Eight Worldly Dharmas

 

The eight worldly dharmas, also called the eight worldly concerns, are pairs of hopes and fears that commonly drive people’s actions and mental states in daily life according to Buddhist teachings. These concerns are considered to be obstacles to genuine spiritual practice, as they keep one preoccupied with transient, external conditions rather than cultivating inner equanimity and wisdom.

List of Eight Worldly Dharmas

- Gain and loss: Attachment to acquiring possessions or achievements, and aversion to losing them.

- Pleasure and pain: Craving sensory or emotional pleasure, and aversion to discomfort or suffering.

- Praise and blame: Desire for approval and recognition, and fear of criticism or censure.

- Fame and disgrace: Preoccupation with reputation, recognition, and status, as opposed to fear of obscurity or dishonor.

Each pair is a duality linked by attachment and aversion—wanting one side, dreading the other. The more one is driven by these hopes and fears, the more one’s mind is distracted from the path of Dharma, which emphasizes equanimity and letting go of egoic desires.

Role in Buddhist Practice

In traditional Buddhist advice, genuine spiritual growth involves recognizing these eight influences and gradually releasing attachment to them, thereby developing greater inner peace regardless of changing circumstances. Letting go of these preoccupations is seen as essential for progress on the path to enlightenment.

Summary Table

Recognizing and working with these eight worldly dharmas is a key step in Buddhist practice for cultivating a mind that is stable, calm, and free from emotional turbulence driven by external conditions.

How do the eight worldly dharmas affect meditation practice

The eight worldly dharmas can seriously distract and hinder progress in meditation practice by pulling the mind toward attachment and aversion regarding pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame, fame and disgrace.

How They Affect Meditation

- Mental Distraction  

  These concerns fuel thoughts of acquiring pleasant experiences and avoiding unpleasant ones, causing mental agitation that prevents concentration during meditation. The mind becomes preoccupied with desires and fears, making it harder to cultivate calm and stability.

- Obstacle to Inner Peace  

  Attachment to these dharmas produces cycles of craving, anxiety, and judgment, which block the development of equanimity—a key goal of Buddhist meditation. As long as one is attached to these outcomes, moments of inner quiet are fragile and easily disturbed.

- Cultivation of Wrong Views  

  When meditation is motivated by hopes for gain or praise or avoidance of discomfort, it becomes a service to ego-driven thinking rather than genuine spiritual development. This encourages “wrong view,” undermining true realization and deeper wisdom.

Practical Meditation Advice

- Regular reflection and meditation on the eight worldly concerns help practitioners recognize the subtle ways these arise in the mind and weaken their hold.

- Techniques such as mindfulness and analytic meditation on impermanence and selflessness specifically target the root of these distractions.

By working to recognize and let go of these eight concerns, meditation deepens, and practitioners move closer to authentic inner peace and spiritual insight.

Key Buddhist texts that discuss the eight worldly dharmas

Key Buddhist texts that discuss the eight worldly dharmas include several canonical and traditional sources:

1. Anguttara Nikaya (Aṅguttara Nikāya) 

   Particularly in the "Book of Eights," suttas AN 8.5 (Paṭhama Lokadhamma Sutta) and AN 8.6 (Dutiyalokadhamma Sutta), the Buddha explicitly teaches about the eight worldly conditions: gain and loss, fame and disgrace, praise and blame, pleasure and pain. These sutras describe how these conditions revolve the world and are the basis of worldly attachment and suffering. They also emphasize mindfulness and equanimity in relation to these conditions.

2. Lokavipatti Sutta

   This sutta similarly outlines the "failings of the world" revolving around the eight worldly conditions. It teaches the impermanence and unsatisfactory nature of these worldly preoccupations.

3. Nagarjuna’s Letter to a Friend 

   Nagarjuna, an important Buddhist philosopher, mentions the eight worldly dharmas (gain, loss, praise, blame, pleasure, pain, fame, disgraced) urging practitioners not to allow these concerns to occupy the mind but to regard them with equanimity.

4. Tibetan Buddhist Canon

   The Eight Worldly Dharmas are widely discussed in Tibetan Buddhist teachings and texts such as the Kangyur and Tengyur collections, with emphasis on how these concerns bind beings to samsara and differentiate them from bodhisattva ideals.

These texts collectively form the main sources for the Buddhist teaching on the eight worldly dharmas, each emphasizing the need to overcome attachment to these pairs of worldly hopes and fears to progress spiritually.

If more details on any of these texts or excerpts are needed, they can be provided.