What is the Goal of Buddhism?
The Awakened One, the Buddha, classified people into two groups and set goals for both to help them according to their capabilities, namely;
1. Goal for the householders, and
2. Goal for those who life monastic life or monks.

Goal for householders is to live their life in a happy way by following at least three of the precepts of the Eightfold Path namely; right action, right speech and right livelihood in moral training. This includes the administration and governmental affairs, as the Buddha introduced 10 virtues* of rulers or administrators to carry out duties and responsibilities in righteous ways.

Goal far the monks or those who live monastic life is Nibbana,enlightenment or perfect freedom of the mind by following me Eightfold Path as above mentioned. The monks have to strictly observe moral conduct (Sila Visuddhi) and clarification of their moral disciplines set out by the Buddha, proved by the Sangha. Monks must train themselves in meditation practice (Samadhi-Vipassana Bhavna) to cultivate wisdom to be able to purify their minds from mental impurities or delusion.

Wisdom Training:
Wisdom is the way to see the ultimate truth of reality. When the mind of the meditation practitioner becomes calm, dear and peaceful, he or she may apply peaceful mind to look at the ways of all thing visible and invisible as they really are. Their ways are as follows;
1. Impermanence (Aniccam)
2. Hard to maintain (Dukkham)
3. Out of control (Anatta)

When the mind understands the way of everything as it really is, the mind does not cling and does not attach to anything, the meditation practitioner will see and view all things with a realistic approach. At that level of meditation the mind becomes free from all kinds of mental defilement, becoming a mind that can be called free mind, independent mind, perfect mind or enlightened mind. The person who lives with this mind will always live his or her life in peace and happiness here and now, not waiting until after death. This is what the Buddha taught and the goal of Buddhism.

Mental Discipline:
When we develop moral conduct, we are certain to have peaceful family and peaceful society, and then we are ready to go for meditation practice for more training in mental culture. Mental culture develops the human mind to become a noble being and finally to become a perfect noble one through wisdom training. There are two lands of mental culture, namely; Concentration meditation (Samatha Bhavna) and Insight meditation (Vipassana Bhavna). The details of meditation practice cannot be given here but those who want more information about meditation practice may contact Wat Thai,D.C. at the mailing address provided below.

Moral Conduct:
Moral conduct is the basic principle of Buddhism for the training and developing of an ordinary person to become a perfect human being. It consists of commitment to (1) avoid killing and harming living beings while trying to develop loving-kindness and compassion; (2) avoid taking what is not given while trying to develop sincerity and respect for ownership and the possessions of others; (3) avoid sexual misconduct while trying to develop honesty and respect toward the opposite sex; (4) avoid false speech while trying to develop truthfulness and sincerity; (5) avoid taking intoxicating drink and harmful drugs while trying to develop mindfulness and awareness in daily life.

The Middle Path, which gives vision and knowledge and leads to experiencing Calm, Insight, Enlightenment, Nibbana. This Path is known hi Pali as Ariya-Atthangika-Magga because it is composed of eight categories, namely:
Wisdom level
1. Right Understanding (Samma-ditthi)
2. Right Thought (Samma-sankappa)
Moral level
3. Right Speech (Samma-vaca)
4. Right Action (Samma-kammanta)
5. Right Livelihood (Samma-ajiva) Samadhi level
6. Right Effort (Samma-vayama)
7. Right Mindfulness (Samma-sati)
8. Right Concentration (Samma-samadhi)

Buddha explained the Dhamma in different ways with different words to different people, according to the stage of their development and their capacity to understand and follow him, but the essence of those many thousand discourses scattered hi the Buddhist Scriptures are found hi the Noble Eightfold Path and summarized hi the Threefold Doctrines namely;
1. Not to do bad
2. To do good, and
3. To purify the mind from its impurities or mental defilement