Question

Could you please talk about how to investigate or reflect on the Noble Eightfold Path in a formal or informal way?

Answer

We don't have a devised reflection meditation for the Noble Eightfold Path that we'll be teaching during the retreat, but you can simply bring each one to mind, think about what it means. What is Right View? Ask yourselves this question for all the eight factors so that you can see if you know what the Buddha taught concerning the eight factors. Do you know the eight factors? For example, Right view - there are results to all our actions, speech and thoughts and the Four Noble Truths.

You can think about what is the opposite, what is wrong view? You can bring up examples of experiences in your life when you've had Right View, and when you've had wrong view. You can bring up experiences outside in other people's lives where you can see they have Right View, where you can see they have wrong view. You can think about Right Thoughts, wrong thoughts. Experiences in your life when you had Right Thought, experiences when you had wrong thoughts, and similar with the others. We can go through them, that would be one way to reflect, trying to understand the eight more fully so that you can then work with them more fully, also.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.