Like the Ten Commandments, Buddha’s Nobel Eightfold Path, is simple to understand but not really easy to accomplish. These eight attitudes are not moral precepts about specifically what not to do, though. They are a simple list of how to behave if you want to live a life with a minimum of suffering for yourself and others.

Buddha does use the word “right” but it is not in the sense that you are damned by God if you don’t take his recommendations. It is more in the sense of what is most appropriate for the moment. Here is the Noble Eighfold Path:

1. Right understanding
2. Right thought
3. Right speech
4. Right action
5. Right livelihood
6. Right effort
7. Right mindfulness
8. Right concentration

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Because they are so simple, people can interpret these concepts in different ways. Huge volumes have been written on the subject. My interpretation, in short, is approach everything with a free, pure, unattached heart. This ensures that we say the appropriate words as well as perform appropriate actions. We consciously put our efforts towards meaningful goals while remaining grounded in what is eternal about ourselves.

Four of the ideas in The Noble Eightfold Path concern themselves with our inner selves: Understanding, thought, mindfulness, and concentration. This is different from the Ten Commandments, which do not concern themselves with a person’s inner life and more with their relationship to Jehovah and with each other.
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Four of the items on the Path are action-oriented: Speech, action, livelihood, and effort. The Buddha did not leave anything out. And by not defining precisely what each “right” thought or action is, he left a lot of room for interpretation. But the final test is, by living this way do you alleviate suffering? Thousands of years after he delivered his insights, they are still alive and bringing people and understanding of life, so they have stood the test of time.

No, solving all our problems is not so easy as sitting on a couch and thinking positive thoughts.

The Law of Attraction does work. Like always attracts like, as we can see in nature all around us. Skunks don’t hang out with geese and fish don’t fraternize with sparrows. But it is not so simple as just being a positive source of energy and opening yourself up to the abundance of the Universe. All the goodies are not going to fall into our laps automatically.

The way it is designed, which many people would not like to face because they think it is easier to just wish and hope, is that we must meet the Universe at least halfway with action. It sounds like such a wonderful fairy tale to think that all we have to do to lose weight is to think about being thin. No, sorry, we must also stop eating fattening and non-nourishing foods and do some form of exercise.

And if we want to be wealthy, all we have to do is stop our negative vibes about cash flow and money. But again, this is wishing and hoping. It is not the whole picture. Yes, we can be unobstructed conduits for all the good of the Universe, but we must put in the effort. Not the struggle, not the grueling slavery, but the effort that shows our intentions.
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The goal of “solving all our problems” is unrealistic and not the reason for our existence on this planet. Our problems are instigation for growth. And once they are “solved,” opportunities for new growth appear. It is never solved. It never gets done. and our opportunities for growth are endless.

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Everyone feels fear. It is built into our physical systems. One of the first responses of a newborn baby is “the startle response.” It serves as a protective mechanism and triggers fight or flight. At one point in our evolution it was useful but now, like the appendix or tonsils, we do not need it to the extent we did. It has become a plague of overthinking that brings depression and loss of morale.
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I am not talking about fear holding us back from doing dangerous and crazy things that scare us, such as jumping out of a skyscraper window on a dare. I am referring to the little voice in the head that stops us from fulfilling our potential because we are too scared to fail, get hurt, or look like a fool trying. The fear takes over ands somewhere we feel less of a person because we backed down.

Your mission in life may require you to speak in front of large groups and anxiety stops you. You would rather give up. It is then that you can realize that everyone feels fear about public speaking but they go ahead and do it anyway, in spite of their stage-fright. They find out they didn’t die from the experience and end up trusting themselves more. Next time is is easier. But if you quit just because you feel jittery, you will never fully realize your goals.

If you are a world class downhill skier, I am sure natural fear kicks in as you face the steep descent. But you know that this fear is an automatic response and you can get past it. Then, once you allow yourself to “feel the fear and do it anyway” (as Susan Jeffers said) a triumphant feeling replaces the fear. You can even use the fear as fuel for extra adrenaline to sharpen your skills.

Everything great that has ever been accomplished by people (and animals) was because they “felt the fear and did it anyway.” Otherwise, life is about cowering away in our shells, protecting ourselves from all kinds of imagined and real threats and never fully living free lives.

The I-Self precedes the “Me-self” and has always existed. It it what links us to Cosmic consciousness and indestructible peace.

The me-self comes along with this body when we incarnate as a human. It appears when we recognize that we want things, we are hungry, we want toys, we are bored, we need to survive at all costs. When we are given a name and discover who the me-self is, suffering begins. We are hurt, we feel neglected, we want someone else’s toys, we want all of Mommy’s attention, we want, want and want.

