Page 146 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

the supra-human or trans-human stage. Thus the hypotenuse of

our triangle covers the entire process of evolution, from the
amoeba through man, i.e. unenlightened man, to Buddha or

Enlightened man. Science and religion, the Lower and the Higher
Evolution, are embraced in one enormous sweep, and this, to
anyone with even a little imagination, is a most inspiring and

invigorating prospect. Closing one's eyes, one can see the whole
process of growth and efflorescence, as from its first beginnings

it passes through innumerable successive steps and stages. One
can see the long, slow, painful ascent of life as it culminates, for
the present at least, in man.

Perfect Effort as Conscious Evolution

Perfect Effort is, of course, the sixth stage of the Noble Eightfold
Path, and the Noble Eightfold Path corresponds, strictly
speaking, to the fourth stage of the evolutionary process, i.e. to

the stage represented by section D of the hypotenuse in our
diagram. In a wider sense, as comprising the mundane as well as

the Transcendental Eightfold Path, it corresponds to the whole
process of the Higher Evolution, i.e. to the stage represented by
sections C and D of the hypotenuse. As such, it includes in its

scope even our relatively half-hearted attempts to follow the
Eightfold Path.

As our diagram suggests, the Lower and the Higher Evolution are
in one sense continuous; but in another sense they are not.

There are, in fact, important differences between them, and one
of these differences is exemplified by Perfect Effort. Whereas

the Lower Evolution is collective — for here it is the whole
species that evolves, not any individual (at this level the
individual does not yet exist) — the Higher Evolution is an

individual affair.

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