The way out: Ennobling Eightfold Path

The Noble Eightfold Path: Why Buddhism begins here | Buddha's Wisdom

(Buddha's Wisdom) July 5, 2026: 🔍 THE ENTIRE BUDDHIST PATH HIDES INSIDE ONE SMALL WORD.  The Noble Eightfold Path is Buddhism's way out (vimutti, moksha) of suffering (dukkha), yet almost everyone reads it as if were eight rules to obey, like a report card. It was never that!

This video rebuilds the Eightfold Path to Enlightenment from the ground up, showing why it isn't eight steps at all, why we're already walking a version of it right now, and how one mistranslated English word quietly changed how the whole teaching is understood.

📿DISCOVER

• Why sammā (usually translated "right") actually means aligned, whole, and in harmony, not "right answer versus wrong answer"
• The wrong Eightfold Path the Buddha described in the Great Forty, the shadow path most people are walking right now without knowing it
• How the eight factors collapse into just three trainings: wisdom, ethics, and meditation (stillness, samadhi, concentration)
• The ancient riddle of the tangle that became the skeleton of Buddhaghosa's Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga)
• Why the path is the Fourth Noble Truth, the cure written at the foot of the diagnosis, and how it ends by erasing itself
• How the Eightfold Path connects to Dependent Origination and the tangle of suffering

⚡ Ever felt the Eightfold Path was a scorecard being failed? This is the video that reframes it completely. Subscribe to Buddha's Wisdom.

Melissa McKay: Beauty Queen Sutra (video)

Melissa McKay (insightLA.org), streamed live 10/6/19; SN 47:20 based on Ven. Thanissaro (trans., accesstoinsight.org); Lady Gaga (Key of Awesome); Dhr. Seven, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Melissa McKay visits insightLA from Vegas to offer a Dharma talk.

The Beauty Queen
Mindfulness is like balancing a dish of precious oil on one's head.

Don't spill my oil or they'll decapitate you!

"Meditators, suppose a large crowd of people comes thronging together saying, 'The beauty queen, the beauty queen!'

"And suppose that the beauty queen is highly accomplished at singing and dancing [like a Lady Gaga], so that an even greater crowd comes thronging saying, 'The beauty queen is singing! The beauty queen is dancing!'

Don't chop off my head! (HB)

"Then a man comes along, desiring life, shrinking from death, desiring pleasure, and abhorring pain.

"They say to him, 'Now look here, mister: You must take this container filled to the brim with oil and carry it on your head in between the great crowd and the beauty queen. A man with a raised sword will follow right behind you, and wherever you spill even a drop of oil, right there will he cut off your head.'

"Now what do you think, meditators — will that man, neglecting to pay attention to the container of oil, let himself get distracted by something external?"

"No, venerable sir."

I hope this talk is of benefit. (Melissa McKay)

[The Buddha then explains this example:] "I have given this parable to convey a meaning. The meaning is this: The container filled to the brim with oil stands for mindfulness immersed in the body.

"So train yourselves: 'We will develop mindfulness immersed in the body. We will pursue it, hand it the reins, and take it as a basis, give it a grounding, steady it, consolidate it, and undertake it well.' That is how to train yourselves" (SN 47.20).

The essence of "right view" (sutra)

Maurice O'Connell Walshe (trans.) from Samyutta Nikaya: An Anthology (Wheel 318-321), Kaccayanagotto Sutra (SN 12.15) edited by Dhr. Seven and Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly

Lay meditator and monastic under the bodhi tree, India (Ghosh/Tapasphotography/flickr).

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[SAVATTHI, ancient India - Ven. Kaccayana asked the Buddha:] "'Right view,* right view,' it is said, venerable sir. In what way is there right view?'

• [*Right view,  the first step of the Noble Eightfold Path, literally means "right seeing." "Right understanding" is misleading because the connotations are too intellectual rendering it "right views" (plural) is misleading because this is not a matter of holding "views" (opinions) at all but rather of "seeing things as they really are."]

"Kaccayana, the world in general inclines toward two views, existence or non-existence. 

Bhikkhu Bodhi (bps.lk)

• [Existence: being (atthita, lit. "is-ness") is the theory of "Eternalism" (sassatavada). Nonexistence: nonbeing (natthita, "is-not-ness)" is the theory of "Annihilationism" (ucchedavaada), the materialism view. See discussion in Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of DN 1, The All-Embracing Net of Views (BPS), pp. 30-33.]

