The Eightfold Path of Buddha is necessitated by the fourth Noble Truth: the way from suffering is following this Eightfold Path. Crowley was somewhat of a Buddhist before he received the Book of the Law and so it obviously influenced his thinking. Buddhism is useful to the Thelemite for many reasons including the beneficial meditative awareness and insight practices, an understanding & method of controlling the mind and its faculties, and its understanding of the divinity, or Buddha, that is within. The scheme of the eightfold path could be adopted to suit the ethics of Thelema, which can be summarized as ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law’ (Liber AL I:40). In another article, I gave a brief summary of what the Eightfold Path is and its correlation to the seven planets of the Hermetic Qabalah. Now we will see how this Eightfold path fits into the Thelemic paradigm and how it would be adapted to resonate more perfectly with Thelema.

Eightfold path

• Wisdom (Panña)

1) Right view (samma dihi)
First, it should be understood that the word “right” is closer to the words meaning “complete” and “perfected.” The Buddhist understanding of right view is essentially that one has knowledge of the Four Noble Truths. These Four Noble Truths can be summarized as: 1) Life is suffering (dukkha), 2) The origin of suffering is attachment, 3) The cessation of suffering is attainable, 4) The path to cessation of suffering is the Eightfold Path. The first Noble Truth is true for the normal man, but a Buddhist who would attain to Nirvana/Nibbana would be free from suffering, so the words are misleading. The Qabalistic version would be an Adept who crosses the Abyss to reside in the Supernals without ego (Ruach) & its attachments. Interestingly, Crowley attributes Right view (samma dihi) to the planet Saturn, which is attributed the Sephirah of Binah, the first Sephirah beyond the Abyss in the Supernal Triangle.

a) First Noble Truth
The Thelemic answer to the first Noble Truth comes in Liber AL I:29-30 but especially in AL II:9.

AL I:29. For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union.
AL I:30. This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.

Nuit informs us that though there may be suffering because of division, these pains are “as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.” A comfort is given that through Love under Will, the Adept may enjoy Joy in Union (especially mentally in the state of Samadhi).

AL II:9. Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains.

Hadit informs us that “existence is pure joy” which is the opposite of the First Noble Truth. Sorrows are understood to be “but as shadows” because “they pass & are done.” Hadit tells us that “there is that which remains” – showing us that suffering is illusion and joy is a truer feeling. In Thelema, we acknowledge that the true state of existence is pure joy and that it is merely our ignorance, the complex veils of our true Nature, that keeps us in a state of suffering. Hadit tells us in AL II:19, "Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. They shall rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us.” Both Thelema and Buddhists strive to a state beyond suffering – the difference is that Buddhists emphasize that life is suffering and Thelemites emphasize that life is “pure joy.” One could say that the two doctrines are essentially the same idea but two opposite ways of looking at it. I prefer “pure joy.” Buddha himself spoke in the first lines of the Dhammapada, "Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves." -line 2

b) Second Noble Truth
The second Noble Truth is "The origin of suffering is attachment." In Thelema, the main concern is not ridding outselves of attachments but to discover and manifest the Will. The proper understanding of the Will is explained largely in Liber AL I:40-44:

AL I:40. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
AL I:41. The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can unite the divided but love: all else is a curse. Accursed! Accursed be it to the aeons! Hell.
AL I:42. Let it be that state of manyhood bound and loathing. So with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will.
AL I:43. Do that, and no other shall say nay.
AL I:44. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.

This could be taken to say that a person who does not do their will is causing discord & suffering - "thou hast no right but to do thy will." To the Thelemite, performing one's true Will is the foremost duty. One who is not doing one's Will is by definition in conflict with Nature and causing unnecessary division, sorrow, & suffering.

Also, suffering is mentioned in AL I:22:

AL I:22. Now, therefore, I am known to ye by my name Nuit, and to him by a secret name which I will give him when at last he knoweth me. Since I am Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof, do ye also thus. Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt.

Crowley explains the first part of this line, writing "We have here a further conception of the cosmographical scheme. Nuit is All that which exists, and the condition of that existence. Hadit is the Principle which causes modifications in this Being. This explains how one may call Nuit Matter, and Hadit Motion, in the highest physico-philosophical sense of those terms." Essentially, this line clarifies the cosmography of Thelema but also sets up the conditions for the instruction in the second part starting with "Bind nothing!" Crowley comments, "This question of making "no difference" as ordained is to regard the whole of the non-Ego or universe apparently external to the Self as a single phenomenon; Samadhi on any one thing becomes therefore Samadhi on The Whole. The mystic who "availeth in this" can then perform his Great Work of "love under will" in a single operation instead of being obliged to unite himself with the non-Ego piecemeal." Nuit is an object of focus that represents al other objects of focus. Therefore, Samadhi on Nuit would be the most complete as it is an idea most completely formed of the ideas of "non-Ego." Getting back to the idea of the second Noble Truth, AL II:22 may be taken as Thelemic view of the origin of suffering. It is essentially saying that making a difference between any one thing and any other thing, or being in a dualistic consciousness, makes "hurt" come. The word "hurt" is interesting because it is used over the word "suffering." Crowley comments on this idea, "Notice the word "hurt", from he French "heurter", meaning to knock against an obstacle. There is thus a strictly technical accuracy in the choice of the term." This means that "hurt" will come in the sense that one will "knock against an obstacle" if one maintains a sense of duality - this "hurt" is seen as a minor obstacle, not anything cataclysmic because "there is that which remains" (AL II:9). Crowley comments on AL I:23 saying, "The chief, then, is he who has destroyed this sense of duality."

