36 CHAPTER TWOthe Awakening. Discernment here means clear understanding of the Four
Noble Truths and the consequent intention to act skillfully in light of the law
of karma. Virtue goes beyond mere self-denial because it involves understand-
ing and disciplining one's intentions. Concentration is achieved through spe-
cific techniques apparently known to Gautama's two teachers but not favored
by the five mendicants. It requires not the mortification of the body but the
cultivation of right effort and right mindfulness, leading to right concentration,
which consists of the dhyanas. The Three Trainings are dependent on one an-
other. A Pali text (D.16) states: "Concentration matured by virtue bears great
fruits and benefits; discernment matured by concentration bears great fruits and
benefits; the mind matured by discernment is quite freed from the asravas."
Although this passage suggests a linear development of the factors of the
Path, there are other passages in the early canon that indicate a spiraling or
mutually dependent pattern. Right view on the preliminary level, as men-
tioned previously, begins with the belief that there are those who know the
true nature of the world and who proclaim that good and evil are intrinsic to
that nature, rather than being mere social conventions. Good actions are skill-
ful in that they inherently lead to good results; bad actions are unskillful in
that they inherently lead to bad. Right resolve follows naturally on this belief
because the quality of an act is determined by the intention motivating it.
Anyone who intends to act skillfully must begin by resolving to abstain from
sensual desire, from ill will, and from harming others or oneself; these three
resolves form the definition of this factor of the Path.
Right speech, right action, and right livelihood follow from these three
resolves. Right speech means abstaining from the four unskillful verbal deeds:
lying, divisive tale-bearing, harsh or abusive language, and idle talk. Right ac-
tion means abstaining from the three unskillful bodily deeds: taking life, tak-
ing what is not given (stealing), and sexual intercourse. Right livelihood is
abstention from occupations that harm living beings-for example, selling
weapons, liquor, poison, slaves, or livestock; butchering, hunting, fishing; sol-
diering; fraud; soothsaying; and usury.
When one's speech, actions, and livelihood are free from harm, the mind
is free from remorse, and this opens the way for the smooth practice of con-
centration. This practice begins with right effort, which means persistence in
avoiding and eliminating evil and unskillful mental qualities, and nurturing
skillful mental qualities in their place. To do this involves right mindfulness,
inasmuch as mindfulness is the primary skillful mental quality, necessary for
the development of all other important skillful qualities, such as discernment,
vigor, serenity, concentration, and equanimity. If mindfulness is lacking, one
cannot know clearly which other skillful or unskillful qualities are present in
the mind. Right mindfulness consists of focusing on any one of four founda-
tions or frames of reference: the body in and of itself, feelings in and of them-
selves, mind-states in and of themselves, and mental qualities in and of
themselves (Strong EB, sec. 3.5.4). In the beginning stages of the practice, this
means simply observing events as they occur in the course of one's attempts to