"But for one who, with the highest wisdom, sees the arising/origination of the world as it really is [yathabhutam], 'non-existence of the world' does not apply. And for one who, with highest wisdom, sees the passing away of the world as it really is, 'existence of the world' does not apply.

 

"Kaccayana, the world in general grasps after systems and is imprisoned by dogmas ["ideologies" or "isms"].
 

"But one [who sees with the highest wisdom] does not go along with that system-grasping, that mental obstinacy, and dogmatic bias, does not grasp at it, does not affirm: 'This is my self.' 

• [This is my self: Atta me ti:] Cf. SN 3.8, n. 1. Feer's edition of SN reads here atta na me ti "this is not myself," which would also make sense but is contradicted, not only in SA (Commentary), but also when the story is repeated at SN 22.90.]

Fully-ordained Buddhist nun on meditation rock in California forest (bhikkhuni.net)

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"One knows without any doubt or hesitation that whatever arises/originates is merely dukkha [inherent unsatisfactoriness of personality-phenomena and general insecurity of all conditioned existence] that what passes away is merely dukkha, and such knowledge is one's own, not depending on anyone else. This, Kaccayana, is what constitutes right view.

• [Compare this to the point of the Heart Sutra, which states that the "perfection" of wisdom is comprehending the Five Aggregates (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness) as empty, i.e., as void of self.]

"'Everything exists,' this is one extreme [view].

• [Everything exists (sabbam atthi) -- from the Sanskrit form, sarvam asti (used in a slightly different sense) -- is where the defunct Sarvastivada school got its name. They held that dharmas exist  in "three times" (past, present, future). It was mainly to this early school that the label "Hinayana" ("Lesser Career or Vehicle") was applied and later misapplied to today's Theravada school (see SN 12.22, n. 1).]

"'Nothing exists,' this is the other extreme. Avoiding both extremes the Tathagata teaches a doctrine of the middle:

• [Tathagata is the Buddha's usual way of referring to himself: literally "Thus Come" tatha-agata or "Thus Gone (beyond)" (tatha-gata). For other meanings, see Bhikkhu Bodhi, The All-Embracing Net of Views (BPS), pp. 50-53, 331-344.10.]

The Buddha remembered in gold (smep-muc).

"Conditioned by ignorance are the formations... [as at SN 12.10, which explains the dependent origin of the 12 factors involved in the conditional arising of all suffering]... So there comes about the arising of this entire mass of suffering.

"But as a result of the complete fading away and cessation of ignorance there comes the cessation of the formations; as a result of the cessation of the formations comes the cessation of consciousness [the same for all 12 links of Dependent Origination]...

"So there comes about the complete cessation of this entire mass of suffering." [The cessation of all suffering = nirvana.]

The Four Perversions

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; BPS.lk; Ven. Nyanatiloka Mahathera, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines (vipallāsa)

To see things as they are NOT is distorted delusion springing from ignorance. To see reality just AS IT IS is enlightenment springing from having rightly cultivated liberating-wisdom.

 

''There are four perversions or distortions (vipallāsa), which may be either of perception, consciousness, or of views. What are these four distortions? They are to regard:

1. what is actually impermanent as permanent,
   
2. what is actually unpleasant as pleasant (capable of yielding lasting happiness),
   
3. what is actually without a self as a self,
   
4. what is actually foul (ugly) as beautiful" (AN.IV.49).

• See Manual of Insight (Ledi Sayadaw, Wheel 31/32, p.5).

We don't have that in Iceland (Bjork)

According to the Path of Purification, the following perversions are eliminated by the first path-knowledge (stream entry, the first stage of enlightenment): the perversions of perception, consciousness, and views that the impermanent is permanent or that what is not a self is a self, and furthermore the perversion of views that the unpleasant is pleasant and that the foul is beautiful.

 

By the third path-knowledge (non-returning) are eliminated the perversions of perception and consciousness that the foul is beautiful.

 

By the fourth path-knowledge (full enlightenment) are eliminated the perversions of perception and consciousness that the unpleasant is pleasant (Vis.M. XXII, 68).

Explaining "Right View" (sutra)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; John Bullitt (Access to Insight), "Right View"

The Buddha overlooking Thailand (theskamantues'dayglory/flickr.com). NOTE: There is preliminary right view as distinguished from final knowledge or liberating right view.

 

Right view is the first of the eight factors in the Noble Eightfold Path, and belongs to the wisdom division of the path.

Definition

"And what is right view? Knowledge with regard to disappointment, knowledge with regard to the origin of disappointment, knowledge with regard to the cessation of disappointment, knowledge with regard to the path of practice leading to the cessation of disappointment -- this is called right view" (DN 22).

