[Within the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha], the Dharma is the Buddha’s teaching that enable us to cut through the delusions and bad habits that prevent us from awakening. On a deeper level, the Dharma is not just the teachings, but also the reality that the teachings points to.

[Within the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha], the Buddha shows us the possibility that we can awaken to the truth about life. Shakyamuni Buddha provided us with a model of human wisdom and compassion. When we take refuge in him, we take refuge in the possibility of our own awakening. In different schools of Buddhism, the Buddha is interpreted as anything from an abstraction to an almost god-like celestial being, but in Nichiren Buddhism, we do not regard Shakyamuni Buddha as an other-worldly reality, abstract ideal, or long dead teacher. He is the awakening to the living reality of our own lives, which we realize when we take faith in Namu Myoho Renge Kyo.

Most people find that pursuing lofty goals such as achieving wisdom and living in accord with the Middle WaY are easier with some structure and community. These are provided by the Three Treasures in which all Buddhists take refuge: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

The ideal of the Middle Way is to live a life of harmony and equilibrium, free of self-centeredness and awkward self-consciousness. Following the Middle Way, we avoid fanaticism, fundamentalism, or legalism, and act with genuine insight and compassion in every situation. Ultimately, every aspect of our lives becomes an expression of the freedom and selflessness enjoyed by the Buddha.

Both the Middle Way as practice and the Middle Way as insight are dependent on each other. By practicing the Middle Way, we attain the insight of the Middle Way, and through the insight of the Middle Way, we are able to live in accord with the practice of the Middle Way. Ultimately, the Middle Way is the unity of practice and insight.

Dependent Origination means that every thing is dependent on other things, or causes, for its existence. That is, all phenomena arise as the result of causes and conditions. Therefore, no phenomena have any existence intrinsic to themselves-they depend on other phenomena. In order to have one thing, you need to have other things working together to bring about and to support its existence. Everything depends upon everything else in this way.

The doctrine of Dependent Origination is the key insight upon which the entire teaching of the Buddha rests, because it describes the Buddha’s deep understanding of cause and effect.

As we have seen, the night the Buddha attained awakening, he reflected upon his own life and past lives; upon the lives, past lives, and future destinies of all other beings; and then upon causality itself. He observed, beginning with himself, how all beings forge their destinies through their own actions. He also saw how all phenomena arise and pass away as part of a network of mutually supporting causes and conditions. The Buddha shared this insight with others in many different forms, the best known being the Twelve-fold Chain of Dependent Origination.

The Eightfold Path is often taught in terms of the “Threefold Training,” consisting of precepts, meditation, and wisdom.

Precepts refer to the ethical demand of right speech , right action, and right livelihood. Right effort is sometimes included in this category, as well. There are five precepts at the heart of Buddhist morality. These are: not killing, not stealing, not engaging in sexual misconduct, not lying, and not using intoxicants that cloud the mind. Through ethical living, we refrain from making bad causes and take responsibility for developing a life of integrity and confidence.

Meditation refers to mental discipline and refinement, covering right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. By training the mind, we are able to sharpen and strengthen our ability to maintain a peaceful mind and see things as they are, not simply as we wish them to be.

Wisdom refers to the development of right views and right intentions. This means that we are able to see the true nature of reality just as the Buddha sees it.

The Buddha taught that we are able to free ourselves from craving and ignorance and attain awakening when precepts, meditation, and wisdom are developed together.

Right View is fully understanding life as revealed by the Four Noble Truths.

Right Intention is thinking clearly without the distortion of greed, hatred, or delusion. We are sincere and do not harbor ulterior motives.

Right Speech is the avoidance of deceit, gossip, slander, and other forms of verbal abuse and dishonesty. Instead, we speak only to benefit others and to reveal the truth.

Right Action is conducting oneself in an ethical manner and acting to benefit others. We refrain from killing, stealing, sexual deception or exploitation, and other activities harmful to ourselves and to others.

Right Livelihood is making a living without harming or exploiting others. Right livelihood precludes such activities as dealing in armaments, drug dealing, fraud, insider trading and any other means of living that involves the exploitation or harming of others. In other words, our work should be in accord with the rest of the Eightfold Path.

Right Effort is making every effort to develop good habits while curbing our bad habits.

Right Mindfulness is developing an ongoing awareness of all aspects of our life, including our physical condition and actions, our feelings, moods, ideas, our general enviroument, and our relations with others. Through such careful attention we are able to see more deeply into the true nature of our lives.

Right Concentration is making every effort to develop our Buddhist practice in order to acquire tranquility, insight into the true nature of life, and liberation from false views.

The truth of the way to eliminate suffering is the path we must follow in order to stop clinging and free ourselves from suffering. It is the Middle Way between self-indulgence and self-denial which is also called the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path consists of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Each of these is an aspect of our lives that can be made whole or complete. This wholeness or completeness is what is meant by “right.”