Right view refers to understanding of the Four Holy Truths. It also can refer to insight into the nature of the Dharma Body of the Buddhas. Right view “refers to your manner of regarding something, your mental outlook and your opinions, not to what you view with your eyes. You practice the non-outflow conduct in contemplating yourself. Your own views and understanding must be proper.” (AS 125)
Right thought means freedom from mental attachments, to have renounced thoughts of hatred and harm. It can also refer to the purification of the mind so that one no longer has any polluted thinking. It is sometimes translated ‘right resolve’ or ‘right aspirations,’ indicating the importance of mental intention. “If it is not in accord with propriety, don’t listen to it. Why would you think about it? Because you listened to it.” (DFS IV 663)
Right speech means always speaking the truth, avoiding false speech, coarse speech, harsh speech, and frivolous speech. Right speech also means that because one realizes the emptiness of all dharmas, one can resolve all disputes.
Right conduct means that one does not take life, steal, or engage in sexual misconduct.
Right livelihood refers to having a correct lifestyle or way of life. One is content and has few wishes. One avoids karmically unwholesome occupations such as selling alcohol or drugs, selling firearms, being a butcher, or doing fortune-telling. It also refers to one’s way of relating to others. For example, you should not dress or act eccentrically to call attention to yourself. You should not praise yourself, calling attention to your good deeds. You should not act in a loud or overbearing manner.
Right effort means you should be vigorous in your practice, always thinking, saying, and doing what is right and not what is improper.
Right mindfulness “... means mindfulness of the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha (three jewels). Deviant mindfulness means mindfulness of deviant views, prejudiced views, love and emotion. Deviant mindfulness means always thinking about yourself first.” (DFS IV 666)
Right concentration refers to taking leave of one’s desires and of unwholesome dharmas and then entering the First Dhyāna and those succeeding Four Dhyānas in the correct fashion. Right concentration is the opposite of deviant concentration.
Right speech
“If it is not in accord with propriety, don’t talk about it. Don’t gossip.” (DFS IV 663)
Right conduct
“If it is not in accord with propriety, don’t do it. Don’t do deviant things like going into the gambling business and developing ‘spiritual powers’ in the numbers racket. That’s deviant action.
“What is right action? Sitting in dhyāna meditation without any false thinking. Studying the Buddhadharma. That is the most proper form of action.
“‘But,’ you ask, ‘if I study the Buddhadharma, where will I get food to eat?’
“You shouldn’t worry about that. If you study well, you will naturally have food to eat.” (DFS IV 664)
“Proper action refers to pure bodily karma. Use non-outflow wisdom to discard improper bodily karma, specifically sexual desire. I can’t make it too clear; I can’t say it too frankly. Many people say, ‘Oh well, emptiness is form, and form is emptiness,’ and they casually play around. That is improper action.” (AS 126)
Right Effort
“Strangely enough, if you chat with someone, the more you chat, the more energy you have—talking, talking, too much talking. But of what use is all your vigorous talking? It’s improper vigor.” (AS 127)
“What is deviant vigor? Deviant dharmas harm other people. Those who cultivate deviant dharmas work very hard in the six periods of the day and night, cultivating all kinds of ascetic practices. Nevertheless, their ascetic practices are not beneficial. They may imitate the behavior of cows or of dogs, or practice being like chickens. They may imitate cows, eat grass, and say they are being vigorous because cows eat grass all day long. This happens because they saw that a cow was born in the heavens. They didn’t realize it was because of the merit and virtue accrued from acts that the cow had performed in previous lives. They thought the cow had been born in the heavens because it ate grass! And so they take a cow for their teacher. The cow has no understanding of Dharma whatsoever, and so studying with a cow is called improper vigor.” (DFS IV 665)
“Right vigor means to cultivate according to the Buddhadharma. One should not cultivate dharmas that the Buddha did not teach. That is called offering up your conduct in accord with the Buddha’s instructions. Right vigor means vigor with the body and vigor with the mind. Mental vigor means recollecting the Three Jewels and not neglecting them for an instant. Vigor with the body means putting the teachings into actual practice.…” (DFS IV 666)
Right Concentration
Right concentration is the opposite of deviant concentration. What is deviant concentration? It’s concentration that is an attachment, that you can’t let go of. For example, some people like to take drugs. The more they take, the more deluded they get. When you tell them not to, they say, ‘I can get enlightened taking this stuff. When I take this, things really start happening. I go through changes. I see and hear differently. The world becomes adorned with the seven jewels. Isn’t that a state?’ It’s deviant concentration, that’s what it is!
“Then what is right concentration? Right concentration is the cultivation of the Four Dhyānas and the Eight Samadhis. Don’t have a self at all. Cultivate these Dharmas, but forget your ‘self.’ If you have forgotten your ‘self,’ how could you still keep on drinking, taking drugs, and indulging yourself? Everyone looks for advantages for themselves, but people who cultivate…forget about advantages. That’s right concentration.” (DFS IV 669-670)
八正道