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Eightfold Path: Right Release

A warm hello, and we come to the final talk in the series on the Eightfold Path^[1], the eight-factored path. The eight-factored path comes to maturity with Right Knowledge, the topic of yesterday's talk. Today, the final factor is Right Release, Right Liberation. The word "right" can also in these circumstances be translated as "genuine," and so Right Release is genuine release, genuine liberation.

This emphasis on release is different than letting go. Letting go can easily be seen as something we do; it can be a choice to let go of something. But release is not something we do. Liberation is not something that we make happen. We don't attain it. We're also not given liberation; it isn't like we sit here and wait for someone to give it to us. Rather, release is experienced. We might feel it as a gift, but it's not a gift that comes from anywhere, maybe except just from life.

This very radical kind of experience of releasing, loosening—not exactly letting go, because letting go might imply that we're letting something go—release is a radical movement. Something inside of us—the heart, the mind, the deepest places inside—loosens, lightens up, and frees itself up. The fullness of that is what makes a person fully liberated.

All along in this Eightfold Path leading to Right Knowledge and Right Release, this is not a mystical path per se. It's not a path where you have to believe in something supernatural, or believe in anything. It is a movement through our lived experience, understanding our lived experience in deeper and deeper ways, and starting to live in a genuine way. For the purpose of liberation, it's the genuine view of things. It's a genuine way of thinking, a genuine way of speaking, of acting in the world, of livelihood, genuine effort, genuine mindfulness, and genuine concentration. Perhaps using the word "genuine" instead of "right" implies less that we have to do it, and more that we come into fulfillment in it.

The Eightfold Path has both sides. It has the eight steps, practices we engage in, but we're supposed to graduate or mature out of being the doer of them, to it becoming who we are. The Buddha talked about in the ancient texts that when the Eightfold Path matures in a person, they become the Eightfold Path. So the word "right" maybe doesn't work anymore, but with the word "genuine," we become authentic in this way.

This emphasis on release that Buddhism has is not unique to Buddhism. Almost every religion that I know of, in the contemplative sides of the religion, puts an emphasis on release, on letting go. There is a recognition that release is not something we can do, but something we prepare the ground for. We're available for something to really drop away. Like an apple, if we just sit and wait, in its own time it will fall from the tree.

It is a tremendous relief, because one of the things we're released from is the preoccupation with self and self-concern. There's something very wonderful about being fully present and alive in this life, and not always referring things back to "me, myself, and mine." We are not always trying to navigate and negotiate this world with, "What's in it for me? How do I take care of myself? How do I protect myself? How do I get my pleasures? How do I avoid discomfort? How do I get people to like me? How do I avoid people disliking me?" All this self-concern is reasonable enough to have in this complicated social world we live in. But to have the experience of it evaporating, dissolving, and dropping away, and just to be alive is enough. Just here and present, free in a radical simplicity.

In the Buddhist tradition, this idea of radical release that culminates the whole path is a way of realizing, or being bestowed, or fulfilling a personal integrity and dignity. Sometimes they use the word "nobility"—nobility of spirit, nobility of being in the release. Rather than release being a diminishment, it is a fulfillment. What we're doing is releasing all the things that actually limit us, contract us, and diminish us, to experience a kind of openness that is so open, so free, that it is not limited by self-concepts and self-concern, but just really here in a full and open way.

Where does that leave us, to have that kind of radical release? I think it leaves us available to the world, open to the world. It is a way of no longer being in conflict with the world, or in conflict with anything. To say it a little bit more precisely, a person who has this deep release will no longer conflict in the world. What a great gift to the world! What a fantastic way of being in this life, to no longer be the one who creates conflict. Of course, there might be conflicts or difficulties that somehow approach us and find us, and we have to navigate them. But imagine being someone who does not create conflict, but rather navigates and walks through the world responding, taking care of things in this openness and simplicity. You just take care of the next thing. And if the next thing is something that needs to be changed, you just take care of it, without a sense of conflict, hostility, or sparks between people.

To be available to this world in this radical simplicity—without greed, without hatred, and without delusion^[2]—is a great gift to the world. Imagine experiencing someone who is fully free of greed, hatred, and delusion, but they are present, open, available, and friendly with you. It's fantastic. It feels like this is a safe person to be with, an inspiring person to be with. So, become that person that provides the world with this safety, this inspiration, this model, this way of being. This gift of radical release, radical freedom.

Of course, many of us would like to have a little bit more in this. "Always more," right? We're not really content with radical release and the absence of greed, hate, and delusion. Isn't there something more? The common thing that's offered as more is, "Oh yes, you'll have lots of love for the world. You'll have compassion for the world. You'll live for the welfare and benefit of the world." Maybe. At this point, when the release is radical and full, I'd rather not add that to the mix, because it's so easy then for it to be assumed and somehow complicate the simplicity. Rather, why don't you try it yourself? Don't put conditions on the release. Don't require it to be something. Don't only trust it if you know that, "Well, then I'll be compassionate, then I'll take care of people, then..." you know, something. Trust the radical release from greed, hate, and delusion. The radical release from suffering. Trust it deeply. Trust the Eightfold Path; trust the tremendous richness of it. All of Buddhism is contained within the Eightfold Path. Trust how it's a path of freedom—finding it, expressing it, and manifesting it more and more in our life. Trust it, and then find out for yourself how you live your life. I'm confident, at the risk of complicating your life, that if you do so in your own way that's genuine for yourself, you will live for the welfare and happiness of all beings, and it will be a natural thing to do in your way.

Thank you very much for this series and for being here. I certainly appreciated the opportunity. We'll continue next week with a new theme. For those of you who maybe are a little bit discouraged or bewildered that I didn't quite want to leave you with love and compassion at the end of release—not quite—probably that will be the theme for next week. Thank you so much.