Editing Noble Eightfold Path (section)

=== Right view ===
{{See also|View (Buddhism)}}

The purpose of "right view" (''{{IAST|samyak-dṛṣṭi}}'' / ''{{IAST|sammā-diṭṭhi}}'') or "right understanding"{{sfn|Gunaratana|2001|p=11}} is to clear one's path from confusion, misunderstanding, and deluded thinking. It is a means to gain right understanding of reality.{{sfnp|Chryssides |Wilkins|2006|p=249}}

====Sequences in the suttas====
The Pali canon and the Agamas contain various "definitions" or descriptions of "right view." The ''[[Mahasatipatthana Sutta]]'' ([[Digha Nikaya]] 22), compiled from elements from other suttas possibly as late as 20 <!-- twenty -->BCE,{{sfn|Sujato|2012|p=304}} defines right view summarily as the Four Noble Truths: 
{{blockquote|And what is right view? Knowing about suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering. This is called right view.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sujato |first1=Bhikku |title=Digha Nikaya The Long Discourses |publisher=SuttaCentral |page=213 |url=https://readingfaithfully.org/digha-nikaya-translated-by-bhikkhu-sujato-free-epub-kindle-pdf/ |access-date=18 November 2022 |archive-date=18 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221118104207/https://readingfaithfully.org/digha-nikaya-translated-by-bhikkhu-sujato-free-epub-kindle-pdf/ |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

In this, right view explicitly includes ''[[karma]]'' and [[Rebirth (Buddhism)|rebirth]], and the importance of the [[Four Noble Truths]]. This view of "right view" gained importance when "insight" became central to Buddhist soteriology,{{sfn|Vetter|1988|p=77}} and still plays an essential role in Theravada Buddhism.{{sfn|Harvey|2013|pp=83–84}}

{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="float:right;"
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! ''Mahācattārīsaka Sutta''
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| And what is right view? Right view is twofold, I say. There is right view that is accompanied by [[Asava|defilements]], has the attributes of good deeds, and ripens in attachment. And there is right view that is noble, undefiled, transcendent, a factor of the path.

And what is right view that is accompanied by defilements, has the attributes of good deeds, and ripens in attachment? ‘There is meaning in giving, sacrifice,{{refn|group=note|Vetter translates it as "offering into the fire".{{Sfn|Vetter|1988|p=12 with footnote 4}}}} and offerings. There are fruits and results of good and bad deeds. There is an afterlife. There are such things as [serving] mother and father, and beings [devas] that are reborn spontaneously. And there are ascetics and Brahmins who are well attained and practiced, and who describe the afterlife after realizing it with their own insight.’ This is right view that is accompanied by defilements, has the attributes of good deeds, and ripens in attachment.

And what is right view that is noble, undefiled, transcendent, a factor of the path? It's the wisdom—the faculty of wisdom, the power of wisdom, the awakening factor of investigation of principles [''[[dhamma vicaya]]''], and right view as a factor of the path—in one of noble mind and undefiled mind, who possesses the noble path and develops the noble path. This is called right view that is noble, undefiled, transcendent, a factor of the path.

