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Right view
Hello,
I feel as though I have become a little stuck. I understand what right views should be, I believe. However I do not know how to practice right views when wrong views come so easily to mind.
So I suppose I am asking; how does one practice right views?
I have read up on it and attempting to practice but I feel as though a piece of the puzzle is missing. Thanks! ^_^
With love, Jen
I feel as though I have become a little stuck. I understand what right views should be, I believe. However I do not know how to practice right views when wrong views come so easily to mind.
So I suppose I am asking; how does one practice right views?
I have read up on it and attempting to practice but I feel as though a piece of the puzzle is missing. Thanks! ^_^
With love, Jen
0
Comments
That's all I can contribute, right now....
I've found that transitioning from confused or deluded view into right view happens as we make space in our minds for things to exist as they are. Like being conscious enough of our breath not to cough if a wind blows in our face, our minds are not deluded when objects appear.
The goal then isn't really to "practice" right view, but to simply be alert. Then when wrong views arise, you notice them and they dissolve. Like breathing in a smell that you judge as funky... rather than feeling aversion to the smell, you notice the smell and the judgement and keep breathing. Eventually right view simply happens, where information is present, without aversion or judging.
Just stay alert!
With warmth,
Matt
Jen
(That WAS a joke......)
Right view means understanding the teachings by heart. That means you don't have to rely on the words of somebody else, not even the Buddha, to explain what Buddhism means.
Right view doesn't come from intellect or thoughts. It doesn't come from reading and interpreting the suttas or whatever is said after them. Yes, these words can be immensely useful at times, but don't get stuck up in them, they aren't the pure source of right view. Right view is hidden in your heart and mind.
So you can probably already understand right view is not to be trained as a separate factor of the path, it arises as a part of it. In fact, you have to follow the entire 8-fold path to train it. That you have come this far to ask the question why wrong view arises already says you are on this path and that makes me happy to know. Now, be mindful of these wrong views helps a lot to get rid of them and replace them with right view, Matt already explained that very well.
Besides from just being mindful, you have to go very deep in meditation, deeper than anything you ever imagined possible. It may take years, but I hope we all find it. That deep essence of what you are, it's hidden in there somewhere.
With metta,
Sabre
It sort of reminds me of when I did some part-time work for a company called Smokenders...a motivational group that helped people stop smoking. Clients were told not to try to stop smoking before coming to the meetings. Then each week people would stop just one pattern of smoking. For example, the first week one might stop smoking just the cigarette after dinner. The next week they would add stopping the cigarette first thing in the morning. And so forth. Gradually, the nicotine (etc.) was decreasing in their bodies AND they were improving certain pattern habits.
After a while, certain behavior patterns (such as Right Speech) just become more natural to you. That's the practice aspect.
Jen
Right view is the beginning and the end of the path, it simply means to see and to understand things as they really are and to realise the Four Noble Truth. As such, right view is the cognitive aspect of wisdom. It means to see things through, to grasp the impermanent and imperfect nature of worldly objects and ideas, and to understand the law of karma and karmic conditioning. Right view is not necessarily an intellectual capacity, just as wisdom is not just a matter of intelligence. Instead, right view is attained, sustained, and enhanced through all capacities of mind. It begins with the intuitive insight that all beings are subject to suffering and it ends with complete understanding of the true nature of all things. Since our view of the world forms our thoughts and our actions, right view yields right thoughts and right actions."
http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/eightfoldpath.html#Right_View
Dvedhavitakka Sutta: Two Sorts of Thinking
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.019.than.html
Best wishes
that is our view (wrong view)
but
according to Buddha's Teaching there is 'eye+flower+eye consciousness' and there is just 'seeing'
this is Right view
with Right view there is no greed or hate because there is no delusion that we have something to hold onto
but
with wrong view there is greed or hate because there is delusion that we have 'the flower' or 'I' to hold on
Trying to find these two differences whenever possible for all six sense bases is the way to practise Right view
Thanks! This is a very good example
Perhaps think of Right View as the result of your practice, not the practice itself.
The practice that leads to Right View is to bring attention and awareness to how you view things in the present moment with the purpose of seeing how things really are. Not right vs wrong, but open to seeing.
Right Understanding is the understanding of things as they are, and it is the Four Noble Truths that explain things as they are. Right Understanding is therefore ultimately reduced to the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. This real deep understanding is called 'penetration', seeing things in its true nature, without name and label. Seeing dukkha, impermanence, and conditionality - anatta. This 'penetration' is possible only when the mind is freed from impurities/mental defilements through ethical conduct and mental cultivation (meditation and mindfulness).