Through the things mentioned above [in previous essays] revered-you would understand well the distinction between the mundane, worldly Noble Eightfold Path and the supermundane Noble Eightfold Path. Buddha declares that the only path in this world system that yields comforts is the Noble Eightfold Path. The more you practise the Noble Eightfold Path, the more the unwholesome fades from you and the wholesome strengthens apropos of comforts. Simply as a result, you gain comforts and pleasures in this life, comforts and pleasures in the next life, and fortunate destinations of rebirth. This phenomenon belongs to the worldly Noble Eightfold Path. The path trodden aiming for the wholesome deed, the fortunate destination, the ‘becoming’, will be the worldly Noble Eightfold Path.

First, getting stronger in the worldly Noble Eightfold Path; strengthening the wholesome qualities; associating with a wise and virtuous friend; listening to the true dhamma; reflecting wisely [on that Dhamma]; seeing the wholesome deed, the fortunate destination and ‘becoming’ yielded by the worldly Noble Eightfold Path as impermanent, and [thereby] not clinging to or attaching to those karma-formations and letting penetrative insight-wisdom burgeon; the phenomenon that makes one realize the states of stream-enterer (sotāpanna), once-returner (sakadāgāmi), non-returner (anāgāmī) and full enlightenment (arahat) is known as the supermundane Noble Eightfold Path.

If revered-you haven’t yet attained the noble fruit of stream-entry, you had best be skilful to notice you’re still proceeding along the worldly Noble Eightfold Path. Whenever you’re at leisure, reflecting wisely upon the meanings of the worldly Noble Eightfold Path, beholding the impermanence of the said phenomena that relate to the wholesome action, the fortunate destination and ‘becoming’, try to embark on the supermundane Noble Eightfold Path. Understand well that in each passing moment you contemplate the phenomena of the worldly Noble Eightfold Path as impermanent, what grows within you is the perception that the five clinging aggregates are impermanent.

As this note about the Noble Eightfold Path is being concluded, a meaningful thing a little child has said springs to mind. This kid was studying in the year-one class―a six-year-old. As they were about to go to bed the mother asked, “Son, shall we meditate for a little while?” The mother and son meditated cross-legged on either side of the bed; and having finished the due time, the mother asked, “Son, what came to your mind when you were meditating?”

The child said his father came to mind. Presently, he further added, “Mother, rūpa is considered a form of Māra, isn’t it?”

Though this particular view of this little kid isn’t one of insightful realization, it’s a good, meaningful entry point to insightful realization. What the Bhikkhu mentioned above was a statement a father had made about an impressive feat of his son. The insightful meaning that beholds the rūpa, the karma-formation, and the fortunate destination as nothing but evil Māra is the truest essence of the supermundane Noble Eightfold Path.

Once a gentleman asked the Bhikkhu, “Venerable Sir, we live a very busy life with responsibilities and duties. It’s difficult to uncover the Dhamma through a busy life like this, isn’t it?” For you to incorporate in your life the aforementioned things of the Noble Eightfold Path―the path of the Dhamma―life’s responsibilities or busyness won’t be an obstacle. The more the responsibilities of life are, the easier it becomes for you to develop the Noble Eightfold Path. First, it is to nourish the meanings of Right View in your life that you should devote hard effort and dedication. When you perfect Right View, the busyness of your life becomes fertile ground for developing the Noble Eightfold Path.

Revered-you, wisely contemplate and see, whether it is someone with more responsibilities or less responsibilities who can practise Right Thought more. Society awash with cruelty, hate, provides you with an excellent handrail for practising harmlessness, hatelessness. Revered-you, consider: is it when one person comes before you or a hundred people come before you that you’re able to practise Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Bodily Action, and Right Effort more in your life? If hundred people come before you on a given day, your ability to practise the Noble Eightfold Path increases.

