Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 3: How to Follow the Noble Eightfold Path
• Part 2 of 3: How to Achieve Nirvana in Everyday Life
• Part 3 of 3: Four Noble Truths
• Tips

Four noble truths, one might say, constitute the essence of Buddhism and tell you what to do with the suffering of people. These truths say that the life of sentient beings is full of various sufferings, and this suffering has a beginning (cause) and an end, and you can achieve nirvana to end this suffering.The noble eightfold path describes in detail what needs to be done to achieve nirvana. In other words, the Four Noble Truths describe the illness of human existence, and the Eightfold Path provides a recipe for healing. Understanding the truths and walking the path will allow you to achieve peace and happiness in this life.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: How to Follow the Noble Eightfold Path

1. 1 Meditate regularly. Meditation is the key to the work of the mind and allows you to get closer to nirvana. Meditation should be part of your daily routine. You can learn to meditate on your own, but the teacher will always guide you and allow you to master the technique correctly. It is possible to meditate alone, but meditation in a group under the guidance of a teacher will bring bOthe greatest fruits.
   • You cannot achieve nirvana without meditation. Meditations allow you to better understand yourself and the world around you.
2. 2 Practice correct view. Buddhist teachings (that is, the Four Noble Truths) can be called the lens through which you must look at the world. If you cannot accept the teaching, then you cannot attain nirvana. Right view and right understanding are the foundation of the path. See the world realistically, not the way you would like to see it. You must strive to know reality completely, through the lens of objectivity. It requires you to explore, study, and learn.
   • The four noble truths are the basis for correct understanding. You must believe that these truths describe things as they really are.
   • Nothing is perfect or permanent. Think critically about all situations instead of running them through your personal feelings, desires, and concerns.
3. 3 Have the right intentions. Aim to develop behaviors that fit your belief system. Act as if your whole life deserves compassion and love. This should apply both in yourself and in other living beings. Reject selfish, violent, or hateful thoughts. Love and non-violence should be your main principle.
   • Show love for all creatures (people, animals, and even plants), regardless of their status. For example, treat rich and poor with equal respect. Members of all professions, races, ethnic groups and ages should be equal for you.
4. 4 Follow the correct speech. The third step is correct speech. By practicing correct speech, you should not lie, spread slander, gossip, or be rude. Speak only kind and truthful words. Your words should inspire and delight others. Know when to keep quiet and say nothing - this is very important.
   • Practice correct speech every day.
5. 5 Behave yourself. Your actions depend on what's in your heart and mind. Be kind to yourself and other people. Do not spoil life and do not steal. Live a peaceful life and help others to live as well. Be honest when interacting with other people. For example, don't cheat or mislead others to get what you want.
   • Your presence and actions should be positive and improve the lives of others and society as a whole.
6. 6 Choose the right lifestyle. Choose a profession or activity in accordance with your beliefs. Do not do work that harms other people, kills animals, or cheats. Selling weapons or drugs, or working in a slaughterhouse is not consistent with the right way of life. Whichever job you choose, you must do it honestly.
   • For example, if you work in sales, then don't cheat or lie to people who buy your product.
7. 7 Practice Right Effort. Make the right effort in everything you do to be successful. Free your mind of negative thoughts and focus on positive thoughts. Do everything with interest (go to school, make a career, make friends, do a hobby, and so on).Practice positive thinking all the time, as it doesn't always happen naturally. This will prepare your mind to practice mindfulness. Here are four principles of good effort:
   • Avoid the appearance of unhealthy and angry states (sensual desire, hostility, excitement, doubt, anxiety)
   • If anger and other unhealthy conditions arise, avoid them - redirect your attention to something else, concentrate on good thoughts, or try to follow the appearance of the condition and find its source (reflection).
   • Try to create good and wholesome states.
   • Maintain good and rewarding conditions.
8. 8 Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness allows you to see reality and things as they are. The four foundations of mindfulness are contemplation of the body, feelings, states of mind, and phenomena. When you are aware, you are in the present moment and open to any experience. You are focused in the present, not in the past or in the future. Be attentive to your body, your feelings, your thoughts, your ideas and everything around you.
   • Living in the present frees you from desires.
   • Mindfulness also means being mindful of the feelings, emotions, and physical well-being of others.
9. 9 Focus on your mind. Correct concentration is the ability to concentrate your mind on one object and not be distracted by outside influences. Walking the entire path will allow you to learn how to concentrate. Your mind will be focused and not filled with stress and anxiety. You will have a good relationship with yourself and with the world. Correct concentration allows you to see clearly, that is, to see the true essence.
   • Concentration is like awareness. However, when you concentrate, you are not aware of all feelings and sensations. For example, if you are concentrating on an exam, you are only concentrating on the exam passing process. If you practiced mindfulness during the exam, you would be able to feel your emotions while taking the exam, see the actions of other people, or how you sit during the exam.

