When learning from Buddha we can see that he has a concept of the eightfold path. Before i get started I want to say that whenever I say something is right I mean skillful. These eightfold path consists of: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and lastly right concentration. Right view is right understanding, or in other words understanding the cycle of suffering. So you know that life is suffrage, you’ve found the source of suffrage, you’ve come to a cessation of suffering is attainable and finally accepting that the truth not of the situation itself. Right thought is having skillful intentions and renunciation. This means that we have to have right motives to do our actions. Next is right speech, and this language is words that do not cause harm. A good way to realize if you are speaking with right language is three simple questions: is it time, is it helpful and is it the right time? Right view is understanding that life is suffering and understanding that we can’t choose not to suffer. (explain these)(ask for help with the other ones we dont have)

However I like to focus on just one of the eightfold path, which is right livelihood. From what I read I believe that I live by this quite well. Walpola Sri Rahula says that we shouldn’t choose a profession that, “brings harm to others, such as trading in arms and lethal weapons, intoxicating drinks or poisons, killing animals, cheating, etc., and should live by a profession which is honorable, blameless, and innocent of harm to others.” I live by this because I naturally try to stay away from things that would cause harm to others and simultaneously I have been pursing the career of becoming a doctor since i was extremely young. The right action section for the eightfold path is sort of the ethical form of the eightfold path.

Blog Prompt 11: Focus on a particular component of the eightfold path and apply it to your own life. Do you think that right action would mean less suffering? Refer to both readings in your explanation of the connection between virtue and the cessation of suffering.