Buddhism: The Eightfold Path

I participated in a discussion recently about this topic. It became obvious pretty soon that the topic was too broad to really cover in an hour. Many of the comments and mini-discussions referenced parts of more general Buddhist principles rather than the Eightfold Path directly. Even so, many of the insights and perspectives were stimulating and thought-provoking. The main points of the discussion centered around:

• Inheritance and re-packaging of many Buddhist or Eightfold principles into many other philosophical, theological and psychological frameworks including Christianity
• Tendency of organized religion toward complicating and splintering principles from the founders
• What did the notion of suffering mean in the original context of the time period when Buddhist concepts came of age? What, if anything, does it mean for us in today's global and/or American culture
• Do desires really cause suffering, or is it the way we view and manage our desires that are the problem?
• Relationship of Buddhism to Stoicism

Buddhism and Stoicism were created during very similar times in history in very different parts of the world: India and Greece. Originally, Buddhism was a non-theistic philosophy. Later on as it splintered and became adopted by the masses, it morphed into more theistic clothing. As with other religions, the splintering, adopting and changing created the usual monster of organized religion, which has a tendency to distort or pervert the meaning of the ideas of the early founders and disciples into a complex, confusing and stifling expression.

Do we really suffer in our modern affluent American society? Certainly there are many people who suffer economically, physically and emotionally. However, what most of us consider suffering is hardly worth mentioning in the same breath as real suffering. Most of our suffering is caused by inadequate thinking. We think ourselves into a problem too quickly. We do not take the higher consciousness perspective regarding situations in our lives. Our perspective is too limited and focused. We are in the trees, not the forest.

Is suffering, whatever the manifestation, really caused by desire? Desire is fundamentally a very healthy force in our lives. Of course, unexamined desires can always be a problem, but at its root, desire is an expression of an important internal disturbance that may be a connection with a deeper spiritual purpose. Expressing that desire in positive ways through creativity and action is critical for healthy mental states. The separation between our desires and current reality can cause suffering. In this case we either need to 1) change our desire, 2) change our reality or 3) break our desires up into mini-desires that can be accomplished at a steady pace.

Analyzing the cause of the "suffering" and the relationship of our desires to it is a fundamental life skill that we must develop in order to move toward self-actualization. Otherwise we waste hours, days, weeks, months, even years in dysfunctional thought patterns that limit our development. The first tenet of the Eightfold Path is "Right View". This references clarity of thought as the first step toward the "good life", which has been called varous things throughout history including self-actualization, following your bliss, the middle way and more by such luminaries as Abraham Maslow, Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, Aristotle and Confucius.