I don't usually read up on formal buddhist doctrine, but was reviewing the eightfold path today and wondering about this:

What's the difference between:

The right "thought/intention" and the right "effort"?

Both seem to be about putting forth effort to reduce harmful thoughts.

The right "view/understanding" and the right "mindfulness?"

Both seem to be about seeing things as they are.

I’m really not an expert on the texts, but as far as I understand it, right effort refers to a balance between straining oneself too much and being sloppy or lazy.

As for mindfulness, I think of it as related not only to the view but also to timing. To notice occurrings as they occur, in order to be able to choose what to act upon. But sure, it seems to be an overlap there. That’s not the only overlap. Maybe the Buddha thought it was a good idea to offer many different access roads to the good stuff, in case people missed the first one.

Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote an excellent book on the Eightfold Path titled The Noble Eightfold Path: The Way to the End of Suffering. It is availble as a PDF if you Google it.

Jack, I just used Google to find a bunch of references that answer your questions. I Googled "details of the eightfold path" and got these links, among many, many others:


https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Noble_Eightfold_Path

https://tricycle.org/magazine/noble-eightfold-path/

https://accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/waytoend.html