The Noble Eightfold Path - Right Understanding. Right Understanding of Cause and Effect, that is we realize that everything that we think, say and do has a result. Contained within Right Understanding, of course, is the Four Noble Truths which, if you look more deeply, is talking about Dukkha: Dukkha arises due to ignorance, unwise reactions and craving, there is the ability to end it, and the path leading to the ending of it.
Right Thought or Intention is defined by the Buddha as thoughts directed to renunciation, free from ill-will and free from cruelty. So how do we develop such right thoughts and intentions? Of course developing the Unselfish Emotions is very important for developing Right Intention. Compassion, Lovingkindness, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity, all these four need to balance each other in order to have appropriate reactions to people and so that we have right intentions towards people.
Right Speech. Right Intentions guide Right Speech. Intentions that are free from ill-will and cruelty guard our speech; this is so that our speech becomes truthful, and so that it is not abusive, and it is not useless. Useless gossip: saying untrue things about others, even things that we have just heard from others that we don't know to be true. We have to keep with the truth, because gossip may not be true, and if we are passing it along we may be causing harm to some persons reputation by doing this. So we have to be careful about gossip, untruthfulness, and harsh and abusive speech.
Right Actions - again, they are actions that are based in compassion. Compassion guides our morality so that we don't do actions that are harmful to ourselves, or to others, or to both. Within Buddhism there is the basic Five Precepts of right actions, that is: not to kill, not to steal, not to have sexual misconduct, not to lie, and not to use intoxicants that confuse the mind. These are the basic rules of training that are undertaken by saying the phrase a similar to, "I undertake the training rule to abstain from such and such..." A training that we try to do, because we may not be perfect in the beginning. As we develop our compassion for ourselves and others, then morality seems to come more naturally, and so does renunciation. So developing that Right Intention is a basis for developing Morality.
Right Livelihood is the next factor in the Noble Eightfold Path, which I have talked about a little already in today's Question and Answers period.
Right Effort: I talked about last night: the effort to avoid unbeneficial qualities from arising, the effort to let go of them, the effort to develop beneficial qualities and the effort to maintain them. These Four Great Efforts are extremely important so that we don't just observe things coming and going all of the time, but instead understand that we have to try to prevent them, let them go of them, and develop and maintain beneficial qualities which may prevent unbeneficial qualities form arising in the future.
Right Mindfulness is in the Satipattana Sutta, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, which I talked about some nights ago. It is a vast teaching of the Buddha.
Right Concentration is the eighth factor of the Noble Eightfold Path. Yet in order to walk the path, we have to begin with Right View. According to the Mahacattarisaka Sutta, the Buddha said, "I will teach you the Noble Right Concentration with its supports and with its requisites." And then, 14 times he said, " Right View come(s) first". In order to have Right Concentration, we need Right View first.