Nancy Acord

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The Noble Eightfold Path

The Noble Eightfold Path teaches the ordinary person how to become an Arahant: the awakened one who is free, happy, equanimous, and filled with loving-kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy.
I practiced meditation for over 40 years. It was a lonely and challenging journey, and I certainly made many mistakes. Through it all, I learned that the Four Noble Truths (the theory) and the Noble Eightfold Path (the practice) are essential and include all that one needs to experience liberation and Nibbana. However, for a long time, instead of practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, I spent a lot of time exploring other training methods that abound in today’s world.
Reflecting on the various practice methods I have engaged in for many years, I eventually came up with a system of practice that was very effective for me. I call this system “Nancy’s Noble Eightfold Path Practice.” Nothing in this system deviates from what the Buddha taught in his Noble Eightfold Path. Why, then, some of you may wonder, would I add “Nancy” to the title of my system? As far as I know, my interpretation of the Noble Eightfold Path is unique and not widely known or taught. Therefore, I hope the name “Nancy” will pique your interest. Maybe you will try using it yourself!
After practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, I said this: “Ah! The Noble Eightfold Path is subtle yet precise; anyone can follow it. It’s an amazing system. Buddha is a great teacher! ‘Thank you, Buddha. To repay your grace, I will spend the rest of my life providing help to those who wish to receive guidance in their practice.’”
The Noble Eightfold Path takes us from the world of desire and leads us to the realms of the form and formless, the mundane and supramundane, and liberation and Nibbana. We can experience these realms sequentially, layer upon layer, or as causes and conditions. In Arahant, all elements of the Noble Eightfold Path are manifested. Therefore, we can say, “The Noble Eightfold Path is Arahant, and Arahant is the Noble Eightfold Path.”
As the name suggests, there are eight elements in the Noble Eightfold Path. These are the right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right samadhi. The practice of the Noble Eightfold Path must always begin with the right view. Only through the door of the right view can an ordinary person enter the Noble Eightfold Path. It is important to note that through the practice of the right view, one can travel from this humble beginning to the realms of liberation and Nibbana, the Nobles. Therefore, knowing how to practice the right view is essential.
Let me give you a summary of how I practiced the Noble Eightfold Path. Since this paper focuses on practice, I will forgo a more detailed doctrinal and academic explanation here.
Be aware of the thoughts and feelings that arise in your mind daily, outside of sleeping hours. Continue until awareness becomes natural and easy. Simply notice your thoughts or feelings without judging them or pursuing connecting thoughts.
When you can easily notice about a third of your thoughts and feelings, begin to see the lust, hatred, and delusion (the Three Poisons) at the root of your thoughts and feelings. At first, you look at these Three Poisons separately. You notice (without thoughts or inner voice), “This is lust, that is hatred, and this is delusion.” After this process becomes habitual, you will notice the Three Poisons as one, without distinguishing lust, hatred, and delusion separately. Please do not use your inner voice to label lust, hatred, and delusion; you need only be aware of their presence. You will see that the Three Poisons are intertwined: you lust after what you want, are hateful if you don’t get what you desire, and, mired in it all, you believe you have control of lust and hatred. In a way, the Three Poisons are how you try to make sense of your world: pushing and pulling with the world. Continue noticing this way until you can easily see sparks of the Three Poisons arising from the root of all your thoughts and feelings. It would be best not to blame yourself or feel shameful here—just notice.
Now, turn your attention to the outside and notice the Three Poisons in others. First, detect the Three Poisons in the words and actions of others, one by one, in the same manner as above, and then group the Three Poisons into one without using your inner voice. You can start with the people around you: your children, spouse, parents, siblings, relatives, friends, coworkers, and strangers. As you do this, do so without pondering, analyzing, commenting, etc. This training continues until you naturally and easily see the flashes of the Three Poisons within yourself and others.
It’s time to reflect and review. As you see the Three Poisons constantly flashing in you and others, you realize that all humans are a mass of the Three Poisons, using them as fuel to survive. You realize you are trapped in this hellish prison of the Three Poisons.
Consider this: every day, you sustain yourself with food made from killing something. Every day, your body and mind’s survival depends on killing. You were born into this reality without a choice. Through meditation practice, you will know that you are a lump of the Three Poisons. You compete fiercely for survival until you grow old and sick, and then you die. Through meditation, you come to realize that all humans were born into this hell without choice. At this point, you can begin to feel loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, generosity, open-mindedness, and understanding toward yourself and others. Through this practice, the Three Poisons will naturally subside and diminish within you.
