• Liberation from suffering is possible, by renouncing desire, attachment, and the illusion of self, stepping off the wheel of Samsara and entering the state of Nirvana.
• A way exists to attain this liberation and the state of Nirvana - called the Eightfold Path.
Its eight aspects are:
• Right view - seeing the world and ourselves as they really are, abandoning expectations, hope, and fear, viewing life simply, without prejudice.
• Right intention - If we can abandon our expectations, our hopes and fears, we no longer need to attempt to coerce or manipulate others to meet our expectations of the way things should be. We work with what is. Our intentions are pure.
• Right speech - if our intentions are pure, we need not be guarded about our speech. We need not lie, bluff, or put on airs and graces in an attempt to impress or manipulate. We say what is necessary, simply and genuinely.
• Right discipline - we need to renounce our tendency to complicate issues. We have a simple straight-forward relationship with our job, our house and our family. We give up all the unnecessary and frivolous complications which complicate our lives and relationships, practising simplicity.
• Right livelihood - we should earn our living, and perform our jobs properly, with attention to detail. We look for a simple relationship with our work, dispensing with the image or social status with which our profession may be regarded in society. Our work is important, and we must form a simple honest relationship with it, not allow it to define us.
• Right effort - we approach spiritual training not as a struggle, with evil inside ourselves which must be conquered, but with simple, constant practice. We work with things and ourselves as they are, not as evils to be rejected or overcome.
• Right mindfulness - we cultivate awareness of everything we do, speech, attitude, the way we work. We are mindful of the tiniest details of our experience. We cultivate precision and clarity.
• Right concentration - normally our minds are absorbed with all manner of internal chatter, desires, speculation, self-preoccupation and self-entertainment. Right concentration means that we are completely absorbed in things as they are, right here, right now. Only a discipline such as seated meditation can give us a way to silence our internal chatter and concentrate on simple, unadorned reality.