Eight! Eight! Eight!

The date is August 8, 2008 -- 08/08/08. I figured this confluence of eights deserves special observance. And since this is a Buddhism blog, let's make a list. (What's with Buddhism and lists, anyway?) Here's a list of eight lists of eight:

1. The Eightfold Path
2. The Eight Auspicious Symbols
3. The Eight Liberations
4. The Eight Masteries
5. The Eight Negations
6. The Eight Worldly Conditions
7. The Eight Principal Dharmapalas
8. The Eight Uposatha Practices

I had a hard time settling on the last one. This was not for lack of choices. I found lists of "The Eight Aspects of Attaining the Way," "The Eight Concepts (to be eliminated)," "The Eight Unruly Horses," "The Eight Faults in Horses," "The Eight Unruly Men," "The Eight Faults in Men." No doubt there are many other lists of eight drizzled about in the sutras. I'm not sure I want to know about them.

I settled on the Eight Uposatha Practices. These are from the Visakhuposatha Sutta. "Uposatha" is something like a Buddhist sabbath, observed mostly in Theravada Buddhism, although the "sabbath" days are determined by the phases of the moon, not the calendar.

In the Visakhuposatha Sutta the Buddha listed eight ways to observe Uposatha. These eight practices are the Five Precepts plus three more -- to eat just one meal, before noon; to abstain from dancing, singing, wearing jewelry and cosmetics, and from otherwise decorating oneself; and to abstain from sleeping in high, soft beds. These three rules apply to monks all the time, but for Uposatha devout laypeople follow these rules also.

BTW, don't expect a list of nine lists of nine next year.