Now, you can see the Three Poisons flashing at the six sense doors: eyes, nose, ears, tongue, body, and mind. The Three Poisons flash like lightning when you see something with your eyes or smell something with your nose. You also can recognize the Three Poisons with any of the other six sense doors (sound, taste, touch, mind).
At first, you slowly notice the Three Poisons occurring at the six sense doors. As you continue, you become increasingly aware of how fast your mind moves along with the Three Poisons. When you see, smell, hear, taste, touch, move, think, feel, etc., your mind moves quickly among the six sense doors. You know this by experiencing your mind’s movement. For instance, your mind sees something. It then moves to your foot in the next moment and then moves to a sound, etc.; the mind that arises at the six sense doors moves from one door to another in rapid succession.
Exercise: Observe the moving mind among the six sense doors for a few minutes at a time. Because you focus on your mind’s movement with a high concentration level, you will lack attention to your overall surroundings. Therefore, I do not recommend performing this exercise in potentially dangerous situations — e.g., while driving, handling hot objects, knives, sharp objects, operating machinery, walking on uneven roads, walking up or down the stairs, driving, etc.
Continue this practice until you can easily notice the momentary arising and passing away of your mind rooted in the Three Poisons at the six sense doors.
Experientially, from observing the momentary arising and passing away of the mind and the Three Poisons at the six sense doors, you come to understand the true nature of your mind: impermanent, suffering, and non-self.
First, impermanence: The more you practice, the more you realize how quickly the mind moves around, as if on a hamster’s wheel — constantly changing or “impermanent.” You cannot stop the Three Poisons in your mind from arising and passing away, flashing at the six sense doors. You may sometimes think you stopped the mind’s movements because you didn’t notice something, but that’s merely an illusion. The more you practice, the more you learn experientially that the speed of the mind’s movements is beyond human cognition; that is, it moves as fast as a high-speed computer.
A realization occurs here — awareness of the non-self: You experience that you were unaware of your mind’s true nature and could not control or command your mind. Thus, the “non-self” becomes more evident. Suffering: this mind that moves at an incredible speed that you cannot control, the mind that keeps changing without your input, the cognition of The Three Poisons that constantly flash in the mind — all of this is “suffering.”
Thus, at a very basic level, you experience impermanence, suffering, and non-self.
Now, it becomes clear and urgent why you seek to follow the path to liberation and Nibbana: you seek freedom, happiness, love, and equanimity. Buddha said that the Noble Eightfold Path is the way to liberation and Nibbana. You can escape this hell by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path. In other words, now the reason and purpose for practicing the Noble Eightfold Path are firmly established.
When the right view is established through the above practice, the Three Poisons decrease, and loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity (the Four Immeasurables) begin to take hold in your mind. Sometimes, I express loving-kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy as “love.” Of course, it is “love” that occurs in the absence of the Three Poisons. Also, the Five Hindrances (sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and regret, and doubt) are significantly reduced.
You have reached a new level of awareness in your practice by now. In this new manner of being fully “awake” at all times (other than when you sleep!), you become aware of the Three Poisons and the Four Immeasurables that arise in you. Naturally, the Three Poisons decrease through this practice and the Four Immeasurables increase.
Through the mindfulness practice, the Three Poisons decrease, and the Four Immeasurables increase. You will naturally move toward the right speech, action, and livelihood and observe the precepts. The five precepts that apply to ordinary people can be observed gradually. If you practice the Noble Eightfold Path, you will eventually observe all five precepts one day. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t observe them all perfectly right away; don’t ignore the precepts, but do try to keep them consistent. When you break a precept, you must notice that you are breaking it. You must be accountable to the precepts. If you follow the precepts, your mind will be at ease and not disturbed. This will help your practice greatly.
Cultivate the Noble Eightfold Path with neither too much nor too little effort. It is helpful to remember that Buddha crossed the flood by not standing still but also without struggling to cross it.
Awareness (sati) and penetrating awareness (sampajanna), or always being awake, form the basis for cultivating all eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. The practice of Right Mindfulness, which must be present from the beginning to the end of the Noble Eightfold Path, is the basis of the Samatha (concentration) and Vipassana (insight) practice, in particular. Right Mindfulness also helps reduce suffering by allowing the mind to stay in the present rather than wandering into the past or future.
