The fourth (and final) Noble Truth is the way to the end of suffering. This truth is not given as conceptual or theoretical proposition but is instead a call to practice. It needs to be such if it is truly to be the way to the end of suffering. It is a way of life which we try to match up to.

It has three sections, or pillars, as they are sometimes called; Prajna, Sila, Samadhi, translated as Wisdom, Discipline and At-one-ment.

Prajna/Wisdom

Right (clear) Seeing/Understanding

Right Thought

Sila/Discipline

Right Speech

Right Action

Right Living

Samahdi/At-one-ment

Right Effort

Right Awareness

Right Absorption/Concentration

What is interesting is that out of the eight, five are to do with what comes from within and just three, speech, action and living are to do with expressions of it.

The Noble Eightfold path is not a ladder or a development in steps, but rather each part reinforces and reflects each other. These eight are not like the Ten Commandments; they are not something that I have to do. They refer to a way of being where there is no ‘I’ a functioning without self. This is a state of no-‘I’. How do we know it? It is characterised by the absence of a need to prop up or push forward all the things which I call myself and also by a lack of grasping and craving.

The Noble Eightfold path is a structure to investigate, to measure ourselves up against and a guide. However, when we do this practice, we have to take care not to swing to any extremes, as shown by the Buddha’s life story. Too much discipline, for example, can bring about an apparent good outer form but a seething mass of inner emotions. The practice is designed to produce a whole and integrated individual, not a split person. It is an individual that is in harmony with what is at this moment, where the inner emotions and outer form reflect each other. Each section of this list is prefixed by the word Right. This does not mean right as opposed to wrong, but rather the supreme or best way that leads to the end of suffering, or the way that functions most harmoniously with this moment (i.e. one without self). In the next episodes we will examine each pillar in greater detail.