"All things have the nature of mind. Mind is the chief and takes the lead. If the mind is clear, whatever you do or say will bring happiness that will follow you like your shadow." |
—Dhammapada 1.11a |
"All things have the nature of mind. Mind is the chief and takes the lead. If the mind is polluted, whatever you do or say leads to suffering which will follow you, as a cart trails a horse." |
—Dhammapada 1.21b |
"Seeing the meaningful as meaningless, and the meaningless as meaningful, one is capable only of falsehood and fiction, and will never arrive at true meaning." |
—Dhammapada 1.111c |
"Seeing the meaningful as meaningful, and the meaningless as meaningless, one is capable of genuine understanding, and will gain the heart of meaning." |
—Dhammapada 1.121d |
Right View (Pali: samma ditthi; Sanskrit: samyak drsti) is traditionally listed as the first element of the Noble Eightfold Path. It is also known as Right Understanding.
The Saccavibhanga Sutta, the Magga-vibhanga Sutta, and the Maha-satipatthana Sutta are three different early Buddhist scriptures written in Pali. In each of them, Shariputra, one of the historical Buddha's foremost disciples, says of Right View:1
"And what is right view? Knowledge with reference to suffering, knowledge with reference to the origination of suffering, knowledge with reference to the cessation of suffering, knowledge with reference to the way of practice leading to the cessation of suffering: This is called right view." |
The description above may be summarized as "Right view is knowledge of The Four Noble Truths and The Noble Eightfold Path." But this "knowledge" is more than mere intellectual knowledge or simple belief in the meaning of the words. What is important is the continual effort to see things as they really are, without self-deceit or evasion.
Ringu Tulku, in his book Daring Steps: Traversing the Path of the Buddha, writes:2
"Right view is the correct way of seeing things. This is considered to be the most important element of practice, since the basic problem to be solved comes from a wrong view, a perverted and distorted perception of reality. To get rid of our wrong views and attitudes is therefore the most fundamental issue in Buddhism. This does not mean that we should try to adopt a 'Buddhist' way of seeing things. Rather, we should try to find out how things really are. Toward that end, an intellectual understanding is helpful, but is not sufficient by itself. What needs to be developed is the right view in terms of direct and genuine experience." |
In his book Mind Training, Ringu Tulku makes the following points:3
Samsara is a painful state of mind—not a place—that is dominated by confusion and ignorance.
This ignorance is not so much a lack of information as it is a lack of clarity.
We do not know who we are or what we are doing.
Our true nature is absolutely pure and luminous.
We lose sight of this purity when conflicting concepts from our senses and our ego cloud our minds—our awareness is dulled by repeating cycles:
- Pleasure followed by pain.
- Expectation followed by dismay.
Desire followed by loss.
The illusions and conflicts of samsara really do not exist—they are myths, constructed by the mind.
How the mind creates samsara:
- We are never able to reproduce exactly what our senses received because the mind records the information in our imagination, under the influence of former associations and memories.
- These subjective mental patterns shape our whole perception of reality.
- They form what we can call blueprints or models of reality.
- Impressions which do not fit into our model of reality are ignored or overlooked.
When introduced to new ideas, we may try to cut them to fit into our model—but if this fails—if they don't meet our expectations—we discard them entirely.
With practice we can confront the delusions of cyclic existence and free ourselves from them.
Being human means we are likely to be unhappy but it is possible to look for a way out; to renounce the suffering of samsara, to transcend it.
In his book, The Heart of Buddha's Teaching, Thich Nhat Hanh writes:4
"Our happiness and the happiness of those around us depend on our degree of Right View. Touching reality deeply—knowing what is going on inside and outside of ourselves—is the way to liberate ourselves from the suffering that is caused by wrong perceptions." |
The literal meaning of the word tathata, in both Sanskrit and Pali, is thusness or suchness. In Mahayana Buddhism (which now includes all existing branches of Buddhism except the Theravada branch) the Sanskrit term tathata is used to mean what we might call "bare reality", reality as it truly is. Complete and perfect Right View would then see the world in its true "suchness", unclouded by any delusions and unscreened and undivided by any symbols or concepts.5 In both Sanskrit and Pali, Tathagata means "the thus-gone [thus-come, thus-perfected] one." In both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Tathagata refers to one who, on the way to truth, has attained complete and perfect enlightenment. It is one of the names of Buddha.6
Though we are at present incapable of having perfect Right View, we can cultivate Right View in ourselves by practicing Right View together with Right Mindfulness.