It is time to review the state of the Three Poisons and the Five Hindrances. With consistent practice of the above, you will notice a decrease of the Three Poisons and the Five Hindrances in general. However, the hindrance of “regret” may require greater attention. If something in your past evokes regret, you need to sit where you feel comfortable and safe and watch the event calmly, from a third-person perspective — as if you were watching a movie. If you do this repeatedly, one day, your heart will not tremble with regret, your agitated emotions will subside, and you will become calm. You will eventually be able to recall the event more objectively, as you might if it had happened to someone else.
Once the Three Poisons and the Five Hindrances have subsided reliably, it is time to get into Jhana practice. Sit comfortably on a chair or the floor, relax your body, smile with a joyful mindset, and take a few intentional breaths, noticing your breath on your philtrum. As you feel the sensation of your breath, breathe naturally and continue to focus your mind on the sensation of your breath on your philtrum. Avoid tension, impatience, greed, self-blame, anger, and irritation while doing this. Otherwise, you will fall victim to the Five Hindrances yet again. You will notice that your mind does not stay put, even when you tell it to do so. As experienced through the above practice, the mind wanders frantically around the six sense doors. That is the untrained mind’s true nature. Of course, there is no way that crazy fool (mind) would obey your words — there is no bossing it around! This is natural. You have to be patient. You must guide the mind slowly and patiently as if handling a fussy, crying child.
You will notice that the Five Hindrances settle down and subside easily when you have practiced the above well. When this happens, the mind will concentrate, and the bliss of the first jhana will arise. Joy may manifest differently from person to person. Usually, the body may rock and shake with pleasure initially. The breath may synchronize with the rhythm of your heartbeat and ignite a feeling of euphoria. This feeling is, in many cases, similar to sexual pleasure.
If you allow this rapture to arise and continue, it will eventually calm down to happy feelings. If you focus on your breath and immerse yourself in these happy feelings, your concentration will increase, and your thoughts will stop in time, followed by more sublime joy and happiness of the second jhana. Trying to reduce or stop your thinking at this point will be a hindrance to you. Your thoughts will eventually stop if you continue to sit and wait calmly. The rapture and happiness of the first jhana are rawer than the joy and happiness that arise in the second jhana. When you move to the third jhana, your mind becomes equanimous, and your body enjoys happiness. After a while, your body's happiness will subside. You have reached the fourth jhana, where only equanimity and concentration remain.
As you continue to focus on your breath in the fourth jhana, your breath will slow and intermittently cease. Do not try to control your breathing here; it will strain your body and break your concentration.
From this point on, you must continue practicing all four jhanas so you may enter, remain, and exit at will.
It would be best if you practiced from the first jhana to the fourth jhana until you can remain in the jhana state for about 1 hour and thirty minutes to 3 hours. It would help if you also practiced going up from the first jhana to the fourth jhana and then coming down from the fourth jhana to the first jhana.
After sufficient jhana practice, it is time to practice insight into the five jhana factors: applied thought, sustained thought, rapture, happiness, and one-pointedness of mind. Through insight, you will experientially know the nature of the jhana factors: impermanence, suffering, and non-self. The insight practice is done after exiting each jhana state. In addition to seeing the nature of the jhana factors, you also need to know everything about them and gain a mastery of them. In the same way, you must know everything about the first, second, third, and fourth jhana. Through the insight of the jhanas, you may avoid the attachment to the form realms, the sixth fetter among the ten fetters from arising.
Remember that jhana practice must be consistently maintained — like brushing your teeth daily. When the practice of jhana ceases, samadhi also disappears. This simple fact applies to everyone! When you have reached this benchmark in your practice, you must remain awake (sati and sampajanna) all the time (except when sleeping!) and practice jhana every day for thirty to 1 hour and thirty minutes.
The above will lead you through the primary stage of practicing the Noble Eightfold Path. This primary practice becomes the basis for higher practices: the Four Formless Realms, the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, the Cessation of Perception and Feeling, Vipassana, and the Supernatural. My recommendation to those who have completed the above practice is to seek guidance from an Anāgāmi (non-returner) or an Arahant, who is free of lust, hatred, and delusion (the Three Poisons) and filled with loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity (the Four Immeasurables).

