The 8 fold pathway consists of the first concept of vision, view and values.  And that is the starting ground for exploring how do we serve humanity, what is our vision, what is the value?  The pathway develops as many of you know, through the second step of intentionality.  Concepts 2-8 on the Path are thus: right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood. From there we move into the higher realms of right education/effort, right mindfulness and right concentration or meditation.  And that being the eight fold path, we would embark upon the discussion. 

This is not to say in any way, shape or form that these are sequential steps. The 8 fold path is simply an integrated system of understanding of how we can create intentionality in the heart.  It is a very beautiful tradition of knowledge and learning.  The first step on the path of the 8 fold path that we will explore is that of right vision, or right values.  The understanding of right vision is based on knowledge of the four noble truths.  The four noble truths have very much to do with the concept of suffering. Buddhism teaches that 1) life means suffering, 2) the origin of suffering is attachment (attachment to transient things and to ignorance of the nature of physical transience), 3) the cessation of suffering is attainable and 4) the path to the cessation of suffering is indeed the 8 fold path. You see, this pathway provides us as spiritual beings, with a middle way between the two extremes of excessive self-indulgence and excessive self-denial. Between hedonism and asceticism. This pathway leads to the ending of the cycle of rebirth. This is about balance, and you are all seeking balance, a better way, an end to the cycle of wandering the wheel of becoming.

Now one of the great lessons of learning we may carry forward into our time at the beginning of a New Age, is that the element of suffering need not resonate so strongly throughout the physical reality of Light Bearing souls.   So while extremes of suffering were very much a reality in the time of the Buddha's teaching, there has been a significant transformation of your reality, has there not?   As humans, the majority of you here in the west are not occupied with subsistence living tasks - the production of your own food, the making of your own shelters and the gathering of your own fuel sources.   You now have the opportunity to actually use your time in the pursuit of deep spiritual contemplation, without forsaking daily life!    You no longer have to become an ascetic to follow a spiritual path.   You have before you the opportunity to lead a spiritual life without the necessity of hardship, without the need to make either/or choices (either I use my energies to subsist OR I become a monk and rely on others to sustain my physical needs) You truly have the ability in the New Age to choose the middle road that leads to Enlightenment!

There is still much wisdom to be garnered from the 4 nobles truths and the concept of suffering.    For truly, suffering is an illusion.   But we will say, as Light Workers in the New Age, the necessity of suffering begins to lose its grasp and grip on our mental grid. (The mental grid is the reality construct that we all agree on - this actually EXISTS as an energy construct - it is a grid that is shifting dramatically in the Now - what used to be an agreed upon reality even 100 years ago, is now quite different - you can fly through the air! you can communicate across vast distances, you can do many things in the Now that were impossible several decades ago - think on this, our friends in light! Reality is truly shifting - and who creates reality? You do!)

You are now able to understand that suffering is temporal.  You do not need to live the same path and the same experience as explained by the great Buddha. In the New Age, without needing to be initiated in occult practices, you have knowledge of the temporal nature of the physical body and the infinite possibilities of the energetic soul.  You understand how you create Reality. In the Now, suffering needs not have such an iron fisted grasp on your mind - and once the "reality" of suffering begins to shift, we create from a very different place of Power. Thus, we no longer have the necessity to meet suffering in order to transcend above it in incarnated life! You no longer have to DIE to LIVE! Do you understand this our friends in light? 

Yes, now the topic of right vision and right values has very much to do with the heart center.  IT is in the heart center where we create the vision of the soul - the vision of your soul in the Now is to manifest reality through the vibration of love, NOT the vibration of suffering! When we hold in our mind, the right value of this vibration, we begin to experience ourselves as no different than any one else.  Believing that one is "different" from another is one of the primary root causes of suffering. It allows a reality to be created whereby you can harm another without harming the Self. This is absolutely and unequivocally FALSE! When you begin to understand that you are no different than any other being, you can enter quite easily into Right Vision and Right Value - and thus, a great portion of suffering is ended. There would be no war, no crime, no adultery etc. All these things have the potential to End in the Now, do you see? 

At times when we are in the ego mind, we enter into valuing those we know above those we do not know. Thus, perhaps, you think: "I value my spouse, my partner, my friends, my neighbors, those who I know, those who are of the same value system as myself, above those of different value systems." This leads us, each time, away from Right Values and Right vision. It leads us into the separative value of the ego- mind – the "I" without the "I AM". Each time we hold this value in our own heart and mind, we move off of the 8 fold path and into suffering. Each time we see ourselves as different than another, we enter the illusion that it is alright to cause harm. Do you understand the great teaching in this first step of the path? When one acts from the heart and the spiritual center, one begins to commit to the pathway, through Right value and Right vision: ultimately that is the Truth that All IS One. 

Now this topic may be explored and may be expanded upon, but we would like to go now into a meditation of the heart center. This is where we create Right Value and Right Vision. This is where we connect to the Unity Consciousness that All IS One.  From here, the pathway becomes clear. from the heart, you will not only "know" but feel, and then believe, that you can never harm another without harming yourself. You will experience the Truth that leads to the end of suffering. Let us begin...

Kuthumi

© Ronna Prince 2004 (This document may be forwarded with permission with the attached copyright.)