This state of non-dualistic consciousness is beyond the ego therefore beyond attachment, therefore this idea is inclusive of the Buddhist idea that the origin of suffering is attachment. One who is in this state understands AL II:9, "Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains."

Basically, in Thelema, the origin of suffering is two-fold: a star which is not performing its true Will & a state of dualistic consciousness (with its possible attachments to illusion). It may be said that one cannot have a "pure will" without one abiding in a state of unified consciousness and therefore there is only one origin of suffering: not doing one's Will.

c) Third Noble Truth
The third Noble Truth is that "the cessation of suffering is possible." Thelema certainly understands that a state of non-suffering is possible. This state might be said when one attains Hadit. The ideas of suffering and sorrow come up mostly in chapter 2:

AL II:9. Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains.
AL II:17. Hear me, ye people of sighing!
The sorrows of pain and regret
Are left to the dead and the dying,
The folk that not know me as yet.
AL II:18. These are dead, these fellows; they feel not. We are not for the poor and sad: the lords of the earth are our kinsfolk.
AL II:19. Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. They shall rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us.
AL II:56. Begone! ye mockers; even though ye laugh in my honour ye shall laugh not long: then when ye are sad know that I have forsaken you.

Hadit says explicitly in AL II:17 that "sorrows of pain and regret" are for people "that not know me as yet." Crowley comments on this line, "But 'the poor [AL II:18] and the outcast' [AL II:21] are the petty thoughts and the Qliphotic thoughts and the sad thoughts. These must be rooted out, or the ecstasy of Hadit is not in us. They are the weeds in the Garden that starve the Flower." He continues, "The dead and the dying, who know not Hadit, are in the Illusion of Sorrow. Not being Hadit, they are shadows, puppets, and what happens to them does not matter. If you insist upon identifying yourself with Hecuba, your tears are natural enough." One does not know Hadit if one is in "the Illusion of sorrow."

Crowley explains AL II:19, "A god living in a dog would be one who was prevented from fulfilling his function properly. The highest are those who have mastered and transcended accidental environment. They rejoice, because they do their Will; and if any man sorrow, it is clear evidence of something wrong with him. When machinery creaks and growls, the engineer knows that it is not fulfilling its function, doing its Will, with ease and joy." Essentially, one must be above sorrow and almost take it to be a clue that one is not performing one's Will.

Crowley's practical instructions for attaining to Hadit are found in Liber DLV - Liber HAD.

d) Fourth Noble Truth
The fourth Noble Truth is that the way to eliminate suffering is to follow the Eightfold Path. For the Thelemite, the way to eliminate suffering is to recognize & transcend the illusion of duality, and to perform one's Will because "So with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay." (AL I:42-43). To manifest the Will, one might take the approach of following this Thelemic Eightfold Path.

e) No self (Anatta/Anatman)
The "higher" stages of samma dihi, or Right view, in Buddhism include knowledge and understanding of the not-self doctrine (Anatta/Anatman), impermanence, the five aggregates, karma, rebirth, and others. The doctrine of not-self (the lack of the Atman of Hindu philosophy) might be seen as contradictory to Thelema with its “stars” and “True Will,” but really it is a misnomer. The idea that “what is normally thought of as the "self" is in fact an agglomeration of constantly changing physical and mental constituents (skandhas)” in Buddhism is understood in Thelema. The Ruach, or ego/intellect, by itself has no real “self” except as a reflection of the Supernal Triad. If it is not informed by this Triad by the Adept being in these spheres (by crossing the Abyss), then it is just “an agglomeration of constantly changing physical and mental constituents.” The truest Self abides in the Supernal triangle where there is no duality and no dichotomy between self and not-self. In some Hindu sects of thought, the Atman (the Self) is said to be ultimately identical with the Brahman (“unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all things in this universe”). Essentially, the truest Self does not know duality and therefore can not really be said to be a self in the way we understand it.

Likewise, the truest self of Thelema is nothing you would normally call the self. It is a part of one’s initiation to cross the Abyss and eliminate the ego, or the self completely. Upon crossing the Abyss, s/he has become Not or Nemo (No man). With the source of Will coming from Chokmah and Chiah (as part of the Hebrew’s system of the Soul), it can never be pure unless purged of the lower influences from below the Abyss of the ego or Ruach (part of the Soul that extends from Chesed down to Yesod).

f) Impermanence
Thelemites (especially those following the path of the A.'.A.'.) will also learn that nothing is permanent (pun intended) – Change is stability and stability is change is a lesson of the 2=9 grade (in Yesod). There seems to be no contradiction between the two systems here in their approach to ‘impermanence.’