NBEF Cause-Condition-Phenomenon-Response Observation Practice

Directly Observing Dependent Origination in Daily Life

The NBEF Cause-Condition-Phenomenon-Response Observation Practice is a practical method designed to develop experiential wisdom by directly observing dependent origination as it operates in the body and mind in real time, rather than understanding it only as a theory.

This article explains how the practice applies the principle of dependent origination to daily life. In particular, it shows how to observe the causes and conditions of an arisen phenomenon, and the mind’s response to it, without constructing a fixed “self” or “someone” within the phenomenon.

1) Phenomena Arise Through Causes and Conditions

Everything that is formed arises in dependence on causes and conditions. Nothing comes into being by itself or exists independently.

Consider a seed. The seed is a direct cause of a plant, but the seed alone cannot produce the plant. Soil, water, sunlight, temperature, and time must also be present. When the seed and these supporting conditions come together, the phenomenon of sprouting and growth appears.

In the same way, feelings, thoughts, emotions, desires, and actions arising in the body and mind do not originate from one isolated cause. A phenomenon occurs through the combined operation of many causes and conditions. Therefore, “cause and condition” may be understood not as two completely separate things, but as one causal and conditional system that gives rise to a phenomenon.

In the Buddha’s teaching, ignorance and craving are fundamental causal conditions that sustain suffering and saṃsāra. Yet ignorance and craving are not absolute first causes. They too arise and are maintained through preceding causes and conditions.

Dependent origination has no independent first cause, and no beginning point of saṃsāra can be discovered. This ceaseless causal cycle is described as the “wheel of saṃsāra.” Just as no first point can be found on the circumference of a wheel, no first beginning of saṃsāra can be found. This does not mean that freedom from saṃsāra is impossible. When the conditions of ignorance and craving cease, the force that keeps the wheel turning disappears, and saṃsāra ends for that person.

AN 10.61 further clarifies this point. The Buddha explains that although no first beginning of ignorance can be discerned, the conditions that sustain it can be known. The five hindrances are the immediate nutriment of ignorance, and their conditions can be traced backward through misconduct of body, speech, and mind; lack of sense restraint; lack of mindfulness and clear comprehension; unwise attention; lack of faith; not hearing the true Dhamma; and not associating with good persons. Thus, ignorance is not an independent first cause but a conditioned phenomenon continually nourished and sustained by preceding conditions. (AN 10.61, “The Discourse on Ignorance”)

2) Experience Arising Through the Five Aggregates and Six Sense Doors

In NBEF practice, the five aggregates—the body and mind—are regarded as the basis upon which experience occurs. On this basis, the six sense faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind encounter their respective objects.

When the eye encounters a visible form, eye-consciousness arises. When the ear encounters a sound, ear-consciousness arises. The meeting of the sense faculty, its object, and the corresponding conscious experience is contact. Feeling arises conditioned by contact, and craving and clinging may arise conditioned by feeling.

This process unfolds so quickly that, without mindfulness, we immediately take the feelings, thoughts, and emotions that have arisen through conditions to be “me” or “mine.”

“I am angry.”
“That person made me angry.”
“Why did this happen to me?”
“I must have this.”

Careful observation reveals that an independent self does not first exist and then create all these experiences. A sense faculty meets an object; conscious experience, contact, and feeling arise; and past memories, dispositions, habits, views, and desires operate as conditions for the mind’s response.

3) Not “Who Did It?” but “Conditioned by What Did This Arise?”

In SN 12.12, Venerable Moḷiyaphagguna asks, “Who makes contact?”, “Who feels?”, “Who craves?”, and “Who clings?” The Buddha explains that these questions are not properly framed.

The question “who?” assumes that behind the phenomenon there is a fixed subject who performs or experiences it. Instead, the Buddha teaches that contact arises conditioned by the six sense bases, feeling arises conditioned by contact, craving arises conditioned by feeling, and clinging arises conditioned by craving.

When a phenomenon occurs, the practitioner therefore observes:

“Through what causes and conditions did this phenomenon arise?”
“What feeling arose together with it?”
“How is the mind responding to that feeling?”
“What result is this response likely to produce next?”

The question “Who did it?” places a person or self at the center. The question “Conditioned by what did this arise?” allows us to see the process of dependent origination.

4) Cause-Condition-Phenomenon-Response

NBEF practice observes an unfolding experience through four aspects.

