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Buddhist Ethics and the Noble Eight-fold Path
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This lecture notes discusses the meaning and key concepts of Buddhist Ethics, as well as its relation to the Noble Eight-fold Path.
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Buddhist Ethics and the Noble Eight-fold PathIntroduction: Buddhist Ethics
As is well known, the ultimate goal of Buddhism is to attain Nirvana, a Sanskrit word for
enlightenment. According to the Buddha, this can be attained through the process of
cultivating oneself, which involves the Eight-fold Path (Wallace, 2003). Each stage of the
Eight-fold Path that a person has to undergo is founded on moral virtue. Thus, Buddhist
ethics is crucial to the attainment of enlightenment as it serves as the underlying
principle of the Eight-fold Path. These notes explore very briefly the important role that
Buddhist ethics played within Buddhism’s Eight-fold Path. It begins with a discussion on
the meaning of Buddhist ethics and the common ethical principles articulated by the
Buddha. It then proceeds with a discussion on the stages of the Eight-fold Path and
sketches the developmental process involved in each stage. Finally, these notes briefly
present the important role that Buddhist ethics played in the Eight-fold Path.
What is Buddhist Ethics?
From the perspective of Western philosophy, the morality of human actions can be
determined through the satisfaction of a given set of man-made rules and standards. In
the case of Utilitarian ethics, for example, an act is considered morally right if it
produces the greatest happiness for a great number of people in society; if it produces
more harm than happiness, then an act is considered morally wrong (Smart & Williams,
1973; Albert, Denise & Peterfreund, 1984). In Kantian ethics, an act is considered
morally right if the maxim of an act can become a universal law (Lindsay, 1934; Ross,
1954; Beck, 1960). In other words, for Kant, an act is right if everybody agrees with the
principle upon which the action is based.
As we can see, the Western model of ethics is founded on arbitrary rules and standards
that humans invented for their own utilitarian purpose. For example, abortion is morally
wrong in many countries but is right in other countries. In this way, the morality of
abortion is entirely a matter of social custom that is useful and acceptable to a particular
social context. Buddhist ethics, on the contrary, is not based on man-made rules and
standard but rather on permanent laws of nature (Harvey, 2000). Thus, Buddhist ethical
values are rooted in nature and the unchanging law of cause and effect. For this reason,
the ethical imperatives in Buddhism should not be construed as rules for people to
follow, but as guidelines for attaining enlightenment (Harvey, 1990). This is why the
Buddha did not prescribe any strict rules by which people are compelled to obey. On the
contrary, the Buddha is seen to be helping people understand the nature of existence
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