Page 121 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

political aspects also have to be transformed. What Perfect

Livelihood, the fifth step of the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path,
therefore in truth represents is the need to create an ideal

society. After all, we live in society and we cannot get away from
it very much or for very long. We may go to a country retreat
centre for a few weeks or a few months, if we are lucky, but

eventually we have to come back and live in the world again at
least to some extent, even the luckiest of us. So we have to

transform this world also, as part of the task of transforming
ourselves.

One final word. Mention was made a short while ago of the
Western Buddhist Order, now in process of formation, and this

introduces the question of what we call in Buddhism the Sangha
or Spiritual Community. There are a number of different ways of
looking at the Sangha, but I am not going into them all now. I just

want to sound, in this connection, one particular note, which
seems particularly relevant here. The Sangha or Spiritual

Community represents, we may say, the ideal society on a very
small scale. It is a sort of anticipation, in miniature, of what
society as a whole could be like further on in the course of

human evolution. Our own small Sangha or Spiritual Community,
our own small Order, represents a society or a community fully

based on ethical and spiritual principles. In other words, it is not
a society in the sense of an organization, but a real community
actually based on those principles. This is how it differs from an

organization. It also differs from an organization in respect of the
degree of participation and commitment on the part of individual

members. It must also be stressed that what is of the utmost
importance, within the Sangha or Spiritual Community, is right

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