Buddhist Hour
Script No. 424
Broadcast live on 3MDR 97.1 FM
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On Friday 21 April 2006 CE 2549 Buddhist Era


This script is entitled:
"Applying the Buddha's Teachings to Everyday Life"
Part 2 - Right Understanding

Tonight on the Buddhist Hour as part two in our series "Applying the Buddha's Teachings to Everyday Life" we will be talking about Right Understanding or samma ditthi.

The words samma ditthi come from the Pali language which was spoken at the time of the Buddha around 2500 years ago.

Right Understanding (samma ditthi) is the first training or factor in the Noble Eightfold Path. It is of the highest importance, notes Venerable Piyadassi Thera, for the remaining seven factors of the path are guided by it.

Those factors are:

Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration and Right Thought (samma sankappha) which with its counterpart Right Understanding comprise the Buddhist training of wisdom or panna.

So what is Right Understanding and what role does it play in applying Buddhist practice to everyday life?

Venerable Narada Thera wrote in his book 'Buddhism in a Nutshell',"Right Understanding, which is the keynote of Buddhism, is explained as the knowledge of the four Noble Truths. To understand rightly means to understand things as they really are and not as they appear to be."

When Right Understanding has matured fully, it becomes "Insight Wisdom"; it is when the teaching of the Buddha is no longer a conceptual understanding, but the practitioner has seen the truth of the Buddha's words for himself (or herself).

Venerable Narada continues:

"In the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path, Right Understanding stands at the beginning as well as its end. A minimum degree of Right Understanding is necessary at the very beginning because it gives right motivations to the other seven factors of the Path and gives to them correct direction."

There is a useful simile we can draw on from archery to illustrate the function of Right Understanding in directing ones Buddhist practice. In archery the archer uses great care and attention to setting his or her body and the bow and arrow to the right positions before letting go. The archer takes care to hold the arrow correctly before releasing it. If the body is not steady or balanced perhaps the bow will shake when the arrow is let loose. If the bow is not in the right position the arrow will not fly to the centre of the target when let go. Whereas, if all are correct the arrow will fly straight to the centre of the target.

Right understanding performs a similar function for directing a person in their Buddhist practice.

Piyadassi Thera describes its importance in the following manner. It ensures that right thoughts are held and it coordinates ideas; when as a result thoughts and ideas become clear and wholesome, a (persons) speech and action are also brought into proper relation.

The story of the Buddha provides us with a most excellent example of how his life transformed once he had Right Understanding.

He was living the life of a Prince in the palace for many years experiencing the comforts, ease and pleasures available to him. Even though he began to sense this was not all there was to the world he could not formulate what he would be better to do with his life.

Then experiences that he had on just one day when he saw a sick person, an old person, a dead person and a holy man brought him to gaining Right Understanding of the inescapable sufferings that everybody is subject to in life.

From this understanding followed his decision to renounce his life of abundance in the palace and devote himself to finding the way out of suffering.

The arrow was then in flight following the direction of his Right Understanding.

Right Understanding removes doubts and uncertainties about the Buddha's Teachings and clears away misunderstandings or confusion about what is the correct practice. A person is then clear about what is to be done and what practice is needed to learn the Buddha Dhamma and so improve one's own mind.

For a beginner in Buddhism or Buddha Dhamma practice, Right Understanding simply means to have a correct conceptual understanding of the Dhamma.

This raises the question, what is it that one ought to do to get to that position.

We should first cultivate an intellectual understanding of the teachings. This can be done by reading Buddhist books, attending Buddha Dhamma teachings, and spending quiet time considering what you have learn't and how you can put that learning to some worthwhile purpose. As the mind develops Right Understanding the practice that follows will be fruitful, effective and durable over time.

In regard to how one develops Right Understanding when studying the Buddhist teachings Venerable Sumedho Thera gives the following advice:

"These suttas (the original words of the Buddha) are not meant to be 'sacred scriptures' that tell us what to believe. One should read them, listen to them, think about them, contemplate them, and investigate the present reality, the present experience with them. Then and only then can one insightfully know the truth beyond words."

So believing a teaching merely because it is the Buddha's words is not Right Understanding because it relies on hearsay, on someone else's understanding.

The Buddhist path is to develop understanding in one's own mind of how things really are. Right Understanding - samma ditthi alerts a practitioner to cultivate new behaviours that are more conducive to their own well-being than their original habitual behaviours. Generally our habitual behaviours are not formed out of wisdom but out of our past kamma or past actions.

