Analysis of The Eightfold Path

The Eightfold Path contains life aspects that one ought to integrate in their daily lives
in order to be as close as possible to the Buddhist path that leads to the ultimate goal of
Buddhism – overcoming suffering. As a Christian, the Eightfold Path can be compared to the
Ten Commandments. However, unlike the Ten Commandments which are in effect decrees
that one is compelled to follow, the Eightfold Path is more of a guideline. Viewed as
guidelines, one can choose which of their aspects are most important to their learning and
self-discovery process and which of the aspects are less important to this process.

After careful analysis of the eight aspects of life contained in The Eightfold Path, the
practices that I consider to be the most important to the Buddhist way are right action, right
speech, right livelihood, right view, and right intentions. These five aspects of the Eightfold
Path can broadly be classified into training in ethics and training in wisdom. The first three
aspects that I have listed are training in ethics and the last two are training in wisdom. I
believe that these five aspects of the Eightfold Path are important to the Buddhist way
because they give a Buddhist knowledge of the reality of human life and direct them towards
a path of living an ethical life that enables them to achieve the Buddhist goal of overcoming
suffering.

The least important aspects of the Eightfold Path would be correct effort, correct
concentration, and correct mindfulness. Compared to the other five aspects of Eightfold Path,
these three are less important because one can ignore them without significantly veering off
from the Buddhist Path. For instance, the right effort requires one to cultivate positive
thoughts, the right mindfulness requires one to focus on each moment, and the right
concentration requires one to focus on what is important to the achievement of the ultimate

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Buddhist goal. As they are completely focused on the state of the mind which changes
frequently, one can afford to ignore these aspects of the Eightfold Path and still remain on the
correct Buddhist path.