As revered-laity, if things you dislike often come about in life, if you always find yourself confronted by undesirable things, you have to be skilful to see it is due to unwholesome-saṅkhāras that things you dislike often happen; and, as those karma-results of unwholesome-saṅkhāras arise, to uncover the wholesome by strengthening yourself in the Noble Eightfold Path. During that time of life as a lay householder, Bhikkhu lived a busy life. Here, more than experiences I liked, it was experiences I disliked that I had. Even so, unaware as I was of the meanings of the Noble Eightfold Path at the time, now I understand pretty well it was nothing but the Noble Eightfold Path that had constantly been developing in me. When the meaning of Right View was incorporated in life by listening to the true dhamma, during lay life I had had the experience of the Noble Eightfold Path developing without any [undue] effort. When you make an innocent, helpless, poor person happy with a smile, when you give up your seat to another, when you proffer a morsel of rice or donate a penny to a helpless person, if you are doing so with saddhā towards the triple-gem, with belief in karma and karma-results, what develops in you then are nothing but the meanings of Right View. What the one who‘s trying to practise the path of the Dhamma to thin out the craving to lessen the suffering must first do is the meditation of wisely contemplating the meanings of Right View.

When presently reminiscing as to what the first form of meditation the Bhikkhu had practised in life: it was the meditation of reflecting wisely upon the meanings of Right View that the Bhikkhu had first practised. The Bhikkhu started this during lay life. When the meditation of Right View was taking effect in me, by delving deep into the busy, harsh, ungrateful society, it was nothing but Right Thought that I accumulated. What is it that has happened here? Right View and Right Thought denote the two constituent steps coming under wisdom―paññā―in the Noble Eightfold Path. What had eventually happened was when primarily the two constituent steps relating to wisdom were getting developed in me, through the essence of those two steps pertaining to wisdom, I had become consummate in morality―sīla―and concentration―samādhi. To build up a strong constancy in the path of the Dhamma without falling prey to dangers that come from outside, the above tactic provided good protection for the Bhikkhu. Had I taken sīla to the forefront during lay life, purely due to not having experience to understand the futility of sense pleasures, I would have succumbed to the five mental hindrances and forfeited both samādhi and paññā. [But,] during lay life, having enjoyment where needed, seeing as impermanent both the moral precept violated and the unwholesome-saṅkhāras it spawned, by using an impermanent unwholesome-saṅkhāra, by throwing down the gauntlet to sense pleasures with an unwholesome deed itself, I had the skilfulness to let both samādhi and paññā burgeon. I see it as an occasion where the path was uncovered by having challenged the conventions. I see it as: my having got that ability during lay life was solely due to the power of my wholesome-saṅkhāras.

Just because Venerable Vakkalī, slitting his throat himself, realized the noble fruit of enlightenment and, presently, attained the final passing-away, another shouldn’t try to realize the noble fruit of enlightenment by slitting their throat. Just because Venerable Cakkhupāla, not having his eyes treated, went blind as he realized the noble fruit of enlightenment, another shouldn’t seek to realize the noble fruit of enlightenment by going blind. Those are phenomena that happen according to the respective person’s past saṅkhāras. But everyone has the right to recount their experiences. Still, no one ought to follow the example of those things. Nor should revered-laity be resentful at someone recounting such experiences. It is in a Buddha’s dispensation where Prince Ahiŋsaka, [even] after having committed 999 murders as Aṅgulimāla, realized the noble fruit of enlightenment that we are chronicling these experiences.

When concluding these notes on the Noble Eightfold Path, Bhikkhu very compassionately reminds you to wisely contemplate the meanings of Right View as a form of meditation on a daily basis. In the meditation of Right View, the truest picture of the incredibly long journey of ‘becoming’ traversed, the prolonged harshness of the future passage of ‘becoming’, the comforts born of the wholesome deed, the suffering in the unwholesome deed, the right view wrought by saddhā, the wrong view spawned by the lack of saddhā, the peregrination of ‘becoming’, and the extinction of ‘becoming’, will be laid bare for you. Worldly Right View hands you the wholesome action, the pleasures and creature comforts of ‘becoming’, and the recollection of devas. Under the meanings of supermundane Right View, by seeing the impermanence of saṅkhāras, wisdom burgeons. The meanings of Right View were mentioned at the outset. When you make those meanings of Right View an object for contemplation, you get the ability to incorporate in your life the essence of the entire Noble Eightfold Path.