Right view's relation to the path

"And how is right view the forerunner? One discerns wrong view as wrong view, and right view as right view. This is one's right view. What is wrong view? 'There is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed. There is no fruit or result of good or bad actions. There is no this world, no next world, no [special significance to things done to] mother, no father, no spontaneously reborn beings; no Brahmins or wandering ascetics who, faring and practicing rightly, proclaim this world and the next after having directly known and realized it for themselves.' This is wrong view...
 
"One abandons wrong view to enter into right view: This is one's right effort. One is mindful to abandon wrong view to enter and remain in right view: This is one's right mindfulness. Therefore, these three qualities -- right view, right effort, right mindfulness -- run and circle around right view" (MN 117).

Buddhist novices practicing in Lamayuru monastery, Ladakh, India (Dietmar Temps/flickr)

 
Consequences of wrong view

"In a person of wrong view, wrong intention comes into being. In a person of wrong intention, wrong speech. In a person of wrong speech, wrong action. In a person of wrong action, wrong livelihood. In a person of wrong livelihood, wrong effort. In a person of wrong effort, wrong mindfulness. In a person of wrong mindfulness, wrong concentration. In a person of wrong concentration, wrong wisdom. In a person of wrong wisdom, wrong liberation. This is how from wrongness comes failure, not success" (AN 10.103).

Results of right view

Borobudur, Java, Indonesia (TrevThompson/flickr)

"When a person has right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration, right wisdom, and right liberation, whatever bodily deeds one undertakes in line with that view, whatever verbal deeds... whatever mental deeds one undertakes in line with that view, whatever intentions, whatever vows, whatever determinations, whatever formations all lead to what is welcome, agreeable, charming, profitable, and pleasing. Why is that? It is because the view is auspicious.

"Just as when a sugar cane seed, a rice grain, or a grape seed is placed in moist soil, whatever nutriment it takes from the soil and water, all conduces to its sweetness, tastiness, and unalloyed delectability.
 
Why is that? It is because the seed is auspicious. In the same way, when a person has right view... right liberation, whatever bodily deeds one undertakes in line with that view, whatever verbal deeds... whatever mental deeds one undertakes in line with that view, whatever intentions, whatever vows, whatever determinations, whatever formations -- all of them lead to what is welcome, agreeable, charming, profitable, and pleasing. Why is that? It is because the view is auspicious" (AN 10.104).
 
A thicket of wrong views

Bamboo thicket (Maxwell Holden/flickr)

"There is the case where an uninstructed, ignorant worldling... does not discern what ideas are fit for attention and what ideas are unfit for attention. This being so, one does not attend to ideas fit for attention, and instead one attends to ideas unfit for attention... This is how one gives attention unprofitably:

• 'Was I in the past? Was I not in the past?
• What was I in the past? How was I in the past?
• Having been what, what was I in the past?
• Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future?
• What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in the future?
• Having been what, what shall I be in the future?'

Or one is perplexed about the present: 'Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where is it bound?'

 

"As one attends unprofitably in this way, one of six kinds of view arises: 

• the view I have a self arises in one as true and established, or the view I have no self... or the view It is precisely by means of self that I perceive self... or
• the view It is precisely by means of self that I perceive not-self... or the view It is precisely by means of not-self that I perceive self arises as true and established, or
• the view: This very self of mine -- the knower who is sensitive here and there to the ripening of good and bad actions -- is the self of mine who is constant, everlasting, eternal, not subject to change, and will endure as long as eternity.'

Meditation (health.indianetzone.com)

"This is called a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views. Bound by a fetter of views, the uninstructed, ignorant worldling is not freed from birth, aging, and death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair. One is not freed, I tell you, from suffering and disappointment.

 

"The well-instructed disciple of the noble ones... discerns what ideas are fit for attention, and what ideas are unfit for attention. This being the case, one does not attend to ideas unfit for attention, and instead gives attention to ideas fit for attention... One attends profitably, This is disappointment... This is the origin of disappointment... This is the cessation of disappointment... This is the way leading to the cessation of disappointment. As one attends appropriately in this way, three fetters [obstacles to enlightenment and liberation from suffering] are abandoned: identity-view, doubt, and clinging to rites and rituals [as if they had the power to lead to enlightenment]" (MN 2).

 

Knowing and seeing for oneself

Novice meditating (alibaba.com)

[Kaccayana:] "'Right view, right view,' it is said, venerable sir. To what extent is there right view?"
 
