These eight factors [of the Noble Eightfold path] aim at promoting and perfecting the three essentials of Buddhist training and discipline: (a) Ethical Conduct (Sila), (b) Mental Discipline (Samādhi) and (c) Wisdom (Paññā). It will therefore be more helpful for a coherent and better understanding of the eight divisions of the Path, if we group them and explain them according to these three heads.

Ethical Conduct (Sīla) is built on the vast conception of universal love and compassion for all living beings, on which the Buddha’s teaching is based. It is regrettable that many scholars forget this great ideal of the Buddha’s teaching, and indulge in only dry philosophical and metaphysical divagations when they talk and write about Buddhism. The Buddha gave his teaching ‘for the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world’ (bahujanahitāya bahujanasukhāya lokānukampāya).