The following Meanderings was first published in May 2018. It is worth reconsidering the message and how it applies to us today.
Right View or Right Understanding is the first of the Noble Eightfold Path’s teachings. These teachings were given in one of the first discourses provided by Shakyamuni Buddha following his enlightenment. I suspect that a monotheistic world view leads one to compare these teachings to the Ten commandments. These eight principles are not intended as commandments or injunctions. They were, and are, practices for the development of awakening.
The word ‘Right’ at the beginning of each teaching refers to something which is complete and wholesome in and of itself. Thus, we might think of the first teaching as, ‘Wholesome Understanding’. The Noble Eightfold Path is separated into three categories, ethics, mental discipline, and wisdom. Right Understanding and Right Thought are in the wisdom grouping.
This does not suppose that there is only one way ‘right way’ of looking at something, it refers to the interrelatedness of a fundamental principle of Buddhist thought. Right Understanding is dependent on the conditions around which the understanding is formulated.
Right Understanding is a critical teaching we must comprehend it as intended. At its most basic it refers to insight into the nature of reality. It becomes more intricate, interpreted, and subtle, as we dig deeper into what that truly means.
Reality in this case refers first to the Four Noble Truth; the reality concerning the existence of suffering, the origin of suffering, the extinction of suffering, and the path that leads to the extinction of suffering. Here it is worth noting that noble should be translated as ennobling, that is to confer upon someone or something as nobility, dignity or honor, or to put it another way, the realization of this truth, not intellectually, but in the marrow of one’s being, awakening.
When first examining Buddhist teachings a person reads this succinct primer on the nature of reality, search a little deeper and then move on to what they perceive are the more sophisticated and ‘advanced’ teachings. What we often fail to recognize is that this is the advanced teaching. It is the very heart of the matter. All the other teachings are commentary, expansion, and further explication of this vital issue.
We might even move along to more philosophically satisfying teachings because Wholesome Understanding is so profound that its importance is lost in its simplicity, in its elemental context.
One of the earliest interpretations of Buddhism was that its teachings were nihilistic. Dukkha – translated as suffering – is not what we wish to confront. Of course, this is an incomplete rendering of the term. There are times of suffering, discontentedness, pain, and distress. There are times of joy, pleasure, comfort, and contentment. Sometimes the negative seems overwhelming and the positive seems fleeting. These are all subjective perceptions of the conditions within and outside of us, our loved ones, neighbors and those we can only imagine.
Ennobling Understanding is the Kokoro (body/mind/spirit) of life in its intricacy, life in its most nuanced. Our joy and suffering is no more or less than that of the brightest star when at its most dynamic or at its eventual collapse. It is the nature of existence that everything is born, grows old, experiences pain, and dies. In between and during these events there is radiance and splendor. To be attached to any of these conditions is to lose equanimity.
Life is not so much suffering as attachment to the notion that we should be exempt from the nature of life – of the universe. That is why it is necessary when sad to experience sadness and to experience joy as joyfulness. Most importantly, be a force of agency, assisting all sentient beings in constructive ways. You are a part of the universe. No more no less. That is Right Understanding.
Gassho with love . . . Monshin