Page 90 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

that the path to hell was paved with skilfulness. It just doesn't fit.

Unskilful actions are defined as those which are rooted in craving
or selfish desire, in hatred and aversion, and in mental confusion
or bewilderment, i.e. in a state of spiritual obfuscation or

ignorance. Skilful actions are those which are free from craving,
free from hatred, free from mental confusion, and which are,

positively speaking, motivated instead by generosity, or the
impulse to share and to give, by love and compassion, and by
understanding. This very simple distinction at once places the

whole question of morality in a very different light. The moral life
becomes a question of acting from what is best within us: acting

from our deepest understanding and insight, our widest and
most comprehensive love and compassion.

We are now in a position to begin to see what is meant by
Perfect Action. It is not just action which accords with some

external standard or criterion but action which expresses Perfect
Vision and Perfect Emotion. Perfect Action represents the
descent to the level of action of Perfect Vision and Perfect

Emotion, just as Perfect Speech represents their descent to the
level of communication. In other words, having already attained

Perfect Vision, and developed Perfect Emotion, when one comes
to act one spontaneously expresses that vision and that
emotional experience in terms of one's action.

Patterns of Ethical Behaviour

By this time serious students of Buddhism may well be
wondering how the Five or the Ten Silas (Pali: Silas) or Precepts
fit into the picture. Are these not lists of moral rules which

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