Right View
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The beliefs and perspectives which form the foundation of the Noble Eightfold Path.
This Edo-period statue of Jizō carries a staff in his right hand and a jewel in his left, symbolizing the Bodhisattva's possession of both compassion and emptiness. (Image courtesy of The Met)
Table of Contents
- Books (14)
- Canonical Works (60)
- Readings (28)
- Audio/Video (23)
- Reference Shelf (1)
- Related Topics (5)
Books (14)
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[The] discourse appears indeed as a rather formidable assemblage of stern messages. Yet, for one who is familiar with the Buddha Word, this will be softened by the fact that in numerous discourses the Buddha spoke of his Teaching as one that offers “gradual training, gradual progress.” It is here that the Buddha’s gentleness and compassion appears, his forbearance with human frailties, and his wise and patient guidance of men.
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233 pages[recommended but under copyright]
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Canonical Works (60)
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‘I don’t say it’s like this. I don’t say it’s like that. I don’t say it’s otherwise. I don’t say it’s not so. And I don’t deny it’s not so.’
A sensible person reflects on this matter in this way: ‘This teacher is dull and stupid.’ -
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‘By this virtue or observance or asceticism or holy life I shall become a great god or some lesser god,’ that is wrong view in his case. Now there are two destinations for one with wrong view, I say: hell or the animal realm. So, Puṇṇa, if his dog-duty succeeds, it will lead him to the company of dogs; if it fails, it will lead him to hell.
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… even this view of yours, Aggivessana—‘All is not pleasing to me’—is even that not pleasing to you?
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Mister, that man attacked the king’s enemy and killed them. The king was delighted and gave him this reward.
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A ‘position,’ Vaccha, is something that a Tathāgata has done away with.
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… by eating their son’s flesh they would cross the rest of the desert.
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Sensual pleasures give little gratification and much suffering and distress, and they are all the more full of drawbacks. Even though a noble disciple has clearly seen this with right wisdom, so long as they don’t achieve the rapture and bliss that are apart from sensual pleasures and unskillful qualities, or something even more peaceful than that, they might still return to sensual pleasures.
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In this challenging sutta, the Buddha describes how meditators might go astray, thinking they’ve attained Right View when in fact they haven’t.
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Wanderers from other sects share their views with Anāthapiṇḍika, who declares his own view–and why it’s not pessimistic.
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Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu understands form, its origin, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation; he understands the gratification, the danger, and the escape in the case of form.
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So, Ānanda, deeds are the field, consciousness is the seed, and craving is the moisture.
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Their intentions, aims, wishes, and choices all lead to what is likable, desirable, agreeable, beneficial, and pleasant. Why is that? Because their view is good.
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You Licchavis are so fixated on sensual pleasures!
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Unless these five dangers and threats are given up, one is said to be unethical, and is reborn in hell.
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The analogy of Nibbana as a lost city is given its earliest expression in this sutta, which beautifully tells of the Buddha’s discovery of the Noble Path, and connects dependent arising to the Four Noble Truths, tying together all the Buddha’s core teachings.
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… if one has an underlying tendency towards something, then one is measured in accordance with it; if one is measured in accordance with something, then one is reckoned in terms of it.
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Of the ascetics and brahmins who say that through annihilation of existence one escapes from continued existence, none have themselves escaped from continued existence, I say.
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Monks, whether Tathāgatas arise or not, this aspect of the world remains the same…
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Now suppose that in the autumn—when it’s raining in fat, heavy drops—a water bubble were to appear & disappear on the water, and a man with sight were to see it. To him it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance could there be in a bubble? In the same way, a man with wisdom sees a feeling. To him it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance could there be in a feeling?
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… right view is the forerunner and precursor of skillful qualities
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When right view is assisted by five factors, it has liberation of mind as its fruit…
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The existence of the unfabricated element affords us an escape from conditional reality.
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Bhikkhus, held by two kinds of views, some devas and human beings hold back and some overreach; only those with vision see.
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When one holds no more views concerning the past, one holds no more views concerning the future.
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And if a person who was being swept along by the current grabbed the wild sugarcane, kusa grass, reeds, vetiver, or trees, it’d break off, and they’d come to ruin because of that.
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So too, bhikkhus, that a bhikkhu with a rightly directed view, with a rightly directed development of the path, could pierce ignorance…
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Transmigrating, I went to hell…
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A pithy and deep sutta on the true difference between the ordinary and the enlightened mind.
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Readings (28)
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By a misperception of emptiness
A person of little intelligence is destroyed. -
Rather than seeking to put forward a philosophical view about the nature of reality or knowledge, Nāgārjuna uses arguments for emptiness to purge Madhyamaka Buddhists of any view, thesis, or theory whatsoever, even views about emptiness itself.
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How do you know the natural world is real?
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An explanation of what it means for a teaching to be Buddhist through the lens of the four seals.
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A brief summary of the the first factor, right view (sammaditthi), in the eightfold noble path. The paper delinieates both right and wrong views based on the suttas and commentarial tradition.
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We should see the truth that the mind that performs a deed is kamma itself and the subsequent mind is the result (vipāka) of that kamma. Other results that follow it are only uncertain by-products, since they may or may not occur, or do not keep up with our expectations due to other interfering factors.
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A brief summary of personhood in early Buddhism.
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A brief overview of karma, especially its liberating potential over the mistaken view of predetermination.
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An importnat summary of non-exsitence and annihilation as taught in the Pali suttas.
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Doctor, if only you could see
how heaven pulls earth into its arms
and how infinitely the heart expands
to claim this world1 page -
A short work that discusses the incorruptible body in a Buddhist context and advises not giving it any particular importance, no matter how fasicinating this phenomena may be.
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Audio/Video (23)
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There’s form, feeling, perception, fabrications, and consciousness. These are the things that, if you cling to them, are going to be suffering. But you have to use them for the path. I think it’s important to realize that when the Buddha talks about “the raft” image, he’s not talking about a yacht: You put together the things you’ve been using in the past in a new way.
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A detailed look a the Four Noble Truths and the three characteristics, and how they apply to the practitioner’s life.
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The third, and most important, reason [Buddhism uses narratives to communicate its ethics] is that we are narratives ourselves.
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A wide-ranging engagement with—and defense of—Vasubandhu’s arguments against the utility of the “self” illusion.
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4 min
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