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The Noble Eightfold Path.
A person can start anywhere on the Noble Eightfold Path, and progress to different stages at different times.
The eight stages of the Noble Eightfold Path are:

  1. right knowledge and understanding, seeing the world and life as it really is;
  2. right intention and thoughts, resisting evil, thinking with kindness and compassion;
  3. right speech, saying nothing to hurt others;
  4. right action, not harming living things, not taking what is not given, not having harmful sexual relationships, not taking drugs or drink which cloud the mind;
  5. right livelihood, earning a living in a fair and honest way that does not injure others;
  6. right effort, using what energy you have in the right way;
  7. right mindfulness, being attentive to what is going on inside you and around you;
  8. right concentration, applying the mind to meditation and concentrating on what you are doing. The word right means what is appropriate to help a person progress toward enlightenment.

For a Buddhist, this analysis of the way the world is starts from the experience of dukkha. It develops into a practical path for leaving dukkha behind. Another possible starting point for Buddhists is also based on the experience of the Buddha. This is the truth that everything is changing all the time, that all that we experience here in the world is impermanent (anitya in Sanskrit).

The Buddha saw old age, illness, and death. This experience made him realize that nothing in the world is permanent. Buddhists believe that a person is a chain of life, a continuity from baby to child, to young adult, to old adult. Every part of each individual changes physically and mentally in one lifetime. This realization led the Buddha to teach anatman (not-self). This is the belief that there is no ultimate, unchanging essence in anyone or anything.

According to anatman, human beings are part of an ever-changing pattern that runs through all life. When a person no longer grasps after a sense of self, there is no feeling of separateness from others, no fear for the self, no fear of dying. People become selfless persons. They experience a mental state of loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity (calmness of mind).

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