The Eightfold Path to Joyful Living

On Sunday, November 15, 2009, Venerable Chang Chi gave a talk entitled, “The Eightfold Path to Joyful Living.” Robert Weick translated the talk into English. Venerable’s talk was based on the Eightfold Noble Path taught by the Buddha to “help people let go of suffering and embrace happiness”.

Venerable talked about the three aspects of suffering—the suffering of suffering, the suffering of impermanence, and the suffering of the mind. He also talked about the eight kinds of suffering --birth, old age, sickness, death, being parted from the ones you love, dealing with those you do not like, failure to get what you want, and suffering caused by the five skandhas.

According to Buddhism, the suffering is caused by the different karmic seeds that we have planted in previous lives and in the present life, and ignorance of the way things really are-- impermanence, emptiness and no-self.

Venerable explained the Eightfold Noble Path, which are eight different ways of getting rid of suffering and gaining happiness, and shared different methods for dealing with problems. He encouraged the audience to not only listen to the dharma but to put it into practice so that we may be able to reduce suffering.


(Report by Chang Jie)