[The Buddha:] "By and large, Kaccayana, this world is supported by (a false dichotomy) a polarity -- that of existence and non-existence (being and nonbeing, the twin wrong views of eternalism and annihalationism).

"But when one sees the origin of the world as it actually is with right view, 'non-existence' with reference to the world does not occur to one. When one sees the cessation of the world as it actually is with right view, 'existence' with reference to the world does not occur to one.
 

Meditation (SeekingHeartwood/flickr)

"By and large, Kaccayana, this world is in bondage to attachments, clingings, and biases. But one such as this does not get involved with or cling to these attachments, clingings, fixations of mind, biases, or obsessions, nor is one resolved on 'my self.' One has no doubt or uncertainty that, when there is arising (origination, becoming, being), only unsatisfactoriness is arising. And when there is passing away, only unsatisfactoriness is passing away. In this, one's knowledge is independent of others. It is to this extent, Kaccayana, that there is right view" (SN 12.15).

Abandoning the unskillful

                                  ...Cultivating the skillful

Meditation superhero (msnbc.msn.com)

"Do not go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scriptures, by logical speculations, by inferences, by analogies, by agreement through pondering, by probability, or by the thought, 'This monastic is our teacher.'

"[Instead,] when you know for yourselves that, 'These qualities are unskillful; these qualities are blameworthy; these qualities are criticized by the wise; these qualities, when adopted and carried out, they lead to harm and to suffering' -- then abandon them...
 
"When you know for yourselves that, 'These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted and carried out, lead to welfare and to happiness' -- then enter and remain in them" (AN 3.65).

• Sutra on Views (AN 10.93)
• The Four Noble Truths
• The Fourth Noble Truth
• "Views" in General Index

Views Denying the Workings of Karma

Pa Auk Sayadaw (The Workings of Kamma, edited by Wisdom Quarterly)

Three Views that Deny Karma

There are three wrong views that deny the workings of karma and result:

1. Inefficiency (akiriya) denies the workings of actions.
2. Rootlessness (ahetuka) denies the root or cause of results.
3. Non-Existence (natthika) denies the result of any cause.

INEFFICIENCY VIEW
This view denies the workings of unskillful and skillful actions. In the Buddha’s time, it was taught by Purana Kassapa. The Buddha explains how identity view (the belief in an enduring-self, denying egolessness) gives rise to such a wrong view:

"Meditators, when there is [one of the Five Aggregates of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, or] consciousness, by clinging to [it or to] consciousness, by adhering to [it or to] consciousness, such a view as [inefficiency] arises:

• ‘If with a razor-rimmed wheel one were to make living beings of this Earth into one mass of flesh, into one heap of flesh, because of this there would be no wrongdoing and no outcome of wrongdoing.
• 'If one were to go along the south bank of the Ganges River killing and slaughtering, mutilating and encouraging others to mutilate, torturing and encouraging others to torture, because of this there would be no wrongdoing and no outcome of wrongdoing.
• 'If one were to go along the north bank of the Ganges offering gifts and encouraging others to give gifts, making offerings and encouraging others to make offerings, because of this there would be no merit and no outcome of merit.
• 'By offering, by taming oneself, by self-control, by speaking truth, there is no merit and no outcome of merit.’"

This wrong view denies the efficiency [effectiveness] of unwholesome and wholesome actions, which is to deny the efficiency of karma.

ROOTLESSNESS VIEW
The rootlessness view holds that events are determined by fate, or by circumstance, or by nature (mere genetics or chance), denying that events have a root or cause. In the Buddha’s time this view was taught by Makkhali Gosala.

The Buddha explains how identity-view (the belief that there is a permanent soul or self) gives rise to such a wrong view: "When there is [form, feeling, perception, formations, or] consciousness, by clinging to consciousness, by adhering to consciousness, such a view as [rootlessness] arises:

• ‘There is no root and there is no cause for the defilement of beings; without root and without cause beings are defiled.
• 'There is no root and there is no cause for the purification of beings; without root and without cause beings are purified.
• 'There is no power, there is no energy, there is no [supportive] strength, there is no [supportive] endurance.
• 'All beings, all breathers, all creatures, all living beings, are without ability, without power, and without energy: molded by fate, circumstance, and nature, they experience pleasure and pain in the six classes.’"

The "six classes" of pleasure and pain taught here by Makkhali Gosala are a sixfold system of purification that he said has no cause either. This wrong view denies that events have a root or cause, which is to deny that there are causes such as karma.

NON-EXISTENCE VIEW
This view holds that only form [materiality, the body, physicality, corporeality] has true existence while denying that actions have any result.

