{"id":961,"date":"2026-08-13T18:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dinhquangtemple.com\/?p=961"},"modified":"2026-08-14T21:10:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T02:10:55","slug":"august-day-of-mindfulness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dinhquangtemple.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/13\/august-day-of-mindfulness\/","title":{"rendered":"August Day of Mindfulness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NOTE: This month, we are working with the<\/em> Discourse on the Great Forty, the Mahacattarisaka Sutta (MN 117<\/em>) in <\/em>The Heart of the Buddha\u2019s Teachings<\/a>. The following reflection is offered as an introduction this sutra and to our practice together at our Day of Mindfulness.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PHOTO: A lotus blooms (pink petals with yellow stamen) in a green garden, in front of a statue of Shakyamuni Buddha<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the themes woven throughout our study and practice together this year has been how the Eightfold Path is one. We separate out these eight aspects, not because they are ultimately separable, but because moving our attention through each aspect helps us understand the fullness of the path. The more deeply we understand each spoke of the wheel, the more deeply we understand every spoke and the wheel itself. So even if we contemplate and cultivate the path in a linear way, especially at the beginning of our journey, we should do so with this awareness: the Eightfold Path is one path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Discourse on the Great Forty<\/em>, the Buddha begins with the aspect that is traditionally listed as the eighth factor of the Eightfold Path, Right Concentration. As we explored in chapter 15, the role of meditative absorption and Right Concentration needs to be understood in the context of Awakening. The Buddha\u2019s own life experience demonstrates that it was not that the teachings and meditation techniques he learned from Alara and Uddaka were not useful. Rather, it was not yet clear how these tools could be used to reach the goal. Looking again at\u00a0the Bhayabherava Sutta<\/a>, the Buddha explained that at the time of his awakening: \u201cMy energy was roused up and unflagging, my mindfulness was established and lucid, my body was tranquil and undisturbed, and my mind was immersed in sam\u0101dhi [concentration] and unified.\u201d It was Right Concentration \u2013 \u201cpurified, bright, flawless, rid of corruptions, pliable, workable, steady, and imperturbable\u201d \u2013 that established conditions in which Siddhartha could cultivate and realize the Noble Truths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it comes as no surprise that we hear the Buddha begin the Great Forty<\/em> by grounding us in this insight:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhat, bhikkhus, are the causes and accompanying factors that adorn Right Concentration? They are Right View, Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Diligence, and Right Mindfulness. When one-pointedness of mind is accompanied by these seven factors, it is called the Noble Right Concentration adorned with its causes and accompanying factors.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Turning around from this point, the Buddha then describes how the aspects of the Eightfold Path are mutually supportive, and the factors that result when we do (or do not<\/em>) practice in this skillful way. Woven throughout are the eponymous forty: twenty wholesome (ten mundane, leading to well-being and good rebirths, and ten transcendent, leading to liberation and Nirvana) and twenty unwholesome (increasingly leading to entanglement in suffering and rebirth in the lower realms). This is a powerful reminder of the insight we have cultivated throughout this formation program: we are always practicing. We are always training the mind. To cultivate awareness and understanding of this, we ask: what actions of body, speech, and mind am I cultivating, in this moment and in this life? With deepening understanding, we continue to look and listen: what do I want to cultivate, and how can I respond to this moment with wisdom and compassion in this moment to develop the heart-mind in this way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This transformation, the Buddha reminds us, flowers from the insight of the interbeing of Right View, Right Diligence, and Right Mindfulness:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOne makes an effort for the abandoning of wrong resolve & for entering right resolve: This is one\u2019s right effort. One is mindful to abandon wrong resolve & to enter & remain in right resolve: This is one\u2019s right mindfulness. Thus these three qualities\u2014right view, right effort, & right mindfulness\u2014run & circle around right resolve. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne makes an effort for the abandoning of wrong speech & for entering right speech: This is one\u2019s right effort. One is mindful to abandon wrong speech & to enter & remain in right speech: This is one\u2019s right mindfulness. Thus these three qualities\u2014right view, right effort, & right mindfulness\u2014run & circle around right speech. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne makes an effort for the abandoning of wrong action & for entering right action: This is one\u2019s right effort. One is mindful to abandon wrong action & to enter & remain in right action: This is one\u2019s right mindfulness. Thus these three qualities\u2014right view, right effort, & right mindfulness\u2014run & circle around right action. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne makes an effort for the abandoning of wrong livelihood & for entering right livelihood: This is one\u2019s right effort. One is mindful to abandon wrong livelihood & to enter & remain in right livelihood: This is one\u2019s right mindfulness. Thus these three qualities\u2014right view, right effort, & right mindfulness\u2014run & circle around right livelihood.