Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Noble Eightfold Path is a summary of Buddhist practices leading to liberation from samsara, the cycle of rebirth, in the form of nirvana. It consists of eight factors: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right samadhi. It is one of the principal summaries of Buddhist teaching and is taught to lead to Arhatship.
The word 'noble' in the Noble Eightfold Path translates the Pali term ariya, which means enlightened, noble, or precious people. The name refers to the path belonging to noble ones, not to the path itself being noble. A more literal translation is the eightfold path of the noble ones.
The eight factors are right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right samadhi. Each factor begins with the Pali word samma or Sanskrit samyak, meaning right, proper, or as it ought to be.
In Theravada Buddhism, the path leads to Arhatship and personal liberation, often summarized as morality, meditation, and insight. In Mahayana Buddhism, the Eightfold Path is contrasted with the Bodhisattva path, which aims beyond Arhatship toward full Buddhahood across multiple rebirths, incorporating the Ten Bhumi doctrine and the six perfections called paramitas.
Right samadhi is the eighth factor of the path and is equated with dhyana, or meditative absorption, described in four progressive stages called jhanas. These stages move from applied thinking with joy through increasingly subtle states of equanimity and mindfulness, culminating in pure equanimity without pleasure or pain.
The Anguttara Nikaya states that right livelihood forbids trading in weapons, living beings, meat, alcoholic drink, and poison. This precept applies to lay Buddhists as well as monastics.