For this reason, it denies also that there is rebirth, that there are other planes of existence, and denies that there are teachers such as the Buddha who know and see these things. In the Buddha’s time this view was taught by Ajita Kesakambali.

The Buddha explains how identity-view gives rise to such a wrong view: "When there is [form, feeling, perception, formations, or] consciousness, by clinging to consciousness, by adhering to consciousness, such a view as [nonexistence] arises:

• 'There is no offering, there is no alms giving, there is no sacrifice; there is no fruit or result of skillful and unskillful karma; there is no this world, there is no other world; there is no [special significance to] mother, there is no father; there are no spontaneously born beings [being born without parents such as celestial and infernal beings]; there are not in the world any ascetics or brahmins, rightly faring, rightly practicing, who (with direct knowledge) having themselves realized this world and the other world declare it.
• 'This person consists of the four great essentials [elements]. When one dies, earth enters and rejoins the body of the earth; water enters and rejoins the body of water; fire enters and rejoins the fire; wind enters and rejoins wind: the faculties are transformed into space. With the bier as the fifth, pallbearers carry away the corpse. As far as the cemetery is the body known. The bones whiten. Sacrifices end in ashes. A foolish wisdom is this offering.
• 'When anyone maintains the existence-doctrine [that there is a result of offering, of skillful and unskillful actions, etc.], it is false, idle talk. Fools and the wise, with the breakup of the body, are annihilated, perish, and do not exist after death.’"

This wrong view is an annihilationist (uccheda) view, and is the same as the view of materialism. When the Buddha explains basic right view (samma-ditthi in the Noble Eightfold Path), he often contrasts it with these common wrong views.

"Right view, right view! What is right view?"

Wisdom Quarterly based on Phra Thanissaro translations (accesstoinsight.org)

(energyenhancement.org)

"Right view" is the first of the eight factors of the Noble Eightfold Path, belonging to the wisdom division of the path as distinct from the other two divisions, virtue and concentration.

Definition

"What is right view? Ultimately it is fully penetrating the Four Ennobling Truths with insight. Wisdom with regard to suffering (unhappiness, ill, woe, pain, sorrow, distress), the origination of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the way of practice leading to the end of suffering. This is called right view" (DN 22).

Relation to the other Path factors

"And how is right view the forerunner? One discerns false view as false view, and right view as right view. This is one's right view. And what is false view? '[The belief that] there is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed. There is no fruit or result of good and bad deeds. There is no this world, no world to come, no [special significance in deeds done towards one's] mother, no father, no instantaneously reborn beings; no brahmins or ascetics who, living rightly and practicing rightly, explain this world and future worlds after having directly known and realized them for themselves.' This is false view...

"One abandons false view to replace it with right view: This is one's right effort. One is mindful to abandon false view to replace it with and maintain right view: This is one's right mindfulness. Thus these three qualities -- right view, right effort, and right mindfulness -- run and around right view" (MN 117).

Consequences of false view

The Ignoble Eightfold Path: "In a person of (1) wrong [incorrect or false] view, (2) wrong intention comes into being. In a person of wrong intention, (3) wrong speech. In a person of wrong speech, (4) wrong action. In a person of wrong action, (5) wrong livelihood. In a person of wrong livelihood, (6) wrong effort. In a person of wrong effort, (7) wrong mindfulness. In a person of wrong mindfulness, (8) wrong concentration. In a person of wrong concentration, wrong knowledge. In a person of wrong knowledge, wrong liberation. This is how wrongness leads to failure not success" (AN 10.103).

Results of right view

The Noble Eightfold Path: "When a person has (1) right view, (2) right intention, (3) right speech, (4) right action, (5) right livelihood, (6) right effort, (7) right mindfulness, (8) right concentration, right wisdom, and right liberation, whatever bodily deeds one undertakes in line with that [correct] view, whatever verbal deeds... whatever mental deeds one undertakes in line with that view, whatever intentions, whatever vows, whatever determinations, whatever fabrications, all lead to what is agreeable, pleasing, welcome, profitable, and uplifting. Why? It is because such view is auspicious.

"Just as when a sugarcane seed, rice grain, or grape seed is placed in moist soil, whatever nutriment it takes from the soil and water, all of that conduces to its sweetness, tastiness, and delectability. Why? It is because the seed is auspicious. In the same way, when a person has right view... right liberation, whatever bodily deeds one undertakes in line with such view, whatever verbal deeds... whatever mental deeds one undertakes in line with such view, whatever intentions, whatever vows, whatever determinations, whatever formations, all lead to what is agreeable, pleasing, welcome, profitable, and uplifting. Why? It is because such view is auspicious" (AN 10.104).

