Page 33 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

but we know it only with the conscious mind, with the rational
part of ourselves. We know it theoretically, intellectually,

abstractly. But we must recollect that man is not just his
conscious mind. He is not all reason — though he may like to
think he is. There is another part of him, a much larger part of

him than he cares to admit, which is no less important than his
reason. This part of him is made up of instinct, of emotion, of

volition, and is more unconscious than conscious. And this wider,
deeper and no less important part of ourselves is not touched at
all by our rational or intellectual knowledge, but goes its own

way, as it were, dragging the mental part, still protesting, along
with it.

Thus we see that we cannot go against the emotions. The
emotions are stronger than reason. If we want to put into

practice what we know to be right, what we know to be true, we
have to enlist, in one way or another, the co-operation of the

emotions. We have to be able to tap those deeper sources within
ourselves and harness them, also, to Our spiritual life, so that we
may implement what we know to be right and true. For most of us

the central problem of the spiritual life is to find emotional
equivalents for our intellectual understanding. Until we have done

that no further spiritual progress is possible. This is why samyak-
samkalpa comes as the second stage, or second aspect, of the
Noble Eightfold Path, immediately after Perfect Vision.

Samyak-samkalpa

Samyak-samkalpa (Pali samma-sankappo) may be provisionally
translated as Right Resolve, but this is far from adequate. As we
have seen in connection with the first stage of the

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