The Provenance and Scope of the Eightfold Path
The Provenance and Scope of the Eightfold Path

Author(s): Tadeusz Skorupski
Subject(s): Theology and Religion
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: eightfold path; paths of action; wholesome roots; five moral faculties; right view; morality; concentration; wisdom
Summary/Abstract: Generally stated, the Buddhist tradition consistently attributes the discovery of the eightfold path to the Buddha himself, claiming that he proclaimed it in his first sermon, conventionally postulated to have taken place in the Deer Park near Vārāṇasī, approximately seven weeks after his enlightenment. Although the Buddha is credited with the discovery of the eightfold path, a number of his discourses contain diverse deliberations and statements which are salient indications that the eightfold path is the result of doctrinal developments that preceded its emergence. This paper gathers and analyses all such deliberations and statements, and presents them in thematically and conceptually correlated units, which jointly reflect the formative phases that eventually matured into the eightfold path in its universally acclaimed format. It bears indicating that this paper has no intention to undermine the integrity of the Buddhist tradition, but solely aims to unravel the provenance of the eightfold path, predominantly relying on Buddhist sources, most of which are placed under the Buddha’s authority. Nevertheless, conceptually and structurally, the eightfold path is a creative and ingenious reconfiguration of the daśakuśala. The paper evolves in three distinct but correlated sections. Sections I and II analyse two significant discourses of the Buddha, in which he discloses two innovative expositions of the inner composition and dynamics of the eightfold path. Section III surveys a broad range of Pāli sources which record a variety of doctrinal and related developments that eventually gave rise to the mature formula of the eightfold path.

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