A Thicket of Wrong Views

"There is the case where an uninstructed, ordinary worldling [not acquainted with the liberating Dharma]... does not discriminate and discern which ideas are fit for attention, which unfit. This being so, one does not attend to ideas fit for attention but attends instead to unfit ideas... This is how one attends unprofitably:

• 'Was I in the past? Was I not in the past?
• What was I in the past? How was I in the past?
• Having been what, what was I in the past?
• Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future?
• What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in the future?
• Having been what, what shall I be in the future?'

Or else one is inwardly perplexed about the present:

• 'Am I? Am I not?
• What am I? How am I?
• Where has this being come from?
• Where is it bound?'

"As one attends unprofitably in this way, one of six kinds of view arises:

1. The view, I have a self arises as true and established.
2. Or the view, I have no self...
3. Or the view, It is by means of self that I perceive self...
4. Or the view, It is by means of self that I perceive not-self [the impersonal nature of being]...
5. Or the view, It is by means of not-self that I perceive self arises as true and established.
6. Or else one forms a view such as: This very self of mine -- the knower who is sensitive here or there to the ripening of good and bad deeds (karma) -- is the self belonging to me that is constant, everlasting, eternal, not subject to change, and will endure forever.

This is called a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views.

Bound by a fetter of views, the uninstructed ordinary worldling [not acquainted with the liberating Dharma] is not freed from birth, aging, and death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair. One is not freed, I tell you, from suffering and sorrow.

"But the well-instructed disciple [acquainted with the liberating Dharma] of the noble ones... discriminates and discerns which ideas are fit for attention, which unfit. This being so, such a person does not attend to ideas unfit for attention but attends [instead] to fit ideas... One attends profitably:

1. This is suffering...
2. This is the origination of suffering...
3. This is the end of suffering...
4. This is the way leading to the end of suffering.

As one attends profitably in this way, three fetters are abandoned: identity-view [the view that there is an eternal self], doubt, and clinging [to the view that liberation is attainable through mere] rites and rituals" (MN 2).

When is knowledge independent of others?

[The monk Kaccayana:] "Venerable sir, 'Right view, right view,' it is said. To what extent is there right view?"

[The Buddha:] "By and large, Kaccayana, this world is supported by [or holds the view of] polemical extremes of existence and non-existence.

"But when one sees the origination of the world [the Five Aggregates of clinging to impersonal material and mental phenomena as a self] as it truly is with right view, 'non-existence' with regard to the world does not occur to one.

"When one sees the cessation of the world as it actually is with right view, 'existence' with regard to the world [the Five Aggregates of being or of existence] does not occur to one.

"By and large, Kaccayana, this world is in bondage to attachments, clingings [sustenances], and biases. But one such as this does not get involved with or cling to these attachments, clingings, fixations of attention, biases, or obsessions. Neither is one resolved on 'myself.'

"One has no doubt or uncertainty that, when there is arising, only suffering and unsatisfactoriness is arising. And when there is passing away, only suffering and unsatisfactoriness is passing away.

"In this, one's knowledge is independent of others. It is to this extent, Kaccayana, that there is right view" (SN 12.15).

Abandoning the unskillful, developing the skillful

[The central message of the Kalama Sutra:] "Do not go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scriptural authority, by logical inference, by conjecture, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, 'This guru is our teacher.'

"But when you yourself know, 'These qualities are unskillful; these qualities are blameworthy; these qualities are condemned by the wise; these qualities, when adopted and performed, lead to harm and to suffering' -- then abandon them...

"When you yourself know, 'These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted and performed, lead to everyone's welfare and happiness' -- then adopt and keep them" (AN 3.65).

• The Discourse on Right View (MN 9)
• Views Sutra (AN 10.93)
• The Four Noble Truths
• The Fourth Noble Truth
• General Index: "View (Ditthi)"

The All-Embracing Net of Views

Maurice Walshe, translator ("What the Teaching is Not," Brahmajala Sutra, DN 1)

The Buddha, Hong Kong (Jess Watt/Flickr.com)

Thus have I heard. Once the Buddha was traveling between Rajagaha and Nalanda with a large company of monastics. The wanderer Suppiya was also traveling close behind on the same road arguing with his pupil the youth Brahmadatta.

Suppiya was finding fault in all sorts of ways with the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha [monastic Order], whereas his pupil Brahmadatta was speaking in various ways in praise of them.

