The Path We’re Choosing

We’re all on one path or another. Sometimes it’s the path of least resistance. Sometimes it’s the yellow brick road. Sometimes, to slightly misquote Robert Frost, it’s the path least traveled.

For me the point is, to choose. Which is what mindfulness is all about. Stop, take a breath, observe what’s happening, and then choose the path. And crucially, ask before choosing, “Where will this lead?”

Will it lead to connection and kindness, even if it must also lead to the win? Or will it lead to pain and sorrow? If I go left versus right or right versus left, am I bringing love into the mix, or hate? Generosity, or greed? Clarity, or confusion? As Pema Chodron invites us to ask, am I practicing peace or am I going to war?

Transcript

Hi everyone, it’s Judi Cohen and this is Wake Up Call #505. And here we are: we’ve explored the First, Second, and Third Noble Truth, and we’re looking down the path at the Fourth Noble Truth.

The Fourth Noble Truth is the truth of the path to the end of suffering, or that there’s a path to the end of suffering, or you can say a path to freedom, or to liberation. All of which are big words but they don’t have to be. I like to think of the path as the path that I want to be walking each day. And each moment. Not that I do, or I can, yet, but that’s the aspiration. That’s the plan. And at the end of the path, at the end of this life, who knows? 

So what is this path? 

Before we jump in, the First Noble Truth again is the truth that this being human is a bumpy ride, and that’s just the reality of it. The Second Noble Truth is that we feel the stress, the strain, the suffering, whether we realize it or not, when we push back against that reality: when we try to cling to the good things, the past, an imaginary future; when we turn away from the difficulties as if, if we push them away hard enough, they’ll go away; when we get into a space where we feel like, or believe, we’re entitled to or at least should figure out a way to have, a different, better, incarnation. But as Byron Katie says, “When you argue with reality, you lose – but only 100% of the time.”  Hence the Third Noble Truth: the truth that when we can remember to let go of all the clinging and pushing and magical thinking, we’re ok. There’s still pain, but there’s not so much suffering. Or there’s none. And instead, there’s ease, and peace, just waiting for us to let go into - even in the midst of whatever storms we’re weathering right now.

So it follows that the path, or the Eightfold Path as it’s called, which is the substance of the Fourth Noble Truth, is a roadmap of how to “do” the Third Noble Truth. How to live a life isn’t without the same storms, the same difficulties, we’re already encountering, but isn’t so difficult. Or, best case scenario – most dedicated practice scenario – isn’t difficult at all. 

In a way, I see the First, Second, and Third Noble Truths as deep, personal, development. The Fourth Noble Truth, the path and how to walk it, is also hugely personal. In my experience there’s something to learn in each moment on the path and if I’m learning it, or even some of it, I’m also learning about myself.

But in a frame where there’s the personal, the interpersonal, and the systemic, then the Fourth Noble Truth, the truth of the path to liberation from suffering, is also about working at interpersonal and systemic levels. I’ll say more about that as we dive deeper into the path, which will be over the course of a few Wake Up Calls, maybe through the end of the year. 

So what is this path, this Eightfold Path? Which by the way is actually called the Noble Eightfold Path, I think because it’s so ennobling to walk it. Meaning it just feels like, yes, finally, a set of instructions which, when I follow them, I feel aligned. And I feel connected. And I don’t have to wonder if I’m doing the right thing because I know I am, I can feel it in my body. And so I feel ennobled – not as in a noble person set apart from others, but as someone who is walking alongside everyone, all beings. Which feels to me like the noblest path of all.

So, the Noble Eightfold Path: the path has eight steps, hence its name. But they’re grouped together, so today let’s look at the groups.

One group, which we could call the first group, is the group of steps that’s all about settling down and training the mind. About being able to find stillness and focus, and then choose skillful states of mind – aka love – no matter the circumstances or what’s happening internally. This group of steps is called the steps of Samādhi, which literally means intense concentration. But for our purposes, let’s call it the steps on the path of stillness, focus, and love. 

The eight steps are not sequential. No matter how interested I am in, and how diligently I’m practicing with, one step or another, I’m also practicing with the other seven. And just like in interpersonal and systemic spaces where all boats rise together, what I notice is that as I walk the eight steps of the path in whatever order they’re presenting themselves in a given moment, polishing the stones I’m walking, every other stone on the path also gets a little more polished. 

So the eight steps aren’t sequential. But at the same time, I feel like the Samādhi steps are in some ways necessary or even foundational to the rest of the steps on the path. This is because within the Samādhi steps lie the trainings of mindfulness, concentration, lovingkindness, compassion, patience, generosity, and peace. All of which are part of the other steps, too, but in the Samādhi steps, we are training in these qualities. Which makes them available to us – and we need them – as we walk the rest of the steps. 

A second group of steps is the wisdom, or Panna, group of steps. These are the steps where we tentatively, and then robustly, develop understandings, in our bodies, in our bones, around interconnection, emptiness, intention, impact, suffering, and the changing nature of all phenomena. If you’ve done some of this work, you know how good it feels to begin to understand these things as unfathomable and also immutable laws of existence: how good it feels, and for me anyway, how much of a relief it is, to understand and continue to develop my understanding, so that it’s ultimately completely natural to stand with, and stand beside, all of the beings on our small blue planet.

And a third group of steps is the ethical steps, or the steps of Sila. These steps are personal but also by definition interpersonal, in that they come into play whenever we’re in relationship with anyone, or any being. In some ways, in fact, it feels like it’s only in relationship to others and to our communities and world, that we can explore and truly develop sila on the path.

So now we have an outline, a frame, for the Noble Eightfold Path.

Let’s sit.

Two [paths] diverged in a wood, and I—
 I took the one less traveled by,
 And that has made all the difference. 

~Robert Frost