\u201d (tr. by Thanissaro Bhikkhu<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This also carries with it another reminder of an essential theme throughout our contemplation and practice: the twofold movement that pairs abandoning and avoiding the unskillful with taking up and strengthening the skillful. This emphasis brings into focus the healing and transformative power of the Buddhadharma, opening a path where before we saw no path. Returning to another theme, we do not have to wait for conditions to be perfect before we begin cultivating this path. We can begin in the midst of the twenty unwholesome factors. More poignantly, as fellow travelers in this samsaric realm, we all begin in the midst of the unwholesome, in the midst of sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair. Insight breaks through what felt like an inescapable prison, blossoming with the first hints of wisdom and compassion. As the discourse teaches us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhen there is wrong view and one knows it is wrong view, it is already Right View. When there is Right View and one knows it is Right View, that is also Right View.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We hold this in mind as we contemplate and observe the unwholesome factors. Discovering these qualities can be painful, but we can transform that suffering by folding those insights into the path. To know it is wrong view means we are now equipped to abandon the wrong view. And to know it is wrong view means we already have some amount of understanding of Right View, and now we can develop it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, the Buddha unfolds two ways of being on this Right path, both mundane and transcendent (supramundane). We begin right where we are, and the progress we make on the path shows up in our regular, day-to-day lives. Just as the unskillful and unwholesome tend to create a spiral towards increasingly harmful actions, the skillful and wholesome tend to create a spiral towards increasingly wise and compassionate actions. These benefits begin showing up even while the heart-mind is still getting free of greed, hatred, and delusion. Starting with Right View, the Buddha explains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cBhikkhus, there are two kinds of Right View. There is Right View in which not all the leaks have been stopped. It gives rise to merit but still results in attachment. Then there is Right View that is noble in which the leaks have been stopped. It is supramundane and an element of the Path.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There is perhaps nothing uniquely Buddhist about this mundane path, and through it the Buddha provides a powerful path open to all and the perfect starting place for most of us. But the more we cultivate that mundane Right-ness in the context of the Buddha\u2019s teachings, the more opportunities we get to encounter and develop those insights that the Buddha described as truly transformative, \u201cin which the leaks have been stopped.\u201d We understand more and more what the Buddha meant by Ignorance, and how easily that ignorance gives rise to the defilements of greed, hatred, and delusion. We understand more and more how the twenty unwholesome arise in this way, out of our unskillful relationship with impermanence, suffering, and emptiness. And we understand more and more why the Buddha stayed resolute on his path out of this suffering, and how and why this path is something we, too, can cultivate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also why the Buddha adds two more factors with Awakening, the fulfillment of a Tenfold Path:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIn one of right view, right resolve comes into being. In one of right resolve, right speech comes into being. In one of right speech, right action.\u2026 In one of right action, right livelihood.\u2026 In one of right livelihood, right effort.\u2026 In one of right effort, right mindfulness.\u2026 In one of right mindfulness, right concentration.\u2026 In one of right concentration, right knowledge.\u2026 In one of right knowledge, right release comes into being. Thus the learner is endowed with eight factors, and the arahant with ten.\u201d (tr. by Thanissaro Bhikkhu<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This brings us full circle to the goal of the path and the Buddha\u2019s description of that fruition in the Bhayabherava Sutta<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhen my mind had become immersed in sam\u0101dhi like this\u2014purified, bright, flawless, rid of corruptions, pliable, workable, steady, and imperturbable\u2014I extended it toward knowledge of the ending of defilements. I truly understood: \u2018This is suffering\u2019 \u2026 \u2018This is the origin of suffering\u2019 \u2026 \u2018This is the cessation of suffering\u2019 \u2026 \u2018This is the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering\u2019. I truly understood: \u2018These are defilements\u2019 \u2026 \u2018This is the origin of defilements\u2019 \u2026 \u2018This is the cessation of defilements\u2019 \u2026 \u2018This is the practice that leads to the cessation of defilements\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKnowing and seeing like this, my mind was freed from the defilements of sensuality, desire to be reborn, and ignorance. When it was freed, I knew it was freed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understood: \u2018Rebirth is ended, the spiritual journey has been completed, what had to be done has been done, there is nothing further for this place.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was the third knowledge, which I achieved in the final watch of the night. Ignorance was banished and knowledge arose; darkness was banished and light arose, as happens for a meditator who is diligent, keen, and resolute.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Thank you, once again, for your diligent practice together throughout this year. As we enter third year of the practice of the Four Noble Truths, we can pause and reflect again on the ongoing, unfolding gift of the Dharma. The Year One capstone invited us to contemplate how \u201cthe highest Wheel of the Dharma has been set in motion,\u201d never to be turned back. The Buddha evokes this same image in the Great Forty Discourse<\/em>:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThus, bhikkhus, there are twenty factors supporting the wholesome and twenty factors supporting the unwholesome. This Dharma teaching on the Great Forty has been set in motion and cannot be turned back by any monk, brahman, god, Mara, Brahma, or anyone in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for being part of this ever-turning wheel, practicing together on the path that leads to the end of every kind of suffering!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Namo A Di Da Phat<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*In addition to the translation in the book, you can also find the Discourse on the Great Forty<\/em>,  the Mahacattarisaka Sutta<\/em> (MN 117) several places online. You may benefit from trying different translations, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n