They make an effort to give up wrong view and embrace right view: that's their right effort. Mindfully they give up wrong view and take up right view: that's their right mindfulness. So these three things keep running and circling around right view, namely: right view, right effort, and right mindfulness.<ref>Bikkhu Sujato, [https://suttacentral.net/mn117/en/sujato?layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin ''Mahācattārīsakasutta'', "The Great Forty"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221119061135/https://suttacentral.net/mn117/en/sujato?layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin |date=19 November 2022 }}</ref>{{refn|group=note|name="graduated talk"|Compare the stock sequence of a "graduated talk" and "the distinctive teaching of the Awakened Ones": "Then the Blessed One gave a graduated talk to Upāli the householder, i.e., a talk on giving, a talk on virtue, a talk on heaven; he proclaimed the drawbacks of, degradation in, & defilement in sensuality, and the rewards of renunciation. Then—when he knew that Upāli the householder was of ready mind, malleable mind, unhindered mind, exultant mind, confident mind—he proclaimed to him the distinctive teaching of the Awakened Ones: stress, origination, cessation, path. Just as a white cloth with stains removed would rightly take dye, in the same way there arose to Upāli the householder, in that very seat, the dustless, stainless Dhamma eye: Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation. Then—having seen the Dhamma, having reached the Dhamma, known the Dhamma, gained a footing in the Dhamma, having crossed over & beyond doubt, having had no more questioning—Upāli the householder gained fearlessness and was independent of others with regard to the Teacher’s message."<ref>Majjhima Nikaya 56, [https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/MN/MN56.html ''Upālivāda Sutta''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221216054009/https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/MN/MN56.html |date=16 December 2022 }}, translation Thanissaro Bhikkhu</ref>}}
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Other suttas give a more extensive overview, stating that our actions have consequences, that death is not the end, that our actions and beliefs also have consequences after death, and that the Buddha followed and taught a successful path out of this world and [[Buddhist cosmology|the other world]] (heaven and underworld or hell).{{sfn|Vetter|1988|pp=12, 77–79}}{{sfn|Velez de Cea|2013|p=54}}{{sfn|Wei-hsün Fu|Wawrytko|1994|p=194}}<ref group=web name="vgweb.org">Victor Gunasekara, ''[http://www.vgweb.org/bsq/payasi.htm The Pāyāsi Sutta: A Commentary and Analysis] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170126092327/http://www.vgweb.org/bsq/payasi.htm |date=26 January 2017 }}''</ref> The ''Mahācattārīsaka Sutta'' ("The Great Forty," [[Majjhima Nikaya]] 117) gives an extensive overview, describing the first seven practices as requisites of right ''samadhi'' c.q. ''dhyana''. It makes a distinction between mundane right view (''karma'', ''rebirth'') and noble right view as a path-factor, relating noble right view to ''[[dhamma vicaya]]'' ("investigation of principles), one of the ''[[bojjhanga]]'', the "seven factors of awakening" which give an alternate account of right effort and ''dhyana''.<ref>Gethin, ''The Buddhist Path to Awakening''; Keren Arbel, ''Early Buddhist Meditation''</ref>

Alternatively, right view (together with right resolve) is expressed in the stock phrase of ''dhammalsaddhalpabbajja'': "A layman hears a Buddha teach the Dhamma, comes to have faith in him, and decides to take ordination as a monk."{{sfn|Vetter|1988}}{{refn|group=note|See the ''CulaHatthipadopama-sutta'' (the "Lesser Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant's Footprints") and the [[Samaññaphala Sutta]]}}

{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="float:right;"
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! ''Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta''
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| The venerable Sāriputta said to the venerable Mahākotthita: "Just ask, friend, knowing I shall answer." The venerable Mahākotthita said to the venerable Sāriputta: "Having accomplished what factors is a learned noble disciple in this teaching and discipline reckoned to be endowed with [right] view, to have accomplished straight view, to have accomplished unshakeable confidence in the Buddha, to have come to and arrived at the right teaching, to have attained this right Dharma and awoken to this right Dharma?"

The venerable Sāriputta said: "Venerable Mahākotthita, [this takes place if] a learned noble disciple understands unwholesome states as they really are, understands the roots of unwholesomeness as they really are, understands wholesome states as they really are and understands the roots of wholesomeness as they really are.

"How does [a learned noble disciple] understand unwholesome states as they really are? Unwholesome bodily actions, verbal actions and mental actions − these are reckoned unwholesome states. In this way unwholesome states are understood as they really are.

"How does [a learned noble disciple] understand the roots of unwholesomeness as they really are? There are three roots of unwholesomeness: greed is a root of unwholesomeness, hatred is a root of unwholesomeness, and delusion is a root of unwholesomeness − these are reckoned the roots of unwholesomeness. In this way the roots of unwholesomeness are understood as they really are.

