The original meaning of the "Noble Eightfold Path"

This article explains the original meaning of the "Noble Eightfold Path" from a scientific perspective.

What Is the Noble Eightfold Path?

The Noble Eightfold Path is a method for eliminating defilements (kleshas), which are the root cause of human suffering.
Specifically, it consists of the following eight elements:

1. Right View (Seeing rightly)
2. Right Intention (Thinking rightly)
3. Right Speech (Speaking rightly)
4. Right Action (Acting rightly)
5. Right Livelihood (Living rightly)
6. Right Effort (Striving rightly)
7. Right Mindfulness (Being rightly aware)
8. Right Concentration (Concentrating rightly)

However, the Noble Eightfold Path is not a set of practices to be followed either simultaneously or sequentially.
If you continuously practice the first — Right View — the other seven naturally follow.
In other words, if you can see rightly, you will naturally think and act rightly, leading to right results.
By repeating this cycle, one can attain true happiness.

What Is Right View?

But what exactly should we see in order to achieve Right View?
To answer this, we must first understand what defilements are.

Defilements do not refer to desire itself, but rather to cognitive distortion — the decline in thinking abilities due to intense desire.
Defilements arise through the following process, creating a vicious cycle in which minor pain leads to even greater pain:

1. You experience pain.
2. A desire to escape the pain arises.
3. You try to shut out the painful information.
4. Your brain fails to process crucial information needed to resolve the situation, impairing your thinking abilities.
5. You become unable to solve your problems rationally.
6. Your problems worsen, causing even greater pain.

Therefore, if defilements arise from trying to escape pain, then the opposite must also be true — by facing pain directly, rather than avoiding it, we can eliminate defilements.
In essence, Right View means seeing pain as it is.

Pain Scan Meditation

However, simply being aware of pain only brings more suffering and serves no purpose.
To eliminate difilements, one must observe pain thoroughly and consistently through meditation.
In short, the Noble Eightfold Path teaches that defilements can be extinguished by observing pain through meditation, leading to true happiness.
To learn more about meditation, please refer to the article "How to meditate".