g) Five aggregates (skandhas)
The five aggregates (skandhas) relate to the doctrine of Anatta/Anatman. In the Theravada tradition, the tradition Crowley was most aware of, suffering arises when one identifies with or otherwise clings to an aggregate; hence, suffering is extinguished by relinquishing attachments to aggregates. The five aggregates are: 1) form/matter, especially the physical body and its senses, 2) sensation/feeling – the actual sensations received by the senses, 3) perception/cognition – the actual perceiving of the sensations, 4) mental formations – includes all types of mental habits, thoughts, ideas, opinions, compulsions, and decisions triggered by an object, and 5) consciousness – understood as “cognizance,” (Nikayas) “a series of rapidly changing interconnected discrete acts of cognizance,” (Abhidhamma) or “the base that supports all experience” (Mahayana tradition). Qabalistically, these things would most likely represent Malkuth as the physical vehicle & senses (first agreggate). Yesod is the sensual stimulus and the perception of/reflection on it. Mental formations are part of the entire Ruach (Ego/intellect) including Chesed, Geburah, Tiphareth, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod but centered in Tiphareth. It is understood that their truest nature is illusion and attachment thereto would result in suffering, but we must not despise these lower vehicles for the higher Self just like a charioteer would not despise her chariot.

h) Karma
The ideas of karma and rebirth are not explicitly stated in Thelema, but Crowley mentions them in commentaries to Liber AL. Karma as understood that actions/causes have their corresponding effects is a well known universal Law, even understood by Christians ("whatever a man shall sow, that also shall he reap"). This law is applicable to the physical universe as demonstrated by Newton's third law of motion. Crowley mentions in his comment to AL II:11 that "It was the Karma of countless incarnations of struggle towards the light," acknowleding the reality of Karma. Crowley's commentary on AL II:44 also assumes the existence of Karma "in the time-world:" "The body is itself a restriction as well as an instrument. When death is as complete as it should be, the individual expands and fulfils himself in all directions; it is an omniform Samadhi. This is of course 'eternal ecstasy' in the sense already explained. But in the time-world Karma reconcentrates the elements, and a new incarnation occurs." These are the only two instances of the word "Karma" in the commentaries.

i) Rebirth/reincarnation
In regards to reincarnation, in his comment to AL II:21 he says, "Let weak and wry productions go back into the melting-pot, as is done with flawed steel castings. Death will purge, reincarnation make whole, these errors and abortions. Nature herself may be trusted to do this, if only we will leave her alone. But what of those who, physically fitted to live, are tainted with rottenness of soul, cancerous with the sin-complex? For the third time I answer: The Christians to the Lions!". Crowley says that the death of weak individuals is ok because reincarnation will "make whole these errors and abortions" - he is obviously assuming reincarnation is a fact. In the comment to AL II:49 Crowley says, "We must abolish the shadows by the Radiant Light of the Sun. Real things are only thrown into brighter glory by His effulgence. We need have no fear then to throw the Christians to the Lions. If there be indeed True Men among them, who happen through defect of education to know no better, they will reincarnate all right, and no harm done." Here he is obviously joking to an extent, but he assumes that reincarnation is a fact in it. We know that the truest nature of the Self, or the "star" is permanent for "there is that which remains" (AL II:9) and Crowley says in his comment to AL II:58, "Again we learn the permanence of the Nature of a Star." We also know that the nature of this self is not the self of the ego but is really attributeless, or Not. The truest idea of Self does not know duality, as explained earlier. Also, Crowley speaks sometimes of his past-lives as Eliphas Levi, Sir Edward Kelly, Ankh-f-n-khonsu, and others, which obviously assumes that reincarnation is true.

Summary
Essentially, Right view (Saturn) for a Thelemite would be:
*The knowledge & understanding that true nature of existence is pure joy.
AL II:9: Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains.

*The origins of suffering are men & women not performing their true Wills & dualistic consciousness.
AL I:40-44: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. The word of Sin is Restriction... So with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.

*The cessation of suffering is possible through manifesting the Will & transcending dualistic consciousness.
AL I:22: Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt.
AL I:29-30: For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union. This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.
AL I:42-43: So with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay.

*The knowledge & understanding of the nature of the truest Self (which is truly beyond self and not-self) as being beyond attributes, beyond the Abyss in the Supernal Triangle (Qabalistically).
AL I:45-47: The Perfect and the Perfect are one Perfect and not two; nay, are none! Nothing is a secret key of this law. Sixty-one the Jews call it; I call it eight, eighty, four hundred & eighteen. But they have the half: unite by thine art so that all disappear.
AL II:15: For I am perfect, being Not; and my number is nine by the fools; but with the just I am eight, and one in eight: Which is vital, for I am none indeed. The Empress and the King are not of me; for there is a further secret.

*The knowledge & understanding of the impermanence & illusory nature of all things below the Abyss: matter, the body, the senses, sensual stimuli, perception of stimuli, mental formations, and consciousness - the Ruach and the Nephesh in the Hebrew divisions of the soul.

*The knowledge & understanding of Karma (action & reaction/cause & effect) and the idea of rebirth/reincarnation.


Sources for various tidbits of Buddhist information:

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_aggregates
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatta
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman