Forget the Noble Eightfold path!

It is generally acknowledged by most Buddhist practitioners that the Noble Eightfold Path is the complete course leading to the cessation of suffering and that only an eightfold mode was ever addressed by the Buddha.  However, in the Pâli canon there other instances where the Buddha speaks of a tenfold path and its superiority over the eightfold path, the latter being applicable only to the first seven noble persons (ariyapuggalas).  In the Mahâcattârîsaka Sutta the Buddha says:

“In this way, monks, the course of the learner (sekha) is possessed of eight components, and that of the perfected (P., Arahant; S., Arhat) of ten components” (M. iii. 76) 

Added on to the learner’s eightfold path which make up the Arhat’s tenfold path is “right gnosis” (S., samyak jñâna ) followed by the tenth, “right liberation” (S., samyak vimukta).  The reason for this addition is not hard to fathom, especially when it is clear that the eightfold path is inadequate inasmuch as it does not explicitly lead to liberation or vimukta/nirvana although it seems to implicitly point to it.  

An important feature of the tenfold path that is presented in the Mahâcattârîsaka Sutta is its sequentiality in which the development of each path-factor necessarily leads to the next, culminating in perfect liberation.  Normally, most Buddhist teachers do not teach such an understanding of the path.  For example, Bhikkhu Bodhi states: 

“The eight factors of the Noble Eightfold Path are not steps to be followed in sequence, one after another.  They can be more aptly described as components rather than as steps, comparable to the intertwining strands of a single cable that requires the contributions of all the strands for maximum strength (Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Way to the End of Suffering, p. 14). (Bold added for emphasis.)

Now compare the above with what the Buddha said with regard to the tenfold path:

"As to this, monks, right view comes first.  And how, monks, does right view come first? From right view proceeds right aspiration, from right aspiration proceeds right speech, from right speech proceeds right action, from right action proceeds right livelihood, from right livelihood proceeds right effort, from right effort proceeds right mindfulness, from right mindfulness proceeds right concentration, from right concentration proceeds right gnosis, from right gnosis proceeds right liberation” (M. iii. 75–76).

What perhaps is troubling after comparing Bhikkhu Bodhi’s interpretation with the Buddha’s words is that the eightfold path, as Bhikkhu Bodhi describes it, just makes a numerical distinction between the eight components.  The eighth path-factor, for example, is not any different than the first path-factor “right view”.  One could easily, therefore, begin with “right livelihood” as the first path-factor. 

A final remark, one needs to be cautious when studying Buddhism.  Many terms are not what they seem at first glance; many of which, in fact, go much deeper than a beginner—or even an advanced student—has the capacity to comprehend.  Unknown to the beginner is a subtle a gnosis by which liberation is achieved which sets one above the suffering of the Five Aggregates which plague all ordinary beings or prithagjana.  Leaving this aside, Mahayana Buddhism brings out, I am tempted to say, the Arhat’s path which rests on gnosis and vimukta.  In sharp contrast, much of the Buddhism presented in the Pali canon is not directed to the Arhat path-factors.

Comments

[JB]

You have not understood correctly. Right knowledge and right release
are not practices one follows in order to attain to arahantship. They
are factors present together with arahantship. And it is incorrect and
unnecessarily divisive to suggest, as you do, that Mahayana is
superior in its presentation of right knowledge and right release.

Your selective use of texts ignores the broader context of Dhamma
teachings in the Pali canon. There are different presentations in
different contexts, depending on what is being emphasized. Ven.
Bodhi's presentation is valid and reflects a sound understanding of
Dhamma. You may wish to read the notes that accompany The Great Forty in his and Ven. Nanamoli's translation.

It appears you have misunderstood some meditative experience
that you have had. Please tread carefully in this thicket of views you
have entered, and may you soon find release.

[Frank]

Yeah, I've read a lot of those pop Buddhism books, and I see what you mean. The actual message of the Buddha is so much more than the psychobabble view of Buddhism. I appreciate your deep analysis of actual Buddhism. Good work.

[Krispy Krackers]

samma doesnt mean 'right', home-boy [...].