MRE final project: 8 fold path

1.    Right view

For right view I decided to go for a walk along the Han river for a couple of hours to clear my mind of troubles in my head related to things such as school, friends, and family matters. During my walk I tried to think of matters around the world that I was aware of, I tried to think of myself in their shoes and the daily struggles they have to face on a daily basis. This made me realize how privileged I am living in a time and place where all basic amenities are available to me.

2. Right intention

For my right intention, I decided to plan a trip to a animal shelter outside of Seoul in asan with a friend. We planned our trip for the 20^th of June to go and volunteer our service to help animals that have been abandoned or mistreated. We will spend a whole day walking, grooming, and feeding these animals and help with getting them adopted.

3. Right speech

For right speech I made it my mission to spend two days talking to as many people as I could, only talking about positive things, not complaining about anyone or talking about people behind their backs.

4. Right action

For my right action I spend a few days in school and over the weekend helping various students and family. I helped students with work and other school related projects and such. I spent some time with my sister and dad, overall I think my dad appreciated me spending more time with him rather than my friends.

5. Right livelihood

The Buddha said that one must not work in the slaughtering and butchering of animals. Me being who I am, am not working in that field of work, but what I decided to do to discourage this action was to go a whole day without eating any kind of meat product that came from and animal that is slaughtered or butchered.

6. Right effort

For right effort I decided to help my sister and dad at home once again, I helped my father with cooking dinner for us, and I helped my sister tidy and rearrange her bedroom.

7. Right mindfulness

I sat down in my room against a wall in loose fitting comfortable clothing and sat in quiet darkness with my door locked for 20 minutes. I made sure nobody was to interrupt me during this time.

8. right concentration

For right concentration I decided to block all webistes that I usually visit in order to procrastinate, i.e. facebook, reddit, youtube. And concentrated on researching Buddhist 8 fold path and creating this project.

In the end I gained an appreciation for the Buddhist way of life, this took a lot of effort on my part to achieve all these goals, I respect those who live like this on a daily basis.

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOHH6pxYi8A watch up until 1:26