Understanding the Noble Eightfold Path : หน้า 58/263

Those who are wise and endowed with Right View will see the dangerous reality of craving, and not delay in practising the Noble Eightfold Path as a vessel to take them beyond the Sea of Worldliness. 4.3 The Path as the Manifestation Demonstrating the inter-relation between the Noble Eightfold Path and the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering, the Lord Buddha explained that practising the Noble Eightfold Path is the method by which the Cessation of Suffering or Nirvana can be manifested. 4.4 The Path as the Supreme The Lord Buddha taught that the supremacy of the Noble Eightfold Path lies in its ability to extinguish all suffering for all those who practise it — in just the same way as a powerful charm or spell, by its recitation, can overcome the effects of a poisonous snake-bite. It is like the pure rainwater that falls from the sky and irrigates the fields ensuring that all crops can bear plentiful fruit and guarding against the perils of malnutrition and drought. Just as water is the leading factor in vegetal growth, the Noble Eightfold Path is the Supreme factor in allaying the Noble Truth of Suffering. The Inter-relation of Explanation for the Noble Truths The direct explanation of each of the Noble Truths is found in each case in the first explanation of the four given — for Suffering it is ‘misery’; for the Origin of Suffering it is ‘Being Compiled’; for the Extinction of Suffering it is ‘Release’ and for the Noble Eightfold Path it is ‘Escape from the Cycle of Existence’. For the Noble Truth of Suffering, the Lord Buddha taught us to avoid the twelve characteristics of Suffering’s misery