• The commentary explains that Suppiya was a follower of Sanjaya Belatthaputta (DN 2.31 ff.), the former teacher of Sariputra and Mahamoggallana. It is was this defection, in addition to the loss of his gains, that angered Suppiya.

They all stopped for the night at the royal park of Ambalatthika. Suppiya went on abusing the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, while his pupil Brahmadatta defended them.

Early in the morning a number of monastics got up and gathered together in the Round Pavilion saying: "It is wonderful, friends, it is marvellous how the Blessed Lord, the Arahant [fully enlightened one], the supremely-enlightened Teacher knows, sees, and clearly distinguishes the different inclinations of beings! For here is the wanderer Suppiya finding fault in all sorts of ways with the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, while his pupil in various ways defends them. And still disputing they follow closely behind the Buddha and his disciples."

Then the Buddha, being aware of what they were discussing, came to the Round Pavilion. Sitting down on the seat specially prepared for him, he asked: "Monastics, what was the subject of your conversation just now which I interrupted?" And they told him.

"Monastics, if anyone should speak in disparagement of me, the Dharma, or the Sangha, you should not be angry, resentful, or upset on that account. If you were to become angry or displeased at such disparagement, that would only be a hindrance to you. For if others disparage me, the Dharma, or the Sangha, and you are angry or displeased, can you recognize whether what they say is right or not?"

"No, venerable sir."

"If others disparage me, the Dharma, or the Sangha, then you must explain what is incorrrect as being incorrect, saying: 'That is incorrect, that is false, that is not our way, that is not found among us.'

"If others praise me, the Dharma, or the Sangha, you should not on that account be pleased, happy, or elated. If you were to become pleased, happy, or elated at such praise, that would only be a hindrance to you. If others praise me, the Dharma, or the Sangha, you should acknowledge the truth of what is true, saying: 'That is correct, that is right, that is our way, that is found among us.'

"It is for elementary, inferior matters of moral practice [which are inferior relative to the achievement of purifying levels of concentration (jhanas, meditative-absorptions), which are inferior to the achievement of liberating insights (wisdom)] that the worldling would praise the Tathagata. [The Buddha is referring to himself with this epithet, which means the Wayfarer, who is "well gone" from suffering as well as "welcome" as a teacher].

"And what are these elementary, inferior matters for which the worldling would praise him?"

The Buddha goes on to list the fulsome virtues or moral practices that brought him to buddhahood: abandoning: the taking of life, beating, lack of compassion; the taking of what is not given; unchastity, false speech, malicious [or divisive] speech, harsh speech, useless chatter, and so on in great detail down to the hurting of plants, wrong forms of livelihood for a spiritual teacher, and debating or belittling others.

"Monastics, it is for such elementary, inferior matters of moral practice that the worldling would praise the Tathagata.

The "Net" of wrong views has become the Internet, even Wisdom Quarterly

"There are other matters, profound, hard to see, hard to understand, peaceful, excellent, beyond mere thought, subtle, to be experience by the wise, which the Tathagata, having realized them by his own super-knowledge, proclaims, and about which those who would truly praise the Tathagata would rightly speak. And what are these matters?"

This discourse is called the Brahmajala (the "Supreme Net" or the "All-Embracing Net of Views") sutra because it goes on to list and refute 62 kinds of wrong views.

At the end of the sutra, Ananda exclaims: "It is marvellous, venerable sir, it is wonderful. What is the name of this exposition of Dharma?"

The Buddha replies, "Ananda, you may remember this exposition of Dharma as the Net of Advantage [that which is profitable], the Net of Dharma, the Supreme Net, the Net of Views, or as the Incomparable Victory in Battle."

Clearing a Thicket of Wrong Views

Wisdom Quarterly translations and essays on the subject of "Right View"

Did I exist in a past lives? Who was I? Who will I become? (expirationchug.com)

The Buddha explains: An uninstructed ordinary person... does not know-and-see what ideas are fit and unfit for attention. This being so, one does not attend to ideas fit for attention and instead attends to ideas unfit for attention...

One reflects in an unbeneficial way by asking such questions as: "Was I in the past (in a former life)? Was I not in the past (arising out of chance and meaningless circumstance)? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? Having been what, what was I in the past? Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in the future? Having been what, what shall I be in the future?"

Or one is inwardly perplexed about the present: "Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where have I come from? Where am I going?"

