closer to the concept of discipline and disposition that "leads to harmony at several levels&nbsp;– social, psychological, karmic and contemplative".<!-- invalid{{Sfn|Bhikkhu Bodhi|2010|p=47-48}} --> Such harmony creates an environment to pursue the meditative steps in the Noble Eightfold Path by reducing social disorder, preventing inner conflict that result from transgressions, favoring future karma-triggered movement through better rebirths, and purifying the mind.<!-- invalid{{Sfn|Bhikkhu Bodhi|2010|p=47-48}}-->{{Sfn|Spiro|1982|p=44-48}}

The meditation group ("samadhi") of the path progresses from moral restraints to training the mind.<!-- invalid{{Sfn|Bhikkhu Bodhi|2010|p=65}}-->{{Sfn|Spiro|1982|p=44-53}} Right effort and mindfulness calm the mind-body complex, releasing unwholesome states and habitual patterns and encouraging the development of wholesome states and non-automatic responses, the ''[[seven factors of awakening|bojjhaṅga]]'' (seven factors of awakening). The practice of ''[[Dhyāna in Buddhism|dhyāna]]'' reinforces these developments, leading to ''[[upekkhā]]'' (equanimity) and mindfulness.{{sfn|Polak|2011}}<!-- invalid{{Sfn|Arbel|2017}}--> According to the Theravada commentarial tradition and the contemporary vipassana movement, the goal in this group of the Noble Eightfold Path is to develop clarity and insight into the nature of reality&nbsp;– ''[[dukkha]]'', ''[[anicca]]'' and ''[[anatta]]'', discard negative states and dispel ''[[Avidyā (Buddhism)|avidya]]'' (ignorance), ultimately attaining ''[[nirvana]]''.<ref name=trainor2004p74>{{cite book |author=Kevin Trainor |title=Buddhism: The Illustrated Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_PrloTKuAjwC |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-517398-7 |pages=74 |access-date=5 October 2016 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111060833/https://books.google.com/books?id=_PrloTKuAjwC |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the threefold division, ''prajna'' (insight, wisdom) is presented as the culmination of the path, whereas in the eightfold division the path starts with correct knowledge or insight, which is needed to understand why this path should be followed.{{sfn|Anderson|2013}}