A cause is a direct or fundamental factor through which a phenomenon arises.

A condition is one of the many supporting factors that enables the phenomenon to arise.

A phenomenon is what actually appears in the body and mind through causes and conditions, including a sensation, feeling, thought, emotion, desire, word, or action.

A response is the attitude the mind takes toward the phenomenon and the speech or action that follows.

An important point is that the process does not end with the response. A present response becomes a condition for the next phenomenon.

Suppose someone says something and an unpleasant feeling arises. Without mindfulness, the mind may take the feeling as “an insult to me” and respond with anger. Speech and action arising from anger may become conditions for anger in the other person. The other person’s response may then become another condition that intensifies one’s own anger and suffering.

In this way, a phenomenon gives rise to a response, and the response becomes a condition for the next phenomenon.

Causes and conditions → phenomenon → response → new conditions → next phenomenon

This is not a fixed linear sequence, but a process in which phenomena continually affect one another. One phenomenon becomes a condition for another, and the response to it gives rise to still another phenomenon. In this way the causal flow continues.

This is dependent origination as it can be directly experienced in daily life, and it is how saṃsāra operates. Saṃsāra is not something that occurs only after death. It can also be experienced here and now as suffering repeatedly arises in the body and mind through greed, hatred, and delusion.

5) Distinguishing a Phenomenon from the Response to It

The practitioner learns to distinguish an arisen phenomenon from the response to that phenomenon.

Hearing an unpleasant statement is a phenomenon. The unpleasant feeling that arises upon hearing it is also a conditioned phenomenon. Holding on to that feeling, becoming angry, hating the other person, or speaking aggressively is the mind’s response.

The phenomenon has already occurred, but it is not necessary to respond to it with greed or hatred. This is the point at which mindfulness and wisdom can intervene.

The practitioner recognizes:

“This phenomenon arose through these causes and conditions.”
“An unpleasant feeling arose with it.”
“Anger is now beginning to arise in the mind.”
“If I follow this anger, it will become a condition for further suffering.”

Observation of this kind creates room for mindfulness and wisdom to operate between feeling and craving.

6) The Movement from Feeling to Craving

In the twelve links of dependent origination, feeling arises conditioned by contact, and craving arises conditioned by feeling. How feeling is recognized is therefore critically important.

When a pleasant feeling arises, the mind often inclines toward greed—the desire to obtain more of it or make it continue. When an unpleasant feeling arises, the mind often inclines toward hatred—the desire to reject or eliminate it. With a feeling that is neither pleasant nor unpleasant, indifference and unawareness can make its arising and passing difficult to recognize.

A pleasant feeling is not itself greed, and an unpleasant feeling is not itself hatred. Feeling is a phenomenon that has arisen through causes and conditions. The problem begins when the feeling is grasped as “me” or “mine” and the mind responds with craving and clinging.

When feeling is known just as it is, without being carried away by greed, hatred, or delusion, the movement from feeling into craving and clinging is not further strengthened at that contact.

A single moment of mindfulness does not permanently end all craving and saṃsāra. But when the movement from feeling to craving is repeatedly recognized and released, the power of greed, hatred, and delusion gradually weakens. When this practice matures and ignorance and craving are completely extinguished, the conditions sustaining suffering and saṃsāra also cease.

7) Greed, Hatred, and Delusion and the Four Immeasurables

Without mindfulness and wisdom, the mind takes an arisen phenomenon to be “me” or “mine” and responds through greed, hatred, or delusion. That response then becomes a condition for unwholesome speech and action, conflict in relationships, and further suffering.

With mindfulness and wisdom, however, one recognizes that the phenomenon arose in dependence on causes and conditions. This makes it possible not to follow habitual reactions rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion, but to respond with loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity.

When the conditions for anger are repeatedly supplied, anger grows. When the conditions for loving-kindness are cultivated, loving-kindness grows. When the conditions for jealousy are supplied, jealousy grows. When appreciative joy is cultivated, jealousy weakens. When the conditions for attachment are supplied, suffering grows. When equanimity and wisdom are cultivated, attachment weakens.

The practitioner does not merely understand this as doctrine, but verifies it directly in the body, feelings, and mind.

Through this process, one sees that the mind’s response is also a phenomenon that arises and passes according to causes and conditions. Greed, hatred, and delusion are not fixed aspects of “my personality” or “my nature.” They arise when particular conditions are present, and they weaken or cease when those conditions weaken or disappear.

