The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching

Part Two

The Noble Eightfold Path

When the Buddha was 80 years old and dying, a young man named Subhadda came to see him, and although the Buddha's attendant thought it would be too exhausting, the Buddha said, "Please invite him in." 

Subhadda wanted to know if other religious teachers in the region were fully enlightened. The Buddha knew that with only a short time to live, answering such a question would be a waste of precious moments. So, when you have an opportunity to ask your teacher about the Dharma, ask something that can change your life. The Buddha said it was not important whether other teachers are fully enlightened. The question was whether the young man wanted to liberate himself. If so, he said, then practice the Noble Eightfold Path.Wherever it is practiced, joy, peace and insight will be there. The Buddha taught this for 45 years - both his first and last Dharma talks offered the Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livlihood, Right Diligence, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration.

Arya ashtangika marga (a noble path of eight limbs) suggests the interbeing nature of these 8 elements of the path. Each limp contains all the other 7. Use your intelligence to apply the elements in your daily life.

Chapter Nine.

Right View - samyag drishti

First we must have a deep understanding of the Four Noble Truths - our suffering, the making of our suffering, suffering can be transformed, and the path of transformation. The Right View is to have faith* and confidence that there are people who have been able to transform their suffering. i.e. knowing which of the four kinds of nutrients that we have ingested to bring about what has come to be. It is the ability to distinguish wholesome roots (kushala mula) from unwholesome roots (akushala mula). Both exist in all of us. There are both kinds of seeds in the depths of our consciousness. If you are a loyal person, it is because the seed of loyalty is in you. You might also have the seed of betrayal in you. If your seed of loyalty is watered, you will be a loyal person. If your seed of betrayal is watered, you may betray even those you love. You will feel guilt, but the seed of betrayal in you may be strong enough to cause you to do it. 

The practice of mindfulness helps us identify all the seeds in our store of consciousness, and water the ones that are the most wholesome. Someone may make us very uncomfortable, while another may make us like them immediately. Something in each of them touches a seed in us. Also, being reminded of someone we like or do not like can spark that seed as we meet new people. When we become aware of the seeds in our storehouse, we will not be surprised by our own behaviour or the behaviour 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 hands and bow to another person we acknowledge the seed of Buddhahood in them. When we bow to a child, 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 not, you water the seeds of craving, anger, and violence in yourself. Right View is to recognise which seeds are wholesome and to encourage those seeds to be watered. This is called selective touching.We need to discuss and share with each other  to deepen our understanding of this practice and the practive of the Five Mindfulness Trainings, esp. with regard to the foods we 'ingest'.

At the base of our views are our perception: 

saṃjñā (Sanskrit; Pāli, saññā). The third of the five aggregates (skandha), saṃjñā is the psychological faculty of perception or discernment. Saṃjñā is said to recognize the distinctive characteristics of things, for example, by identifying different colours. It is sixfold, with respect to perception of the objects of the five senses plus the ideas perceived by the mind. Sometimes the term is used simply in the sense of ‘idea’ or ‘concept’, especially in lists of meditation topics (for example, anitya-saṃjñā as the concept of impermanence; see anitya).

Bhikkhu Bodhi states:

The characteristic of perception is the perceiving of the qualities of the object. Its function is to make a sign as a condition for perceiving again that "this is the same," or its function is recognizing what has been previously perceived. It becomes manifest as the interpreting of the object...by way of the features that had been apprehended. Its proximate cause is the object as it appears. Its procedure is compared to a carpenter's recognition of certain kinds of wood by the mark he has made on each. 

Mahayana

The Abhidharma-samuccaya states:

What is the absolutely specific characteristic of conceptualization (saṃjñā)? It is to know by association. It is to see, hear, specify, and to know by way of taking up the defining characteristics and distinguishing them.^[2]

Mipham Rinpoche states:

Perception consists of the grasping of distinguishing features.

In terms of support, they can be divided into six types: perceptions resulting from contact, the meeting of the eye and so forth, up until the mind.

Furthermore, the are distinguishing characteristics in regard to sense objects... and... in regard to names..

Perception

The Buddha taught that most of our perceptions are erroneous, and that most of our suffering comes from wrong perceptions. We have to ask ourselves over and over "Am I sure?" Until we see clearly, our wrong perceptions will prevent us from having The Right View. 

To perceive always means to perceive something. ie. When we perceive the moon, the moon is us. When we smile at a friend, our friend is in us - because he/she is the object of our perception. Whe we look at a mountain, the mountain is the object of our perception. As is the moon etc.

When we say, "I can see my consciousness in this flower," it means we can see the cloud, the sunshine, the earth, the minerals in the earth. But how can we see our consciousness in a flower? The flower IS our consciousness. It is the object of our perception. It IS our perception - the coming into existence of the perceiver and the perceived. The flower is part of our consciousness. The idea that our consciousness is outside of the flower has to be removed. It is not possible to have a subject without an object. It is not possible to remove on and retain the other. 

The source of our perception, our way of seeing, lies in our store of consciousness. If ten of us look at a cloud, there will be ten different perceptions of it. Whether it is seen as a dog, a hammer, or an angel depends on one's mind - sadness, memories, anger. Our perceptions carry with them all the errors of subjectivity. Then we praise, blame or condemn or complain  depending on our perceptions - which are in turn made of our afflictions: craving, anger, ignorance, wrong views, and prejudice. Whether we are happy or suffering depends on our perceptions. It is important to look deeply at them and know their source. 

The Perception of Happiness

We have an idea about  this - only certain conditions will make us happy. But it is the very idea of happiness that prevents from being happy. 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 realisation of the Path. This is clear vision - seeing things as they are. Our happiness and that 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 suffering that is caused by the wrong perceptions. Right View is not an ideology, system or Path. It is the insight we have into the reality of life, a living insight that fills us with understanding, peace, and love. 

Right View cannot be described. We can only point in the direction. It cannot be transmitted by your teacher; he can only help us identify the seed of Right View that is already in our garden. But we are the gardeners. The instrument for watering wholesome seeds is mindful living - breathing, walking, living each moment of our day in mindfulness. 

"As long as the tree is behind you, you can only see its shadow. If you want to touch the reality, you have to turn around. Image teaching uses words and ideas. Substance teaching communicates by the way you live. 

To practice is to go beyond ideas. No idea is the path of non-conception. As long as there is an idea, there is no reality, no truth. It does not mean no mindfulness.

The eight practices of the Noble Eightfold Path nourish each other. As our view becomes more 'right', the other elements deepen. 

不知道