What we percieve is influenced by the "seeds" that lie in what the Yogichara school of Mahayana Buddhism calls our "store consciousness" (Sanskrit: alaya-vijnana). According to the Yogichara school, store-consciousness is one of the eight parts of our mind. Another is mind-consciousness (Sanskrit: mano-vijnana). Store-consciousness is described as a field in which every kind of seed can be planted. These seeds include seeds of suffering, anxiety, resentment, and lust as well as seeds of hope and joy. Eventually, these seeds sprout in our mind-consciousness.7
Thich Nhat Hanh writes in The Heart of Buddha's Teaching:8
"In each of us, there are wholesome and unwholesome roots — or seeds — in the depths of our consciousness. If you are a loyal person it is because the seed of loyalty is in you. But don't think that the seed of betrayal isn't also in you. If you live in an environment where your seed of loyalty is watered, you will be a loyal person. But if your seed of betrayal is watered, you may betray even those you love. You'll feel guilty about it, but if the seed of betrayal in you becomes strong, you may do it.
"The practice of mindfulness helps us identify all the seeds in our store consciousness and water the ones that are the most wholesome. When one person comes up to us, the very sight of him makes us uncomfortable. But when someone else walks by, we like her right away. Something in each of them touches a seed in us. If we love our mother deeply, but feel tense every time we think of our father, it is natural that when we see a young lady who looks like our mother, we will appreciate her, and when we see a man who evokes the memory of our father, we will feel uncomfortable. In this way, we can 'see' the seeds that are in us — seeds of love for our mother and seeds of hurt vis-a-vis our father. When we become aware of the seeds in our storehouse, we will not be surprised by our own behavior or the behavior of others. "The seed of Buddhahood, the capacity to wake up and understand things as they are, is also present in each of us. When we join our palms and bow to another person, we acknowledge the seed of Buddhahood in him or her. When we bow to a child this way, we help him or her grow up beautifully and with self-confidence. If you plant corn, corn will grow. If you plant wheat, wheat will grow. If you act in a wholesome way, you will be happy. If you act in an unwholesome way, you water the seeds of craving, anger, and violence in yourself. Right View is to recognize which seeds are wholesome and to encourage those seeds to be watered..." |
A few paragraphs later in the same book, Nhat Hanh writes:9
"The source of our perception, our way of seeing, lies in our store consciousness. If ten people look at a cloud, there will be ten different perceptions of it. Whether it is perceived as a dog, a hammer, or a coat depends on our mind — our sadness, our memories, our anger. Our perceptions carry with them all the errors of subjectivity. Then we praise, blame, condemn, or complain depending on our perceptions. But our perceptions are made of our afflictions — craving, anger, ignorance, wrong views, and prejudice. Whether we are happy or we suffer depends largely on our perception. It is important to look deeply at our perceptions and know their source.
"We have an idea of happiness. We believe that only certain conditions will make us happy. But it is often our very idea of happiness that prevents us from being. We have to look deeply into our perceptions in order to become free of them. Then, what has been a perception becomes an insight, a realization of the path. This is neither perception nor non-perception. It is a clear vision, seeing things as they are. "Our happiness and the happiness of those around us depend on our degree of Right View. Touching reality deeply — knowing what is going on inside and outside of ourselves — is the way to liberate ourselves from the suffering that is caused by wrong perceptions. Right View is not an ideology, a system, or even a path. It is the insight we have into the reality of life, a living insight that fills us with understanding, peace, and love." |