In the same way, loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity can be cultivated through causes and conditions. The practitioner learns to reduce the conditions that give rise to unwholesome states and develop the conditions that support wholesome states.

8) Experiencing Impermanence, Suffering, and Non-self

Every phenomenon arises through causes and conditions. When those conditions change, the phenomenon changes or disappears. All conditioned phenomena continually affect one another and undergo change; therefore, none can exist as an eternal and independent entity.

What is conditioned is impermanent. Because what is impermanent cannot be maintained forever or controlled according to one’s wishes, grasping it becomes a basis for suffering. And because it arises and passes in dependence on causes and conditions, no independent and unchanging self can be found within it.

Not knowing this is ignorance.

The practitioner carefully observes changes occurring in the body and mind. One examines the conditions under which bodily sensations, feelings, thoughts, emotions, and desires arise, and how they change and disappear as conditions change.

These changes are not regarded merely as personal experiences or events. They are observed as impermanent processes arising and passing through causes and conditions. The practitioner also observes how suffering arises when these phenomena are grasped as “me” or “mine.”

Through repeated observation, impermanence, suffering, and non-self cease to be concepts understood only intellectually and become realities directly verified in the body and mind.

The practitioner sees that every phenomenon arises and disappears according to conditions, and that even the response to the phenomenon changes according to conditions. In this way, the view that a fixed “self” owns and controls experience gradually weakens.

9) Understanding Kamma and Saṃsāra in Present Experience

The process in which causes and conditions give rise to a phenomenon, and the response to that phenomenon becomes a condition for what follows, allows the practitioner to understand the operation of kamma in present experience.

When one responds to an arisen phenomenon with greed, hatred, or delusion, that response becomes unwholesome kamma and a condition for further suffering. When one responds with loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, equanimity, and wisdom, that response becomes wholesome kamma and a condition for a different result.

Kamma is therefore not a reward or punishment imposed by an external power. It is the causal process by which intentional responses shape subsequent states of body and mind, speech and action, relationships, and experience.

By repeatedly observing this process, the practitioner comes to understand saṃsāra not as an abstract philosophy, but as a lived experience. As long as responses rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion continue, the same suffering returns in different forms. The names and circumstances may change, but the underlying reactive structure continues.

When the process is recognized with mindfulness and wisdom, reactions rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion weaken, and the repetition of the same suffering also weakens. The practitioner begins to see not only how the wheel of saṃsāra turns, but also how it can stop.

10) To Change the Result, Change the Conditions

As observation of causes and conditions deepens, the practitioner realizes that trying to change only the result is not enough. To change a result, one must change the conditions that produce and sustain it.

It is not enough merely to suppress anger. One must observe which contact, feeling, memory, view, desire, and attachment became conditions for the anger.

Nor is it enough merely to avoid suffering. One must observe which ignorance, craving, and clinging repeatedly produce that suffering.

At the same time, the practitioner intentionally develops the conditions that give rise to wholesome phenomena. The Five Precepts and the factors of the Noble Eightfold Path—Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Samādhi—are conditions through which greed, hatred, and delusion weaken and wisdom and equanimity grow.

To change the result, change the causes and conditions. This is the heart of applying dependent origination to life.

Understanding this principle prevents the practitioner from remaining trapped in regret or self-blame after a painful result occurs. Instead, one identifies the causes and conditions that produced it and changes the conditions so that the same result is not repeated.

11) Observation of Non-self Does Not Deny Ethical Responsibility

Asking what causes and conditions gave rise to a phenomenon, rather than “Who did it?”, does not deny ethical responsibility for one’s actions.

Actions have consequences. Intentional speech and action affect oneself and others and become conditions for what follows. The practitioner must therefore observe responses carefully and take responsibility for their results.

Non-self does not mean, “There is nobody, so it does not matter what anyone does.” Understanding non-self prevents us from justifying a reaction rooted in greed, hatred, or delusion as “me” or “my nature.” Instead, it enables us to discover and change the conditions producing that reaction.

The more clearly dependent origination is understood, the more clearly one sees how one’s speech and actions become conditions affecting the next moment and the lives of others. Insight into non-self therefore does not weaken ethical responsibility; it deepens it.

