The eight Buddhist practices in the Noble Eightfold Path are:
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- Right View: our actions have consequences, death is not the end, and our actions and beliefs have consequences after death. The Buddha followed and taught a successful path out of this world and the other world (heaven and underworld/hell). Later on, right view came to explicitly include karma and rebirth, and the importance of the Four Noble Truths, when "insight" became central to Buddhist soteriology, especially in Theravada Buddhism.
- Right Resolve or Intention: the giving up of home and adopting the life of a religious mendicant in order to follow the path; this concept aims at peaceful renunciation, into an environment of non-sensuality, non-ill-will (to loving kindness), away from cruelty (to compassion). Such an environment aids contemplation of impermanence, suffering, and non-Self.
- Right Speech: no lying, no rude speech, no telling one person what another says about him to cause discord or harm their relationship, no idle chatter.
- Right Conduct or Action: no killing or injuring, no taking what is not given, no sexual misconduct, no material desires.
- Right Livelihood: no trading in weapons, living beings, meat, liquor, and poisons.
- Right Effort: preventing the arising of unwholesome states, and generating wholesome states, the bojjhagā (Seven Factors of Awakening). This includes indriya-samvara, "guarding the sense-doors", restraint of the sense faculties.
- Right Mindfulness (sati; Satipatthana; Sampajañña): a quality that guards or watches over the mind; the stronger it becomes, the weaker unwholesome states of mind become, weakening their power "to take over and dominate thought, word and deed." In the vipassana movement, sati is interpreted as "bare attention": never be absent minded, being conscious of what one is doing; this encourages the awareness of the impermanence of body, feeling and mind, as well as to experience the five aggregates (skandhas), the five hindrances, the four True Realities and seven factors of awakening.
- Right samadhi (passaddhi; ekaggata; sampasadana): practicing four stages of dhyāna ("meditation"), which includes samadhi proper in the second stage, and reinforces the development of the bojjhagā, culminating into upekkha (equanimity) and mindfulness. In the Theravada tradition and the vipassana movement, this is interpreted as ekaggata, concentration or one-pointedness of the mind, and supplemented with vipassana meditation, which aims at insight.
- The eight Buddhist practices in the Noble Eightfold Path are:
- Right View: Understanding that our actions have consequences, death is not the end, and our actions and beliefs have consequences after death. It also includes the importance of karma, rebirth, and the Four Noble Truths.
- Right Resolve or Intention: Giving up worldly attachments and adopting a life of renunciation in order to follow the path. This involves cultivating non-sensuality, non-ill-will, and compassion.
- Right Speech: Refraining from lying, using rude speech, spreading gossip, or causing discord in relationships.
- Right Conduct or Action: Abstaining from killing, stealing, engaging in sexual misconduct, and having material desires.
- Right Livelihood: Avoiding occupations that involve trading in weapons, living beings, meat, liquor, and poisons.
- Right Effort: Making an effort to prevent unwholesome states from arising and cultivating wholesome states. This includes guarding the sense faculties and practicing restraint.
- Right Mindfulness: Cultivating a quality of mindfulness that guards and watches over the mind. This involves being conscious of one's actions and developing awareness of the impermanence of body, feeling, and mind.
- Right Samadhi: Practicing meditation, specifically the four stages of dhyana, to develop concentration and mindfulness. This leads to equanimity and insight.