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"And what is right view? Knowledge with regard to
stress, knowledge with regard to the origination of stress, knowledge
with regard to the cessation of stress, knowledge with regard to
the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: This is
called right view." — DN 22
Right View Constitutes
Right view involves the correct understanding the Four
Noble
Truths, which are:
1. Truth concerning the existence of suffering;
2. Truth concerning the origin of suffering;
3. Truth concerning the extinction of suffering; and
4. Truth concerning the path that leads to the extinction of
suffering.
Right view also means understanding what is the right action
and what is not the right action and also understanding what is
the root of both.
Actions that are not right
These are those physical, mental and verbal acts which arise
out of greed, hatred, delusion and which produce painful and evil
results either in the present or in the future existence. Some examples
of actions that are not right at the physical level are the destruction
of living beings, stealing and unlawful sexual intercourse.
At the verbal level it is lying, tale-carrying, use of harsh
language and gossiping. At the mental level it is greediness, ill-will
and wrong views. The root causes of these actions that are not right
are greed, anger and delusion.
The right actions
To abstain from killing, stealing and unlawful sexual intercourse
constitute the right actions at the physical level. At the verbal
level it is to abstain from lying, from tale-carrying, from the
usage of harsh-language and from frivolous talk.
At the mental level it is absence of greediness, of ill-will
and having right understanding. The root cause of right karmic actions
are selflessness or absence of greed, compassion or absence of anger,
and wisdom or absence of delusion
When one understands that the physical existence, body, feeling,
perception, mental formation, and consciousness, are but temporary,
then also it is to be considered as right understanding.
Right view, right effort and right mindfulness
"And how is right view the forerunner? One discerns
wrong view as wrong view, and right view as right view. This is
one's right view. And what is wrong view? 'There is nothing given,
nothing offered, nothing sacrificed. There is no fruit or result
of good or bad actions. There is no this world, no next world, no
mother, no father, no spontaneously reborn beings; no priests or
contemplatives who, faring rightly & practicing rightly, proclaim
this world & the next after having directly known & realized it
for themselves.' This is wrong view... "One tries to abandon wrong
view & to enter into right view: This is one's right effort. One
is mindful to abandon wrong view & to enter & remain in right view:
This is one's right mindfulness. Thus these three qualities — right
view, right effort, & right mindfulness — run & circle around right
view." — MN 117
People who hold wrong view
"There is the case where an uninstructed, run-of-the-mill
person... does not discern what ideas are fit for attention, or
what ideas are unfit for attention. This being so, he does not attend
to ideas fit for attention, and attends instead to ideas unfit for
attention... This is how he attends inappropriately: 'Was I in the
past? Was I not in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in
the past? Having been what, what was I in the past? Shall I be in
the future? Shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in the
future? How shall I be in the future? Having been what, what shall
I be in the future?' Or else he is inwardly perplexed about the
immediate present: 'Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has
this being come from? Where is it bound?'
"As he attends inappropriately in this way, one of six kinds of
view arises in him: The view I have a self arises in him as true
& established, or the view I have no self... or the view It is precisely
by means of self that I perceive self... or the view It is precisely
by means of self that I perceive not-self... or the view It is precisely
by means of not-self that I perceive self arises in him as true
& established, or else he has a view like this: This very self of
mine — the knower that is sensitive here & there to the ripening
of good & bad actions — is the self of mine that is constant, everlasting,
eternal, not subject to change, and will endure as long as eternity.
This is called a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion
of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views. Bound by a fetter
of views, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person is not freed from
birth, aging, & death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress,
& despair. He is not freed, I tell you, from suffering & stress.
"The well-instructed disciple of the noble ones...
discerns what ideas are fit for attention, and what ideas are unfit
for attention. This being so, he does not attend to ideas unfit
for attention, and attends [instead] to ideas fit for attention...
He attends appropriately, This is stress... This is the origination
of stress... This is the cessation of stress... This is the way
leading to the cessation of stress. As he attends appropriately
in this way, three fetters are abandoned in him: identity-view,
doubt, and grasping at precepts & practices."
Right view comes with an unconditioned mind
"Don't go by reports, by legends, by traditions,
by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies,
by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the
thought, 'This contemplative is our teacher.' When you know for
yourselves that, 'These qualities are unskillful; these qualities
are blameworthy; these qualities are criticized by the wise; these
qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to harm & to suffering'
— then you should abandon them...
"When you know for yourselves that, 'These qualities
are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are
praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out,
lead to welfare & to happiness' — then you should enter & remain
in them." — AN III.65
Suggested Further Reading
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