When one remains with the thought “That person made me angry,” responsibility for one’s response can easily be placed on the other person. When one observes the conditions under which anger arose and how one responded to it, responsibility for one’s own mind and actions becomes clear.

12) The Noble Eightfold Path and the Five Precepts as the Foundation

This observation of dependent origination cannot be accomplished through intellectual analysis alone. When the mind is continually overwhelmed by greed, hatred, and delusion, and speech and conduct are not purified, it is difficult to see phenomena as they actually are.

The Five Precepts must therefore be firmly established, and the entire Noble Eightfold Path must serve as the foundation of practice. Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood stabilize the practitioner’s life and mind. Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Samādhi make it possible to observe subtle phenomena arising through causes and conditions.

Ignorance is not simply a lack of information. It is the failure to know the Four Noble Truths and dependent origination as they actually are. Correcting ignorance means establishing Right View, which directs all the other factors of the Noble Eightfold Path.

In NBEF practice, greed, hatred, and delusion are observed in real time as they manifest in feelings, the mind, and bodily sensations. They are neither suppressed nor avoided. Their conditions of arising, their changes, and their cessation are clearly recognized. Through this direct observation, the practitioner understands the origin of suffering and the possibility of its cessation, and Right View becomes established.

The Five Precepts and the Noble Eightfold Path are not rules separate from this practice. They are its foundation: they reduce unwholesome causes and conditions and cultivate the wholesome causes and conditions through which mindfulness, samādhi, and wisdom can develop.

13) Seeing Dependent Origination Is Seeing the Dhamma

The Buddha stated, “One who sees dependent origination sees the Dhamma; one who sees the Dhamma sees dependent origination.” This statement is preserved in MN 28.

In SN 22.87, the Buddha also stated, “One who sees the Dhamma sees me; one who sees me sees the Dhamma.”

Considered together, these teachings indicate that seeing the Buddha does not mean merely seeing his physical form. It means directly seeing the Dhamma he awakened to, particularly the arising and cessation of suffering through causes and conditions.

The NBEF Cause-Condition-Phenomenon-Response Observation Practice is not a new doctrine intended to replace dependent origination as taught in the early discourses. It is NBEF’s original and practical method of organizing the Buddha’s teaching so that practitioners can directly observe and realize the arising and cessation of suffering in daily life.

The purpose of the practice is not to classify causes, conditions, phenomena, and responses as an intellectual exercise. Its purpose is to repeatedly observe the arising and passing of phenomena and the responses of the mind, so that the following truths are directly understood:

Every phenomenon arises through causes and conditions.
When conditions change, an arisen phenomenon changes or disappears.
The response to a phenomenon becomes a condition for the next phenomenon.
Responses rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion sustain suffering and saṃsāra.
Responses guided by mindfulness and wisdom weaken greed, hatred, and delusion and cultivate loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity.
When the movement from feeling to craving and clinging is recognized and released, the causal conditions of suffering gradually weaken.
No fixed and independent self can be found in these phenomena, yet intentional responses necessarily become conditions for subsequent results.

When these truths are directly seen and understood in one’s own body and mind, saṃsāra is experienced not as an abstract doctrine but as a process operating in present life. The practitioner comes to know in experience the conditions through which suffering arises and how suffering ceases when those conditions cease.

Although the first beginning of saṃsāra cannot be discovered, the conditions that sustain it can be observed in this very moment. By bringing those conditions to cessation, the wheel of saṃsāra can be stopped.

This is the experiential wisdom toward which the NBEF Cause-Condition-Phenomenon-Response Observation Practice is directed.

References: The Connected Discourses on Causation (SN 12), especially SN 12.12; MN 28; SN 22.87

Band App, NBEF

The NBEF Band App was established by Nancy Acord on August 31, 2017. Since its founding, members from the United States, South Korea, Japan, and Europe have participated in this online community. The NBEF Band App serves as a platform for Dhamma practitioners who are interested in practicing the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.

Within the Band App, members share Dhamma talks, meditation experiences, practice-related questions, and community news and events. It is intended as a supportive space for communication and connection among those engaged in NBEF practice.

To join the NBEF Band App, you must first download the Band App on your phone or computer. Membership is by invitation, and an invitation from NBEF is required. Practitioners participating in NBEF programs will find the Band App to be a convenient and effective way to communicate with fellow members.

To apply for NBEF Band App membership, please email nbef.education@gmail.com.