But when we rest in the I-Self, there is nothing to want. We are already complete. It is a state of peace, which the me-self can never attain. Yes, I say never. For the me-self is looking to the future to fulfill itself. It is always looking for the next thing that will make it happy. It cannot feel the present moment. It will quickly return to chewing over the past and hurling towards the future.
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The I-self exists outside of time, which is a useful invention of the me-self for communication purposes and to “fix” the world. But anything that proceeds from the me-self is impermanent, as is the body from which it arises. Without the body, there wouldn’t be any “me” but the eternal I, the underlying structure of all that is, remains.

I lived without any possessions for more than five years and I existed very well. It is freeing not to own anything. The few clothes I wore, I borrowed. I also used a toothbrush and a comb. But that was it. And it was very easy.

I was on an explicit spiritual path and did not want to be encumbered by any possessions at all. It seemed extreme but I loved and needed the uncluttered feeling of meeting life head-on without the constant maintenance of objects and physical details around me.

I was able to live completely joyful with nothing, showing me that it is possible. Having no possessions had no impact on my happiness except possibly adding to it. When it came time for me to rejoin the world of ownership and things that were “mine,” it was an easy transition as well. But life became more complicated and my energies were spent more on physical self-maintenance in addition to the inner journey to which I was committed.
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So I did more than just exist without all the trappings that attest to the “quality” of person that I am. People who met me, accepted me, or didn’t accept me, just as they do now that I dress like an up-to-date female in the Western Hemisphere. But I know from experience that none of my possessions define me and they never will. For they all disappear, go out of style, get worn out, and get lost—while my Soul is eternal and is the Real Me.

Self-actualization is the ability to reach that higher place of consciousness, from which all our activities and creations originate. At this stage we are far beyond satisfying our basic needs for food, shelter, and social contact. We now are at a place where our full human potential can be realized.
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We are now free to be creative and innovative, profound and wise. We no longer have to slave for our daily food and we can go beyond the day-to-day survival game. And yes, it can be lonely there. Even though modern life offers so many comfortable advantages, not many people are ready to make the effort to go beyond the search for daily satisfactions. Or they don’t know how.

The media are screaming for more attention to our outer appearances and very little attention is brought to finding contact with our souls. Not a lot of economic value is placed on understanding who you are as an eternal being, endlessly connected with the underlying order of the cosmos. When was the last time you saw a spiritual master’s enhanced and filtered selfie go viral?
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Perhaps the rarity of self-realization makes it that much more precious. Yet everyone has the potential for it. For self-realization is never measured against what others achieve, but always relates to how much more we have grown within ourselves.

Yes, when you find the deepest peace within the silence of meditation, your reality will be transformed. It takes practice, but you can go to that place again and again until no matter what is going on in the world, you don’t lose your inner peace.
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Staying in peace takes discipline and understanding about the ups and downs of emotions. You can still feel emotions deeply, so its not like you’re walking around like a zombie. It’s just that you recognize the fleeting nature of these emotions. You can be very sad, then go to anger, then to thoughts of hatred, and all these emotions are causing lots of changes in your body such as an increase in blood pressure and a release of stress hormones.

You recognize that a thought preceded these emotions. That’s what triggered them. You think of something someone said to you. You should have said such-and-such back to them. Your heart starts pounding faster. All from a thought. That person isn’t even in front of you. Now you move from them to all people and suddenly your reality is a living hell.

I meditation, you learn how to go deeper than these thoughts and their triggered emotions. You find that place that is one with the peace that lies at the structure of the cosmos and Universe. Your reality then become one of inner peace as you participate in life but do not get taken down in the undertow. You still experience all the colors of the emotions but it is in the context of deep peace.

People who deeply question life, its meaning, its purpose, the difficulty of suffering, the agony of loss—all experience the Dark Night of the Soul. It happens when we are lying awake in the middle of the night and everything seems dangerous, hurtful, painful, frightening, and pointless. We have lost our faith in anything spiritual and feel disconnected from all of life. It seems like a bitter joke and everyone dies anyway.
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This is a necessary step that brings us to our knees as we move along on our spiritual paths. It forces us, through despair and agony, to surrender to the Higher Power that is purposeful, organized, and often beyond our comprehension. We have nowhere to go but to trust in this Higher Power. We know that simply ending it all is not the solution for our Soul can never die. And when we get through to the other side of this Dark Night, it all appears light and clear to us.

It doesn’t take specialness to merit the Dark Night of the Soul. It happens to everyone who is a sincere spiritually-oriented being. And we can’t force it. It happens just at the right time for our growth and enlightenment. We just have to know that it is not the end. It is not hopeless and is a natural, though painful, part of our expansion during this human experience.