Noble Eightfold Path

The Noble Eightfold Path or Eight Right Paths is an early summary of the path of Buddhist practices leading to liberation from samsara, the painful cycle of rebirth, in the form of nirvana.
The Eightfold Path consists of eight practices: right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right .
In early Buddhism, these practices started with understanding that the body-mind works in a corrupted way, followed by entering the Buddhist path of self-observance, self-restraint, and cultivating kindness and compassion; and culminating in or, which reinforces these practices for the development of the body-mind. In later Buddhism, insight became the central soteriological instrument, leading to a different concept and structure of the path, in which the "goal" of the Buddhist path came to be specified as ending ignorance and rebirth.
The Noble Eightfold Path is one of the principal summaries of the Buddhist teachings, taught to lead to Arhatship. In the Theravada tradition, this path is also summarized as , and . In Mahayana Buddhism, this path is contrasted with the Bodhisattva path, which is believed to go beyond Arhatship to full Buddhahood.
In Buddhist symbolism, the Noble Eightfold Path is often represented by means of the dharma wheel, in which its eight spokes represent the eight elements of the path.

Etymology and nomenclature

The Pali term is typically translated in English as 'Noble Eightfold Path'. This translation is a convention started by the early translators of Buddhist texts into English, just like is translated as 'Four Noble Truths'. However, the phrase does not mean the path is noble, rather that the path is . The term means 'path', while means 'eightfold'. Thus, an alternate rendering of is 'eightfold path of the noble ones', or 'Eightfold Ariya Path'.
All eight elements of the Path begin with the word or which means 'right, proper, as it ought to be, best'. The Buddhist texts contrast with its opposite,.
The Noble Eightfold Path, in the Buddhist traditions, is the direct means to nirvana and brings a release from the cycle of life and death in the realms of samsara.

The eight divisions

Origins: the Middle Way

According to Indologist Tilmann Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term the Middle Way. In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the Eightfold Path. Tilmann Vetter and historian Rod Bucknell both note that longer descriptions of "the path" can be found in the early texts, which can be condensed into the Eightfold Path.

Tenfold path

In the Mahācattārīsaka Sutta which appears in the Chinese and Pali canons, the Buddha explains that cultivation of the noble eightfold path of a learner leads to the development of two further paths of the Arahants, which are right knowledge, or insight, and right liberation, or release. These two factors fall under the category of wisdom.

Short description of the eight divisions

The eight Buddhist practices in the Noble Eightfold Path are:

Right View: various summaries of "right view" can be found in the sutras. A stock phrase is the opening of the dhamma-eye, in which knowledge arises: "all that has the nature of arising has the nature of ending"; showing the futility of striving after worldly fullfilment. More extensive treatments state that our actions have consequences, death is not the end, and our actions and beliefs have consequences after death. The Buddha followed and taught a successful path out of this world and the other world, and his example is to be followed. Later on, right view came to explicitly include karma and rebirth, and the importance of the Four Noble Truths, when "insight" became central to Buddhist soteriology, especially in Theravada Buddhism.
Right Resolve can also be known as "right thought", "right aspiration", or "right motivation". In this factor, one resolves to leave home, renounce the worldly life and follow the Buddhist path. The practitioner resolves to strive toward non-violence and avoid violent and hateful conduct.
Right Speech: no lying, no abusive speech, no divisive speech, no idle chatter.
Right Conduct or Action: no killing or injuring, no taking what is not given, no sexual misconduct, no material desires.
Right Livelihood: no trading in weapons, living beings, meat, liquor, or poisons.
Right Effort: preventing the arising of unwholesome states, and generating wholesome states, the bojjhaṅgā. This includes indriya-samvara, "guarding the sense-doors", restraint of the sense faculties.
Right Mindfulness : a quality that guards or watches over the mind; the stronger it becomes, the weaker unwholesome states of mind become, weakening their power "to take over and dominate thought, word and deed." In the vipassana movement, sati is interpreted as "bare attention": never be absent minded, being conscious of what one is doing; this encourages the awareness of the impermanence of body, feeling and mind, as well as to experience the five aggregates, the five hindrances, the four True Realities and seven factors of awakening.
Right samadhi : practicing four stages of dhyāna, which includes samadhi proper in the second stage, and reinforces the development of the bojjhaṅgā, culminating into upekkhā and mindfulness. In the Theravada tradition and the vipassana movement, this is interpreted as ekaggata, concentration or one-pointedness of the mind, and supplemented with vipassana meditation, which aims at insight.
Right view

The purpose of "right view" or "right understanding" is to clear one's path from confusion, misunderstanding, and deluded thinking. It is a means to gain right understanding of reality.

