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Right View
Passaddhi
UK - London New
in Philosophy
What is Right View ? How can we know for sure if we are in the right or the wrong ? There is always a potential for delusion.
1
Comments
Yes, it’s a difficult one. You could rely on your feeling for what was beneficial to the path.
But even then you can easily delude yourself, and you need to support yourself with equanimity, compassion, insight and knowledge of the dharma.
Perhaps.....
Right view does not actually pertain to the dualities of perfection or imperfection.
The difference between any of the 8 fold paths being justifiably called right or not, is simply about how fully one can allow it to reflect the 4NT's or not.
I can't remember where I came across this quote...it makes (non) sense
"Wherever self is... virtue cannot exist"
One could say Right View naturally begins to arise from the recognition of Non-Self...and....
"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
Welcome @Passaddhi
It is right to be friendly. Right to be kind. Right to be kindly wrathful if that is your right. Pertinent answers from @how and @Shoshin1
Right changes according to where you are looking from. Ideally you are looking from 'nowhere' or a mind empty of karmic preferences.
For example I am not very virtuous. In fact I would not listen to anything I say 🤐
That is why you should never listen to yourself.
Meanwhile … what is wrong view and are we avoiding it?
I think Right view is one not clung to.
Thay speaks of it in a Dharma talk on the Diamond Sutra here;
https://www.mindfulnessbell.org/archive/tag/Right+View
I don’t think we are avoiding wrong view, it’s such a wide area. At most we are deluded, but searching for right view and the means to it.
The perfections (paramita) support right view, as do a number of other qualities, and I do come back to sufficient knowledge of the dharma, the basic education away from the temptations of the world.
So right view is the understanding of the 4NTs in my life ?
That is my understanding of it.
Well, that’s definitely an aspect of it. Whether right view as defined within the eightfold path also includes elements of the wider definition of Buddhism is not easy to state categorically. You could say that as right livelihood doubles up on elements of the five precepts, right view might also take in a wider reach than just suffering.
But right view is quite nebulous as an issue, it’s often not clearly defined.
I think it might be a mistake to try to isolate each "spoke of the Wheel"... After all, they all go towards strengthening the Eightfold Path and stabilising the ride. So Right View can only be understood, if it is taken as part of a whole, and conjoined with the other 7 spokes.
We are taught the 8 in a specific order: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelyhood, Right Effort, Right Awareness, (Concentration) Right Mindfulness/Meditation. But if you see the spokes within a wheel, which one is number one, and which is number 8?
The answer is, not one of them is first, and not one of them is last. So each one leads on to the next, and embraces it, and influences it...
If we take The steps above as a given, then what precedes Right View?
Right Meditation, or Mindfulness.
By Being calm, centred, grounded and watchful, we can better discern whatever it is that requires an opinion. And we can better evaluate what we perceive, and instead of it deceiving us, we can see it with clarity.
So Right View is dependent upon the influence of balanced Mindfulness. On its own, it can mean so much, yet nothing at all.
It is only by connecting it, end to end, as one would a chain which has no clasp, that we can determine its strength or weakness, and amend accordingly.
A balancing of a wheel.
In my practice, the balance and load that the wheel (the 8 FP) can carry is unerringly dependent on the strength of that wheel's weakest spoke.
While it is my mentality (identity) that naturally garners the most attention in it's habituated allegiance to the human condition, the actual turning of such a wheel is better served by first attending to whatever spokes I am the least inclined to be examining.
We are always deluded but we can develop degrees of clarity by changing our focus as @how mentions. Are the enlightened deluded? Are they inhuman, super human or just human? Well they become increasingly aware of clarity and delusion. Especially if rightly guided by those with more experienced clarity.
So even at a rudimentary level we can work towards:
Right view has levels and we all start from delusion. Onward.