Piyadassi Thera adds considerable light on the subject of Right Understanding in the following passages. He writes:

"Due to lack of Right Understanding, the ordinary man (or woman) is blind to the true nature of life and fails to see the universal fact of life, dukkha, (unsatisfactoriness). He (or she) does not even try to grasp these facts but hastily considers the doctrine as pessimism. It is natural perhaps, for beings engrossed in mundane pleasures, beings who crave more and more for gratification of the senses and loath pain, to resent the very idea of suffering and turn their backs on it. They do not, however, realise that even as they condemn the idea of dukkha (or suffering) and adhere to their own convenient and optimistic view of things, they are still being oppressed by the ever recurring unsatisfactory nature of life."

On getting down to the whats what of Right Understanding he notes:

"The Buddha was discriminative and analytical to the highest degree (in pali vibhajjavadi). As a scientist resolves a limb into tissues and the tissues into cells, he analysed all component and conditioned things into their fundamental elements, right down to their ultimates, and condemned shallow thinking, unsystematic attention, which tends to make man (or woman) muddle headed and hinders the investigation of the true nature of things. It is through Right Understanding that one sees cause and effect, the arising and ceasing of all conditioned things. The truth of the Dhamma can be only grasped in that way and not through blind belief, wrong view, speculation or even by abstract philosophy.

It is a psychological fact that people often do not want to reveal their true natures, to unfold what is in the deepest recesses of their minds, while they apparently wish others to believe that they are hale and hearty and free from worries and tribulations. It is for this same psychological reason that many people, wittingly or not, do not want to speak or hear of the universal malady of dukkha, unsatisfactoriness. They imagine that although the world is uncertain they can make it certain and give it a solid basis, and so the unrelenting struggle for worldly improvement goes on with persevering effort and futile enthusiasm."

This effort to improve themselves and the world in every possible way, to secure better conditions in every sphere of human living and ensure against risks, reveals, without a shadow of doubt, that there is no real happiness, no real rest in the world. This, notes Piyadassi Thera, unsatisfactory nature of the world, this picture of pain, is clear to all who have eyes to see and minds to understand. It is Right Understanding that brings this clear picture of what we call life before our minds eye, and this is the realistic view (in pali yathabhuttadassana) in which there is no question of optimism and pessimism, of looking at things from the most favourable or unfavourable point of view.

Lets talk now a little about the Five Precepts which you'll recall we chanted in Pali and English at the beginning of this program. The five precepts are a fundamental part of practice for the lay Buddhist.

The word precept as defined in the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is a general instruction or rule for action, a maxim, an injunction regarding moral conduct.

Venerable K Sri Dhammananda notes in his book 'What Buddhists Believe', that "By observing precepts, not only do you cultivate your moral strength, but also perform the highest service to your fellow beings."

He notes that "Buddhist morality addresses a very common, yet crucial question. How can we judge if an action is good or bad? The answer, according to Buddhism, is a simple one. The quality of an action hinges on the intention or motivation (in pali cetana) from which it originates. If a person performs an action out of greed, hatred, and delusion his (or her) action is considered to be unwholesome. On the other hand, if he (or she) performs an action out of love, charity, and wisdom, his (or her) action is a wholesome one."

It is generally not our habitual nature to keep five precepts. Most people who come to the Buddha's teachings for the first time this life do not keep five precepts and maybe only keep one or two precepts really well. Yet the Buddha advises that it is wise to keep five precepts as a minimum practice to maintain human birth in our future lives and to help us to cultivate the correct attitude so as to see the truth.

In this case to get Right Understanding would mean listening to the Buddha's advice with intelligent inquiry, looking to ascertain why the Buddha recommends keeping these precepts is so fundamental to Buddhist practice. What is the meaning of his words of explanation, what is the function of each precept, what is the effect on your own mind by keeping them, and what would be the effect on your life from keeping them?

Buddhism encourages you to examine with a genuine inquiring attitude, with a fresh mind willing to investigate something on its merits. This way it is possible to recognise for yourself the benefits of performing wholesome actions such as the keeping of precepts and the problems and sufferings arising from unwholesome actions.

In The Buddha's Path by Venerable Piyadassi Thera (1979) he noted;

"One who seeks truth is not satisfied with surface knowledge, with the mere external appearance of things, but wants to delve deep and see what is beyond the reach of the naked eye." That is the sort of search encouraged in Buddhism, for it leads to Right Understanding.