"How does [a learned noble disciple] understand wholesome states as they really are? Wholesome bodily actions, verbal actions and mental actions − these are reckoned wholesome states. In this way wholesome states are understood as they really are.

"How does [a learned noble disciple] understand the roots of wholesomeness as they really are? That is, there are three roots of wholesomeness: non-greed, non-hatred and non-delusion − these are reckoned the roots of wholesomeness. In this way the roots of wholesomeness are understood as they really are.

"Venerable Mahākotthita, [if] in this way a learned noble disciple understands unwholesome states as they really are, understands the roots of unwholesomeness as they really are, understands wholesome states as they really are and understands the roots of wholesomeness as they really are; then, for this reason, [a learned noble disciple] in this teaching and discipline is endowed with right view, has accomplished straight view, has accomplished unshakeable confidence in the Buddha, has come to and arrived at the right teaching, has attained this right Dharma and awoken to this right Dharma."{{sfnp|Analayo|2011|p=13-14}}
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Likewise, the [[Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta]] (Majjhima Nikaya 9), and its parallel in the ''Samyukta-āgama'', refer to faith in the Buddha and understanding (''dhamma vicaya'') the path-factors of wholesome bodily actions, verbal actions and mental actions.{{sfnp|Analayo|2011|p=13-14}}

==== Theravada ====
Right View can be further subdivided, states translator Bhikkhu Bodhi, into mundane right view and superior or supramundane right view:<ref name="BBodhi_NEP">{{cite web |url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/waytoend.html#ch2 |title=The Noble Eightfold Path: The Way to the End of Suffering |access-date=10 July 2010 |publisher=Access to Insight |last=Bhikkhu Bodhi |archive-date=28 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190828222920/http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/waytoend.html#ch2 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Sfn|Fuller|2005|p=56}}
# Mundane right view, knowledge of the fruits of good behavior (''karma''). Having this type of view will bring merit and will support the favourable rebirth of the sentient being in the realm of [[Samsara (Buddhism)|samsara]].
# Supramundane (world-transcending) right view, the understanding of the Four Noble Truths, leading to awakening and liberation from rebirths and associated [[dukkha]] in the realms of samsara.<ref name="BBodhi_NEP"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Bhikkhu Bodhi|title=In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BFiGGao0GWoC|year=2005|publisher=Wisdom Publications|isbn=978-0-86171-996-9|pages=147, 446 with note 9}}</ref>{{Sfn|Harvey|2013|pp=83–84}} According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, this kind of right view comes at the end of the path, not at the beginning.<ref name="BBodhi_NEP"/>

According to Theravada Buddhism, mundane right view is a teaching that is suitable for lay followers, while supramundane right view, which requires a deeper understanding, is suitable for monastics.{{refn|group=note|name="graduated talk"}} Mundane and supramundane right view involve accepting the following doctrines of Buddhism:{{sfn|Richard Gombrich|2009|pp=27–28, 103–09}}{{Sfn|Keown|2000|pp=59, 96–97}}
# [[Karma in Buddhism|Karma]]: Every action of body, speech, and mind has [[karma|karmic]] results, and influences the kind of future rebirths and realms a being enters into.
# [[Three marks of existence]]: everything, whether physical or mental, is impermanent (''anicca''), a source of suffering (''dukkha''), and lacks a self (''anatta'').
# The [[Four Noble Truths]] are a means to gaining insights and ending ''dukkha''.

====A-ditthi====
Gombrich notes that there is a tension in the suttas between "right view" and 'no view', release by not clinging to any view at all.<ref>Gombrich, ''What the Buddha Thought''.</ref> According to Chryssides and Wilkins, "right view is ultimately non-view: though the Enlightened One sees things as they really are, 'he has a "critical awareness" of the impossibility of giving full and final expression to his conviction in fixed conceptual terms'. One therefore cannot cling to any particular formulation in a rigid and dogmatic manner."{{sfnp|Chryssides |Wilkins|2006|p=249}}