Pondering in this way, one of six kinds of [WRONG] VIEW arises:

1. "The view I have a self arises as true and established,
2. or the view I have no self...
3. or the view, 'It is precisely by means of self that I perceive self...'
4. or the view, 'It is precisely by means of self that I perceive not-self...'
5. or the view, 'It is precisely by means of not-self that I perceive self arises as true and established,'
6. or else one has a view like this: 'This very self of mine -- the knower [witness, experiencer, who like Descartes concludes, "I think therefore I am"] that is sensitive here and there to the ripening of skillful and unskillful actions (karma) -- is the self of mine that is constant, everlasting, eternal, not subject to change, and will endure past death as long as eternity."

This is called a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views.

Bound by a fetter of views, the uninstructed ordinary person is not freed from birth, aging, or death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, or despair. One is not freed, I declare, from suffering (dukkha).

The well-instructed disciple of the noble ones... knows-and-sees what ideas are fit and unfit for attention. This being so, one does not attend to unprofitable ideas but instead attends to profitable ideas:

1. This is suffering (dukkha)...
2. This is the cause of suffering...
3. This is the cessation of suffering...
4. This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.

Giving attention in this way, three fetters [binding one to samsara] are abandoned: identity-view, doubt, and attachment to precepts and practices* (MN 2). [Alternative translation of this sutra by Ven. Thanissaro at accesstoinsight.org].

*To abandon these three fetters is synonymous with gaining the first stage of Buddhist enlightenment (stream entry).

Buddhas in a Pagoda in Sagaing, Burma (allmyanmar.com)

So when is such knowledge truly one's own?

Right View
Kaccayana said to the Buddha: " 'Right view, right view,' it is said. To what extent is one in possession of right view (samma-ditthi)?"

The Buddha replied: "By and large, Kaccayana, this world focuses on two equally mistaken extremes [in view] of existence and non-existence. But when one sees the origination of the world as it actually is with right view, 'non-existence' with reference to the world does not occur to one.

"When one sees the cessation of the world as it actually is with right view, 'existence' with reference to the world does not occur to one.

"By and large, Kaccayana, this world is in bondage to attachments, biases, and things clung to [supporting conditions that sustain the illusion of there being a self independent of or embedded in the Five Aggregates of Clinging]. But one such as this does not get involved with or cling to these attachments, fixations of mind, biases, or obsessions. Nor is such a person resolved on 'my self.'

"One has no doubt that when there is arising, only suffering [Dependent Origination] itself is arising. When there is passing away, only suffering is passing away. In this, one's knowledge is independent of others. It is to this extent, Kaccayana, that there is right view" (SN 12.15).

• The way to overcome biases in both directions and see things just as they are is the practice of serene-concentration (jhana, samma-samadhi), which purifies the mind, and insight-contemplation (vipassana), which pierces the illusion and reveals the liberating truth by applying the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

How to Arrive at Enlightenment
"Truly, meditators, a noble [enlightened] disciple who has seen and has known (understood) -- independent of faith in others -- that 'When there is this, then there is that, that with the arising of this, that arises, with the cessation of this, that ceases...' [this is a direct reference to Dependent Origination as practiced with a purified mind during insight-meditation, not as learned in theory]. When a noble disciple thus fully knows-and-sees the arising and cessation of the world as it is, that disciple is said to be:

• endowed with perfect view
• endowed with perfect vision
• an attainer of the true Dharma
• in possession of the initiate's knowledge and skill
• one who has entered the stream of the Dharma
• a noble disciple replete with purifying knowledge
• one who is at the very door of the Deathless" (S.II.79).

CARTOON: Enlightenment is a lot rarer and easier than people imagine.

How?
Wisdom Quarterly (SUMMARY)
It takes an accomplished teacher to guide one quickly to the goal. But in America we are taught the opposite: "Be your own guru. Buy a new book. Follow an easy plan." That's a great way to live but no way to get enlightened. Maybe a trip to Asia is necessary, but plenty of teachers from Asia now come here.

Here are the three steps if easy steps are what's needed: First, let go, which means feeling safe in a world aimed in every way at keeping us scared. Second, practice what the Buddha taught (virtue, gentle and compassionate self-restraint, the path to meditative-concentration). Third, take the mind now made tractable, with a memory suddenly enhanced by concentration, and practice the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

There are no rites and rituals, nothing to accept on faith, no fees to pay to a teacher, no ordination (or a temporary one is enough), no lifelong commitments or conversions. It's as easy as that.

Wisdom Quarterly has seen, met, and spoken with enlightened Westerners (even modern Americans) who did it this way! All of our Dharma study (reading and debating) -- clearing our own thicket of wrong views -- and attempts at meditation did not bring us to this conclusion. We have seen it. Our advice to readers for what to do today? Make good karma.