Part 2 of 3: How to Achieve Nirvana in Everyday Life

1. 1 Practice loving-kindness (metta bhavana). "Metta" means non-romantic love, kindness and friendliness. These feelings come from the heart and can be cultivated and practiced. The practice usually includes five stages. If you are a beginner, try to devote five minutes to each step.
   • Stage 1: Feel Metta for You. Focus on feelings of peace, calmness, strength, and confidence. You can say to yourself, "May I be healthy and happy."
   • Stage 2: Think about your friends and all the people you like. Repeat the phrase: "May they be healthy, may they be happy."
   • Stage 3: Think of those people for whom you have no feelings (neutral attitude) and mentally send them metta.
   • Stage 4: Think about the people you don't like. Instead of thinking about why you don't like them and cultivating hateful thoughts, send them metta.
   • Stage 5: In the last stage, think about all people, about each individual person and about yourself. Send "metta" to people in your city, region, country and people around the world.
2. 2 Practice mindful breathing. This type of meditation will teach you to concentrate and focus on your thoughts. Through this meditation, you will learn how to practice mindfulness, relax, and release anxiety. Sit in a position that is comfortable for you. The back should be straight and relaxed, the shoulders should be relaxed and tilted back slightly. Place your hands on the pillow or on your knees. When you find a comfortable and correct position, begin the practice. It consists of several stages. Give each step at least 5 minutes.
   • Stage 1: Begin mentally counting (inhale-exhale - one, inhale-exhale - two, and so on) after each exhalation. Count to 10. Concentrate on the feelings of inhalation and exhalation.If the mind wanders (and it will), just bring your thoughts back, concentrating on the breath.
   • Stage 2: Continue breathing in cycles of 10, but at this stage count before inhaling (for example, one inhale-exhale, two inhale-exhale, three ...). Concentrate on the sensation of inhalation.
   • Stage 3: breathe, but no longer count in and out. Try to follow the breath as a continuous process, not just a series of inhalations and exhalations.
   • Stage 4: Now you need to concentrate on the sensations of how air enters your body and how it leaves it. Watch how the air passes through the nostrils, feel the exhaled air on the upper lip.
3. 3 Support and encourage others. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is to achieve inner peace and share this experience with other people. Achieving nirvana will be beneficial not only for you, but for the whole world. You must be a source of support and inspiration for others. It's very simple - like hugging and supporting someone at a time when the person is feeling depressed. If the person is important to you or does something good for you, tell them how you feel. Let people know how grateful you are to them and how you value them. If someone is having a bad day, listen, give that person a chance to talk.
4. 4 Remember compassion for people. Your happiness is directly related to the happiness of others. Showing compassion brings joy to all people. There are many ways to practice compassion:
   • Turn off your cell phone when you are with friends or family.
   • Look other people in the eye, especially when someone is talking to you, listen without interrupting.
   • Volunteer.
   • Open doors for other people.
   • Be empathetic towards other people. For example, if someone is upset, pay attention to it and try to understand the reasons. Offer your help. Listen and show concern.
5. 5 Remember mindfulness. When you practice mindfulness, you must pay attention to what you are thinking and feeling in the present moment. Mindfulness needs to be practiced not only during meditation but also in daily life. For example, be mindful of eating, showering, or dressing. Start by practicing mindfulness during one specific activity, focusing on the sensations in your body and on your breath.
   • If you want to practice mindfulness while eating, then focus on the taste, texture, and smell of the food you are eating.
   • When washing dishes, pay attention to the temperature of the water, how your hands act when you wash the dishes, and how the water rinses the dishes.
   • Instead of listening to music or watching TV as you get dressed and get ready for school or work, prepare yourself to do it in silence. Monitor your feelings. Do you feel tired or energized getting out of bed? How do you feel in your body when you shower or dress?

