Your Experience of the Eightfold Path

topic posted Fri, November 6, 2009 - 6:37 PM by  Aron
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Hello.

What have your experiences with the eightfold path been?
What do they mean to you?

The Right View,
The Right Intentions,
The Right Speech,
The Right Action,
The Right Livelihood,
The Right Effort,
The Right Mindfulness,
The Right Concentration.

You are experiencing. What is that?
posted by:
Aron
Washington
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  • Re: Your Experience of the Eightfold Path

    Thu, November 12, 2009 - 10:42 AM
    I'm still developing a sense of my lifestyle and how the path manifests in my life, but this has been my experience so far.

    Right view: I hold a strong sense of gratitude for my experience. I view the physical world as a soup of molecules that exists in a completely neutral state. I see emotions as evolved traits that alerted humans to danger as we evolved into hunter gatherers. I don't take ownership of my emotions and I see them as signs that point to aspects of myself I need to work on. I believe acting on them will create negative reactions in the world.

    Right Intention: I try to act with the intention of improving the experience of myself and those affected by my actions. When I converse with people my intention is to leave them feeling better than they felt when I arrived. I treat people with respect and I always hold a deep reverence for life/existence when acting.

    Right Speech: I try to speak in E-prime as often as possible. I speak calmly, confidently and with conviction, and as much as the situation allows, with humor.

    Right Action: I act with total commitment and without hesitation. I focus on technique and certainty of knowledge when acting.

    Right Livelihood: I'm an emergency medical technician and I sell firewood I split myself, currently in school to become a Chiropractor. I eat a very clean diet and stay in good physical shape. I don't spend a lot of money, I love my friends and we always do things that are creative meaningful and exhilarating.

    Right Effort: I try to structure my time to its greatest efficiency at all times while still maintaining a balance of work and leisure to prevent stress. I use every "tool" and resource available to me and I use them to for what they are best suited to do.

    Right Mindfulness: I try not to get caught up in what's happening, but rather how it's happening and why it's happening.

    Right Concentration: Things are what they are and there is nothing we can do to change that. Serenity.

    Thats my interpretation. I've been practicing for about a year or two and this is where it's led me. I always keep in mind a quote from Woody Allen:

    "Think what you will about reality, its still the only place to get a decently toasted bagel.."

    =)

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