This Tuesday we welcomed our Guest Speaker, Aaron Lee. Aaron Lee is an UCLA Alumnus, and one of the orginal founders of the University Buddhist Association (UBA). He treated us with a more in depth look at the Eightfold Path.
Who actually remembers the Eightfold Path? Well, Aaron was able to teach us a simple phemonic device to remember it! VISALEMC. Close your eyes. Imagine a VISA card floating with the face of the card facing up. Now imagine half a lemon being squeezed over the VISA card. You are now envisioning a Visa card (VISA), thats being poured by half a lemon (LEM) with some vitamin C (C), which makes VISA.LEM.C.! Cool, huh?
The Eightfold Path is:Right view
Right intent
Right speech
Right action
Right livelihood
Right effort
Right mindfulness
Right concentration.
He went on to state that EACH part of the Eightfold Path can be elaborated on for quite awhile, so he decided to focus the second half of the dharma discussion on RIGHT EFFORT. When one thinks of right effort, many may say it is how hard one tries or the good intentions one has. How Aaron broke it down for us was explaining right effort as being a matrix. A matrix that has 4 different axes. We must look at right effort as actions that contribute to our present and future, while focusing our efforts personally and externally. For example, right effort can be approached in forming better personal habits that will contribute to a better future, like meditating everyday for a little bit, or addressing a friend that you may feel uncomfortable about their actions. These are all proavtive efforts in contributing to the present and future while considering yourself and others.
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