Threefold Partition |
Eightfold Path |
Method of Practice |
|
Right
Speech |
Five Precepts |
|
Right
Effort |
Four Jhanas |
|
Right
View |
Four Noble Truths |
Five Precepts
|
||||||||||||
Four Jhanas
Jhanas |
Factors Abandoned |
Factors acquired or intensified |
Notes |
1st Jhana |
Five
hindrances: |
Five
Jhana factors: |
• Five
hindrances are opposed to the five jhana factors. |
2nd Jhana |
1.
Applied thought |
1.
Rapture |
•
Disappearance of applied and sustained thought |
3rd Jhana |
Rapture |
1. Subtle
happiness |
•
Rapture fades, revealing a quiet, subtle, and pervasive
happiness. |
4th Jhana |
Happiness |
1.
One-pointedness of the mind |
•
Happiness is replaced by equanimity. |
Four Noble Truths
dukkha
('not being at ease', "suffering," from dush-stha, "standing unstable,")
is an innate characteristic of the perpetual cycle (samsara, lit. 'wandering') of grasping at things, ideas and habits;
Now this, bhikkhus,
is the noble truth of suffering:
birth is suffering, aging is
suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering;
union with
what is displeasing is suffering;
separation from what is
pleasing is suffering;
not to get what one wants is suffering;
in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are
suffering.
samudaya
(origin, arising, combination; "cause")
dukkha (unease) arises simultaneously with tanha ("craving, desire or attachment, lit. 'thirst');
Now this, bhikkhus,
is the noble truth of the origin of suffering:
it is this
craving [tanha, "thirst"] which leads to re-becoming,
accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there;
that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for becoming,
craving for disbecoming.
nirodha
(cessation, ending, confinement)
dukkha can be ended or contained by the confinement or letting go of this tanha;
Now this, bhikkhus,
is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering:
it is the
remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the
giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, non-reliance on
it.
marga
(path, Noble Eightfold Path)
is the path leading to the confinement of tanha and dukkha.
Now this, bhikkhus,
is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering:
it is this noble eightfold path;
that is, right view,
right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right
effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.