Part 3 of 3: Four Noble Truths

1. 1 Define suffering. The Buddha describes suffering in a different way than we are used to thinking about it. Suffering is an integral part of life. Dukkha is the truth that all living entities suffer. We are used to describing with the word suffering conditions such as illness, aging, trauma, physical or emotional pain. But the Buddha describes suffering differently: he describes it as mainly unfulfilled desires and cravings (attachments) for something. Desires and attachments are the cause of suffering because people rarely feel satisfied or satisfied. As soon as one desire is satisfied, a new desire arises, and this is a vicious circle.
   • Dukha means "that which is difficult to bear." Suffering is very diverse, it includes both global things and little things.
2. 2 Identify the causes of suffering. Desire and ignorance are the root of suffering. Unfulfilled desires are the worst type of suffering.For example, if you are sick, you are suffering. When you are sick, you want to feel better. Your unsatisfied desire to be healthy is much heavier than the discomfort caused by illness. Every time you desire something (a thing, an opportunity, a person, or an achievement), something that you cannot get, you suffer.
   • The only thing we are guaranteed in life is aging, illness and death.
   • Desires not to satisfy. As soon as you achieve or receive something, you will begin to desire something else. Constantly craving for something prevents you from feeling true happiness.
3. 3 Stop suffering in your life. Each of the four truths is a kind of step. If everything in life is suffering, and suffering is due to our desires, then the only way to end suffering is to stop wanting anything. You must believe that you do not have to suffer and that you can end suffering. To end suffering, you must change your perception and learn to control your desires.
   • Controlling desires and aspirations allows you to achieve freedom and satisfaction in life.
4. 4 End the suffering in your life. It is possible to end suffering through the Noble Eightfold Path. The path to nirvana should be based on three ideas. First, you must have the right intentions and thinking. Second, you must live with the right intentions and thoughts every day. Finally, you must understand the true reality and have the right attitude towards all things.
   • The Eightfold Path can be divided into three categories: wisdom (right vision, right intention), ethical behavior (right speech, right action, right lifestyle), and mental improvement (right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration).
   • The Eightfold Path provides guidance for daily life.

Tips

• Your personal path to enlightenment may be different from the path of other people: as each snowflake is unique, so is the path of each person. Practice what feels natural or right to you.
• Try different methods of meditation, because meditation is just a tool or method that you use on the path. Various tools can come in handy to achieve your goal.
• Nirvana is achieved when the misconception about the existence of oneself and everything else stops. There are various methods to achieve this state. None of them is right or wrong, better or worse. Sometimes it is possible to achieve nirvana in a random way, and sometimes it takes a lot of time and effort.
• No one else knows what your path is, but sometimes the teacher can tell you where to go. Most teachers / traditions / sects are very strongly attached to the described path of enlightenment, and one of the main obstacles to this enlightenment is this attachment to opinion / point of view. You shouldn't forget about irony along the way.
• Individual practice is essential to achieve nirvana. The role of the teacher is to help you grow and become spiritually self-reliant. The role of the teacher is not to create codependency and regression to an infantile state, but on the contrary. Unfortunately, the former happens very, very often.
• Nirvana is probably not easy to achieve. This can take a long time. Even if it seems impossible to you, keep trying.
• You can practice Buddhism on your own, but you are more likely to achieveObest success if you go to the temple and find a teacher. Do not rush to make a choice, but trust your own intuition - even if it takes time to find the right teacher, you will receive only advantages. There are good teachers, and there are not very good ones. Search the internet for temples, groups (sanghas) or teachers and see what they say about them and their teachings.
• The eightfold path is nonlinear. This is the journey you take every day.
• Find what you like and devote yourself to this business.
• Don't forget for a moment the benefits of enlightenment.Remind yourself of them constantly and let it motivate you.
• On the path of everyone, doubt grips.
• Awakening may fade away, but knowledge cannot be lost.
• Awakenings remain, they deepen over time.
• Revivals often occur during severe personal crises.
• Concentrate on the practice and you may succeed. It is worth concentrating on the goal, and practice will not give results.
• Search online for groups or courses to teach awakening meditation. You will surely find many useful resources.
• Nirvana can be achieved through any spiritual or religious practice, even if these practices deny the existence of nirvana. There is a lot of evidence for this. For example, very often the followers of Christianity say that an enlightenment has come to them, that God has revealed the truths to them, and the like.