Sequences in the suttas

The Pali canon and the Agamas contain various "definitions" or descriptions of "right view." The Mahasatipatthana Sutta, compiled from elements from other suttas possibly as late as 20 BCE, defines right view summarily as the Four Noble Truths:
In this, right view explicitly includes karma and rebirth, and the importance of the Four Noble Truths. This view of "right view" gained importance when "insight" became central to Buddhist soteriology, and still plays an essential role in Theravada Buddhism.

Mahācattārīsaka Sutta

And what is right view? Right view is twofold, I say. There is right view that is accompanied by defilements, has the attributes of good deeds, and ripens in attachment. And there is right view that is noble, undefiled, transcendent, a factor of the path.
And what is right view that is accompanied by defilements, has the attributes of good deeds, and ripens in attachment? ‘There is meaning in giving, sacrifice, and offerings. There are fruits and results of good and bad deeds. There is an afterlife. There are such things as mother and father, and beings that are reborn spontaneously. And there are ascetics and Brahmins who are well attained and practiced, and who describe the afterlife after realizing it with their own insight.’ This is right view that is accompanied by defilements, has the attributes of good deeds, and ripens in attachment.
And what is right view that is noble, undefiled, transcendent, a factor of the path? It's the wisdom—the faculty of wisdom, the power of wisdom, the awakening factor of investigation of principles , and right view as a factor of the path—in one of noble mind and undefiled mind, who possesses the noble path and develops the noble path. This is called right view that is noble, undefiled, transcendent, a factor of the path.
They make an effort to give up wrong view and embrace right view: that's their right effort. Mindfully they give up wrong view and take up right view: that's their right mindfulness. So these three things keep running and circling around right view, namely: right view, right effort, and right mindfulness.

Other suttas give a more extensive overview, stating that our actions have consequences, that death is not the end, that our actions and beliefs also have consequences after death, and that the Buddha followed and taught a successful path out of this world and the other world. The Mahācattārīsaka Sutta gives an extensive overview, describing the first seven practices as requisites of right samadhi c.q. dhyana. It makes a distinction between mundane right view and noble right view as a path-factor, relating noble right view to dhamma vicaya, one of the bojjhanga, the "seven factors of awakening" which give an alternate account of right effort and dhyana.
Alternatively, right view is expressed in the stock phrase of dhammalsaddhalpabbajja: "A layman hears a Buddha teach the Dhamma, comes to have faith in him, and decides to take ordination as a monk."

Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta

The venerable Sāriputta said to the venerable Mahākotthita: "Just ask, friend, knowing I shall answer." The venerable Mahākotthita said to the venerable Sāriputta: "Having accomplished what factors is a learned noble disciple in this teaching and discipline reckoned to be endowed with view, to have accomplished straight view, to have accomplished unshakeable confidence in the Buddha, to have come to and arrived at the right teaching, to have attained this right Dharma and awoken to this right Dharma?"
The venerable Sāriputta said: "Venerable Mahākotthita, a learned noble disciple understands unwholesome states as they really are, understands the roots of unwholesomeness as they really are, understands wholesome states as they really are and understands the roots of wholesomeness as they really are.
"How does understand unwholesome states as they really are? Unwholesome bodily actions, verbal actions and mental actions − these are reckoned unwholesome states. In this way unwholesome states are understood as they really are.
"How does understand the roots of unwholesomeness as they really are? There are three roots of unwholesomeness: greed is a root of unwholesomeness, hatred is a root of unwholesomeness, and delusion is a root of unwholesomeness − these are reckoned the roots of unwholesomeness. In this way the roots of unwholesomeness are understood as they really are.
"How does understand wholesome states as they really are? Wholesome bodily actions, verbal actions and mental actions − these are reckoned wholesome states. In this way wholesome states are understood as they really are.
"How does understand the roots of wholesomeness as they really are? That is, there are three roots of wholesomeness: non-greed, non-hatred and non-delusion − these are reckoned the roots of wholesomeness. In this way the roots of wholesomeness are understood as they really are.
"Venerable Mahākotthita, in this way a learned noble disciple understands unwholesome states as they really are, understands the roots of unwholesomeness as they really are, understands wholesome states as they really are and understands the roots of wholesomeness as they really are; then, for this reason, in this teaching and discipline is endowed with right view, has accomplished straight view, has accomplished unshakeable confidence in the Buddha, has come to and arrived at the right teaching, has attained this right Dharma and awoken to this right Dharma."

Likewise, the Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta, and its parallel in the Samyukta-āgama, refer to faith in the Buddha and understanding the path-factors of wholesome bodily actions, verbal actions and mental actions.