Joseph continues his series on the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. This week: Practicing Right View.
Right view is the beginning and end of the path of awakening. Joseph discusses how practicing right view is essential to the realization of the Four Noble Truths.
Click here to catch up with part one.
Final Truths of Right View (Opening) – The last two statements that the Buddha made about worldly right view affirms that there are beings reborn spontaneously in other realms and that there are wise people in the world who have realized the nature of the Dharma through direct experience. This understanding helps us reaffirm that this is a possibility for ourselves as well.
“There are beings who have realized for themselves, through their own experience, the truth, and nature of the Dharma.”
Practicing Right View (5:55) – Joseph discusses how we can practice the different aspects of worldly, or mundane, right view. This includes obvious practices such as generosity and mindfulness of our motivations. Some are less apparent, which means we need to experiment a bit and see how different changes in action and perspective can affect our lives.
Super-Mundane Right View (9:15) – Real freedom lies in letting go of all craving. Joseph discusses super-mundane right view, also known as noble or awakened right view, and how it is described in the Suttas. We have all experienced the truth of Dukkha. Joseph talks about how the practice of right view illuminates the way in which our wrong view of things plays into our Dukkha.
“There is no single factor so potent in promoting the good of living beings as right view.” – Gautama Buddha
Wrong View of Self (24:35) – What feeds our habit of grasping is known as the wrong view of self, or samma ditthi in Pali. Also known as personality view, this wrong view keeps us bound to the wheel of Samsara.
Letting Go (31:50) – How do we go about letting go of this suffering which is caused by all this grasping? In the realization that all we have to do is stop grasping there is a transition from worldly right view to what the Buddha called noble right view.
World View (42:36) – Perception creates very different states of mind, which we get so lost in. We get caught up in all kinds of stories that we create about ourselves and the world because of these perceptions hold onto. Joseph discusses the moment of awakening to this warped view of things that we have developed. He also talks about focusing our awareness on what arises in these altered states of perception.