seyyathida.m/ - sammaadi.t.thi/, sammaasa"nkappo/,
that is/ right view/, /right thinking/
sammaavaacaa/, sammaakammanto/, sammaa-aajiivo/,
right speech, /right action/, /right livelihood/,
sammaavaayaamo/, sammaasati/, sammaasamaadhi/.
right effort/, right mindfulness/, right concentration/
Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the way leading to the
cessation of suffering: it is this noble eightfold path, that is -
right view, right thinking, right speech, right action, right
livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
------------------------------
N: The development of the eightfold Path is awareness and
understanding of the characteristics of naama and ruupa appearing at
this moment in daily life. We read in the Mahaaraahulovaadasutta that
the Buddha taught Raahula Dhamma, explaining the five khandhas. When
Raahula asked him whether he should know only ruupakkhandha the
Buddha said that he should know all five khandhas, that is, all
mental phenomena and physical phenomena occurring in daily life.
Raahula should not only listen to the Dhamma, but he should consider
what he heard and develop understanding and this is the development
of the eightfold Path. He taught Raahula to see the body as elements
in order to become detached.
Raahula had to develop vipassanaa pa~n~naa, to realize that there is
not the whole body; that what we take for my body are only different
elements which fall away immediately. Rahula, and all of us, have to
develop understanding not only of materiality, ruupa, but also of
mental phenomena, naama, of all five khandhas. When we take them all
as a whole, there is the idea of a person, a self. Hearing is naama,
a citta that experiences sound, it is not the ruupa that is sound, it
is not the ruupa that is earsense. Understanding this, not only by
reflection, but by direct understanding of the characteristics of the
elements as they appear one at a time must lead to detachment.
Clinging to the idea of "I, mine" can decrease.
In the next part of the sutta we shall learn that there are three
rounds of understanding the truth.
*******
Nina.
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