Page 182 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

— are all taught and practised; but it shares the first two with

the other schools of Buddhism. The specific contribution of Zen
lies in its teaching about samadhi in the ultimate sense, i.e. in

the sense of the state of being established in the Enlightened
mode of being, and especially in its teaching about the non-
duality of Samadhi and Prajna.

The Noble Eightfold Path as a Cumulative Process

We are perhaps now in a better position to understand what it is
we are trying to attain when we follow the Buddha's Noble
Eightfold Path. We are trying to attain a higher mode of being

and consciousness. We are not just trying to achieve 'Right
Concentration'. What we are aiming at is a total transformation

of our whole being, at every level and in all its aspects, in the
light of the initial Perfect Vision. And, so far as we can see, this
step or stage of Perfect Samadhi marks the culmination of the

whole evolutionary process — at least, the whole process of the
Higher Evolution.

Now just a word of warning, or at least of explanation. The
Noble Eightfold Path is, as its name tells us, a path or way

(Sanskrit: marga, Pali : magga) and, as we have seen, it consists
of eight steps or stages, and the Buddhist spiritual life consists of

following this Path. This is very familiar imagery, which we are
using all the time in Buddhism, but we should beware of
interpreting too literally what is essentially a figure of speech.

We are so easily misled by words — so easily take them at their
face value. It is true that, in a way, the spiritual life does consist

in following a path, i.e. going from one stage to the next. But in
another way the spiritual life isn't at all like following a path.
When we go along a path we leave the earlier stages behind.

They are finished and done with. But in the case of the spiritual

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