Now lets briefly explore Right Understanding and the merits of Meeting a Buddhist Teacher.

An important means of moving closer to developing Right Understanding is through spending time with a great Buddhist practitioner or Buddhist Teacher, who by nature shows correct Buddha Dhamma practice in action. Action that shows clearly what Buddhist practice looks like when applied by a practitioner with highly developed wisdom - teaching us something beyond words.

For example it can give us Right Understanding about not wasting our time and resources, for our opportunity to learn and practice the Buddha Dhamma is both rare and fleeting. Time with a Buddha Dhamma teacher can show us why it is beneficial to go to a Buddhist Temple to make fast progress, about why we need to create increased leisure time for our practice and how to practice the perfection of generosity rather than just do some generous actions. Many practical aspects of Buddhism are illuminated effectively by taking the practice of a Buddhist Master as an example and so learning from a person with Right Understanding of the way things really are.

The final level of Right Understanding which surpasses the others already mentioned is referred to as insight wisdom. This is known in the pali language as yatha bhutam which means understanding free of personality bias. This is understanding something for real, not including our own belief, opinion or preference about it, not including hearsay of other persons or commonly held views about it, not even including what is logical or apparent when viewed from a conventional perspective.

Insight wisdom transforms our view of the world, it changes us forever, it means we know something to be absolutely true, even though it may be contrary to what we believed in the past.

Insight wisdom is a different order of learning than intellectual learning. For example, when we want to train the mind away from habits of laziness, worry, or stinginess the intellectual belief that it would be better not to behave this way may not be powerful enough to enable a transformation of behaviour.

Insight is not like that at all. The mind seeing the truth of something directly also sees clearly what the errors of the mind are, at that instant the old beliefs and errors are immediately destroyed. The old behaviours do not need to be overcome. They are gone. The mind no longer follows the old incorrect understanding view because it has been replaced by wisdom for the rest of your life.

Lets now take a look at Right Understanding about the Four Noble Truths and the Law of Kamma.

Now, we must examine what the Buddha explains to be Right Understanding, for example what specific knowledge’s does Right Understanding encompass? In essence, it is the Four Noble Truths, those of sorrow, the cause of sorrow, the cessation of sorrow, and the path leading to the cessation of sorrow.

Right Understanding also includes the knowledge of kamma, or cause and effect.

It is said:

"To enter the basic path one must gain a proper understanding of the fundamental right view on kamma."

The Law of Kamma is one of the natural laws governing life. As with physical laws such as the law of gravity it effects every living being. The Law of Kamma applies not only to the physical world but also to the mental world or beings minds and the destinies of all living beings.

It is one of the laws which govern the outcome of our actions performed with either our body, speech or mind. Ultimately we can go further because kamma is produced by the volition or intention of our mind which is operating behind the various body, speech and mind actions.

The Law of Kamma is that every action of body, speech or mind done with volition produces a result to be inherited by the doer at some indeterminate future time.

These actions may be wholesome (kusula), that is morally good, which produce outcomes that are conducive to the well being of the doer; or unwholesome (akusula), morally bad, which produce outcomes of harm to the doer or; those actions which are morally neutral.

In 'The Seekers Glossary to Buddhism' kamma is described in the following way;

"The doctrine of kamma is subtle and exceedingly intricate. Reduced to its most elementary meaning, kamma is action; it refers also to the fruits of action. It may be seen as the law of causation on a personal level, a combination of primary and secondary causes. In the case of a plant for example, the seed is the primary cause, and rain, wind, sunlight, etc, the secondary causes.

Similarly, every thought, utterance, and deed is a seed that ripens over time until under suitable conditions it comes to fruition, as an event or circumstance. It is, more over, a continuous process, for the way in which one responds to those circumstances determines the quality of his or her present life as well as future ones. Thus the doctrine of kamma repudiates any notion of 'fate' or 'fixed destiny' in as much as these circumstances and our response to them are constantly changing. Clearly then,everyone has the potential at each moment to alter the course of his or her future kamma.

Within the period of a single lifetime, every being has in addition to their own mutable kamma a particular 'fixed kamma', as for example, the species, race, and sex into which he or she is born. These kammic traits, though set for life, are then recast at the next rebirth in accordance with the individual's ever ripening past actions.

When the conditioning causes of one's kamma, whether that kamma is of hardship and disgrace or fortune and honour are exhausted, it will disappear".

Kamma is the action and the result of the action is called kamma-vipaka.

