Noble Eightfold Path: Difference between revisions

Noble Eightfold Path (view source)

Revision as of 00:52, 27 July 2015

8,305 bytes added , 27 July 2015

no edit summary

Lisa

Bureaucrats, Administrators

36,800

edits

@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 This presentation is called the "Three Higher Trainings" in Mahāyāna Buddhism: higher moral discipline, higher concentration and higher wisdom. "Higher" here refers to the fact that these trainings that lead to liberation and enlightenment are engaged in with the motivation of renunciation or bodhicitta.
+==Wisdom==
+"[[Wisdom in Buddhism|Wisdom]]" (''prajñā'' / ''paññā''), sometimes translated as "discernment" at its preparatory role, provides the sense of direction with its conceptual understanding of reality. It is designed to awaken the faculty of penetrative understanding to see things as they really are. At a later stage, when the mind has been refined by training in moral discipline and concentration, and with the gradual arising of right knowledge, it will arrive at a superior right view and right intention.<ref name="accesstoinsight.org"/>
+===Right view===
+Right [[view (Buddhism)|view]] (''{{IAST|samyag-dṛṣṭi}}'' / ''{{IAST|sammā-diṭṭhi}}'') can also be translated as "right perspective", "right outlook" or "right understanding".<ref name=BMaha/>
+According to Paul Fuller, right-view is a way of seeing which transcends all views. It is a detached way of seeing, different from the attitude of holding to any view, wrong or right.{{sfn|Fuller|2005|p=i}}
+According to contemporary Theravada Buddhism, it is the right way of looking at life, nature, and the world as they really are for us. It is to understand how our reality works. It acts as the reasoning with which someone starts practicing the path. It explains [[five aggregates|the reasons]] for our human existence, suffering, sickness, aging, death, the existence of greed, hatred, and delusion. Right view gives direction and efficacy to the other seven path factors. It begins with concepts and propositional knowledge, but through the practice of right concentration, it gradually becomes transmuted into wisdom, which can eradicate the [[fetter (Buddhism)|fetters of the mind]]. An understanding of right view will inspire the person to lead a virtuous life in line with right view. In the [[Pāli Canon|Pāli]] and [[Chinese Buddhist Canon|Chinese canons]], it is explained thus:<ref name=BMaha/><ref name="BSac">{{cite web|url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.141.than.html |title=Saccavibhanga Sutta |accessdate=6 May 2008|publisher=Access to Insight |last=Thanissaro Bhikkhu}}</ref><ref name="TSac">{{cite web|url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.141.piya.html |title=Saccavibhanga Sutta |accessdate=6 May 2008|publisher=Access to Insight |last=Piyadassi Thera}}</ref><ref name="Thanissaro Bhikkhu">{{cite web|url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn45/sn45.008.than.html |title=Magga-vibhanga Sutta |accessdate=6 May 2008|publisher=Access to Insight |last=Thanissaro Bhikkhu}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T01/0026_007.htm |title=Madhyama Agama, Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 1, No. 26, sutra 31 (分別聖諦經第十一) |accessdate=27 October 2008|publisher=Cbeta}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T01/0032_001.htm |title=Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 1, No. 32, Page 814|accessdate=27 October 2008|publisher=Cbeta}}</ref>
+{{quote|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.}}
+There are two types of right view:
+# '''View with taints''': this view is mundane. Having this type of view will bring merit and will support the favourable existence of the sentient being in the realm of [[Samsara (Buddhism)|samsara]].
+# '''View without taints''': this view is supramundane. It is a factor of the path and will lead the holder of this view toward self-awakening and liberation from the realm of samsara.
+Right view has many facets; its elementary form is suitable for lay followers, while the other form, which requires deeper understanding, is suitable for monastics. Usually, it involves understanding the following reality:
+# '''[[Karma in Buddhism|Moral law of karma]]''': Every action (by way of body, speech, and mind) will have [[karma|karmic]] results (a.k.a. reaction). Wholesome and unwholesome actions will produce results and effects that correspond with the nature of that action. It is the right view about the moral process of the world.
+# '''[[Three marks of existence|The three characteristics]]''': everything that arises will cease (impermanence). Mental and body phenomena are impermanent, source of suffering and not-self.
+# '''[[dukkha|Suffering]]''': Birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, distress, and despair are suffering. Not being able to obtain what one wants is also suffering. The arising of craving is the proximate cause of the arising of suffering and the cessation of craving is the proximate cause of the cessation of the suffering. The quality of ignorance is the root cause of the arising of suffering, and the elimination of this quality is the root cause of the cessation of suffering. The way leading to the cessation of suffering is the noble eightfold path.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/study/truths.html |title=The four noble truths |accessdate=6 May 2008|publisher=Access to Insight |last=Thanissaro Bhikkhu}}</ref> This type of right view is explained in terms of [[Four Noble Truths]].
+Right view for monastics is explained in detail in the ''[[Sammaditthi Sutta|{{IAST|Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta}}]]'' ("Right View Discourse"), in which Ven. [[Sariputta]] instructs that right view can alternately be attained by the thorough understanding of the unwholesome and the wholesome, the four nutriments, the [[Twelve Nidanas|twelve ''nidanas'']] or the three taints.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nanamoli/wheel377.html |title=The Discourse on Right View: The Sammaditthi Sutta and its Commentary |accessdate=6 May 2008|publisher= Buddhist Publication Society |last=Bhikkhu Ñanamoli & Thanissaro Bhikkhu}}</ref>
+"Wrong view" arising from ignorance (''[[avijja]]''), is the precondition for wrong intention, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness and wrong concentration.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn45/sn45.001.than.html |title=Avijja Sutta |accessdate=6 May 2008|publisher=Access to Insight |last=Thanissaro Bhikkhu}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an10/an10.103.than.html |title=Micchatta Sutta|accessdate=6 May 2008|publisher=Access to Insight |last=Thanissaro Bhikkhu}}</ref> The practitioner should use right effort to abandon the wrong view and to enter into right view. Right mindfulness is used to constantly remain in right view.
+The purpose of right view is to clear one's path of the majority of confusion, misunderstanding, and deluded thinking. It is a means to gain right understanding of reality. Right view should be held with a flexible, open mind, without clinging to that view as a dogmatic position.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.4.03.than.html|title=Dutthatthaka Sutta|accessdate=16 November 2008| publisher=Access to Insight}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.022.nypo.html|title=Alagaddupama Sutta: The Snake Simile}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/bps-essay_25.html|title=From Views to Vision|accessdate=16 November 2008|publisher=Access to Insight|last=Bodhi}}</ref> In this way, right view becomes a route to liberation rather than an obstacle.
+===Right intention===
+Right intention can also be known as "right thought", "right resolve", "right conception", "right aspiration" or "the exertion of our own will to change". In this factor, the practitioner should constantly aspire to rid themselves of whatever qualities they know to be wrong and immoral. Correct understanding of right view will help the practitioner to discern the differences between right intention and wrong intention. In the Chinese and Pali Canon, it is explained thus:
+{{quote|And what is right resolve? Being resolved on renunciation, on freedom from ill will, on harmlessness: This is called right resolve.}}
+It means the renunciation of the worldly things and an accordant greater commitment to the spiritual path; good will; and a commitment to non-violence, or harmlessness, towards other living beings.