Peter Coletti

Prof. Berard

Problems with Philosophy

11/10/17

Final Paper

Part I:

The Four Noble Truths

1. Truth of Suffering (dukkha)

2. Truth of the Cause of Suffering (samudaya)

3. Truth of the End of Suffering (nirhodha)

4. Truth of the Path Free of Suffering (magga)

The Eightfold Path

1. Right Understanding

2. Right Livelihood

3. Right Meaning

4. Right Speech

5. Right Awareness

6. Right Effort

7. Right Action

8. Right Meditation
Part II

This past semester of philosophy has been filled with different ways to think about life.

For example, we learned about western philosophy and its focus on morals. Then we talked

about existentialism and that you are everything you make yourself to be. Now towards the

end of the semester we dedicated our time to the teachings of eastern philosophy and its focus

on everything being one with itself. We explicitly studied the Eightfold Path and its teachings

along the way. To do this, we had guest speakers come to the class and explain what each fold

means to them. These were my three favorite…

Our first guest speaker was the most memorable. Professor Brian McCoy came to the

class to speak about his life story. Professor McCoy had his life all planned and he was on the

right track to becoming his dream, a college president. Everything seemed to be going smoothly

but life can and will throw curveballs at you. McCoy explained that the “right understanding”

when going through these troubles is trivial. Yes, things may have not worked out or may have

gotten considerably worse, but that shouldn’t stop you dead in your tracks. Understand the

situation, make addresses to problems, and make changes to overcome. Without the right state

of mind and understanding you may not be able to leap over life’s obstacles.

The next discussion of the eightfold path that I found memorable was that of Right

Speech/Listening. This discussion was a role play style discussion done by Professor Berard.

Berard discussed the values of talking and listening to one another. Whether you come from

different backgrounds, ethnicities, or race it should not matter. Listen to other people and their

stories. For example, Berard spoke about a speaking and listening exercise he did in Israel

where Israelis and Palestinians talked and listened to each other’s stories of lost family member
and recite it back to the original teller. This activity was done one on one, Israeli to Palestinian,

and was very intimate. The lesson learned was that just listening to people will open more

doors than you think.

The last group of guest speakers we had was the Nichol College Meditation Club. In this

discussion, each member gave a brief synopsis on their life and why they needed meditation.

People spoke mostly about anxiety and the stress of having so many things to do in the busy

world we live in. Each person spoke about how practicing meditation has helped them through

things they couldn’t get through it before. As much help as meditation gives them they

described that meditation is not an answer to your problems, but more of a connecting piece to

find out who you are in your mind. When you find out more about yourself the right answers

should become clearer. Meditation is the last of the Eightfold Path, meaning when you have the

other 7 this should come last. Once you achieve the right meditation and find yourself in the

world you are that much closer to Nirvana.