In the 'Cula Kammavibhanga Sutta' are the words:

"Having willed, man acts by deed, word or thought, and they have their due consequences. All living beings have actions (kamma) as their own, their inheritance, their congenital cause, their kinsman, their refuge."

By having Right Understanding of the law of kamma a person will seek to do wholesome actions and avoid unwholesome actions. A person will clearly recognise the benefit of cultivating wholesome minds because these minds produce wholesome actions. It is now realised that our actions are the building blocks of our future existence.

Piyadassi Thera writes:

"The Buddha, in more than one place, has emphatically stressed the psychological importance of action (kamma); 'O monks, it is volition that I call kamma'. Having willed one acts through body, speech and mind. It is the understanding of moral causation that urges a thinking man to refrain from evil and to do good. He who acknowledges causation well knows that it is his own actions that make his life miserable or otherwise."

As we are learning to generate Right Thought, Right Action, and Right Speech we are learning how we can make ourselves well and happy in the future.

It is important to remember that for an act to cause kamma it must arise from an intention or volition in the mind.

For example, when we walk on a grass lawn, we inadvertently kill many small living beings. Yet we have no intention to kill or harm them as we walk, therefore as the intention to kill is absent, the kamma of killing is not produced.

There are four requirements of action for it to be regarded as producing the kamma of killing.

1. There must be a real living being.

2. There must be the intention to kill that living being.

3. There must be a means such as a weapon used to cause the death.

4. The living being must be killed.

If all of these conditions are present the kamma of killing is created and the result of that killing will occur to the person who did that action at some time.

Without knowledge of the Law of Kamma we are unable to discern wholesome from unwholesome, so we do unwholesome deeds, and create sorrow for ourselves. This is the tragedy of not understanding the true nature of things, for if we comprehended how things truly were, we would do only good and would experience the happiness that results.

In another of Piyadassi Thera's writings, 'The Spectrum of Buddhism' he notes that "Kamma is one of many factors conditioning the nature of experience and past kamma is extinguishable and modifiable in the context of one’s present actions.

According to Buddhism, man is conditioned by his biological laws, by his environment and physical laws, by psychological laws including his kammic heritage; he is not determined by any or all of them. He has an element of free will or personal endeavour by exercising which he can change his own nature as well as his environment (by understanding it) for the good of himself as well as others."

Recounting the Buddha's words he wrote "The Buddha says: 'this Dhamma is for the wise and not for the unwise", and explains the ways and means of attaining wisdom by stages, and avoiding false views. Right Uunderstanding permeates the entire teaching, pervades every part and aspect of the Dhamma and functions as the key-note of Buddhism.

So let us revisit the question: What then is Right Understanding?

Piyadassi answers: "It is the understanding of dukkha or the unsatisfactory nature of all phenomenal existence, its arising, its cessation and the path leading to cessation."

Of the person coming to complete Right Understanding K Sri Dhammananda observes he or she "is one who is free from ignorance, and by the nature of that enlightenment removes the roots of evil from his (or her) mind and becomes liberated." A lofty aim of a practicing Buddhist is to cultivate Wisdom and gain Right Understanding (samma ditthi) about himself (or herself), life and all phenomena.

May you come to Right Understanding of the way things really are.

May you be well and happy.

May all beings be well and happy.

This script was prepared and edited by Julian Bamford, Jan Bennett, Anita Carter, Frank Carter, Helen Costas, Alec Sloman and Pennie White.

References

1. Carter, Anita. Carter, Frank. Sloman Alec. "Applying the Buddha's Teachings to Everyday Life". Tuesday Night Teachings Class #2; Chan Academy Australia. 28 November 2005.

2. Narada Thera. Buddhism In A Nutshell. Buddhist Cultural Centre. Dehiwala Sri Lanka. 1982. First Published 1933.

3. Piyadassi Thera. The Buddha's Ancient Path. Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy Sri Lanka 1979.

4. Brown, Lesley. Ed. The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Vol 2. N-Z. Clarendon Press. Oxford UK. 1993.

5. Dhammananda. K Sri. Yayasan Belia Buddhist Malaysia. Initiated by The Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia. Paulau Pinang, Malaysia 1999.

6. The Seeker's Glossary of Buddhism P 308.) Sutra Translation Committee of USA and Canada. 2dn ed. New York USA 1988.

7. Piyadassi Mahathera. The Spectrum of Buddhism. The Corporate Body of the Buddha educational Foundation. Taipei Taiwan 1991.

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