The Noble Eightfold Path
Part three of these articles deals with the Wisdom division of the Noble Eightfold Path, namely Right View and Right Resolve.
Right View
Right view, according to Bhikkhu Bodhi can be divided into two classifications.
- Mundane Right View
- Supramundane (or World-transcending) Right View
There is actually an entire Sutta devoted to Right view that can be found here: The Sammaditthi Sutta: The Discourse on Right View.
This is a Therevada view of the Eightfold Path and not commonly held by other Buddhist traditions.
To quote directly from Wikipedia:
Right View can be further subdivided, states Bhikkhu Bodhi, into Mundane Right View and Superior or Supramundane Right View:
- Mundane right view, knowledge of the fruits of good behavior. Having this type of view will bring merit and will support the favourable rebirth of the sentient being in the realm of samsara.
- Supramundane (world-transcending) right view, the understanding of karmic and rebirth, as implicated in the Four Noble Truths, leading to awakening and liberation from rebirths and associated dukkha in the realms of samsara.[53][29]
According to Theravada Buddhism, mundane right view is suitable for lay followers, while supramundane right view, which requires deeper understanding, is suitable for monastics. Usually, it involves accepting the following doctrines of Buddhism:[54][55]
- Karma: Every action of body, speech, and mind has 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.
Right view for monastics is also described in the Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta (“Right View Discourse”), in which Sariputta instructs that right view can alternately be attained by the thorough understanding of the unwholesome and the wholesome, the four nutriments, the twelve nidanas or the three taints.[56] “Wrong view” arising from ignorance (avijja), is the precondition for wrong resolve, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness and wrong concentration.[57][58] The practitioner should use right effort to abandon the wrong view and to enter into right view. Right mindfulness is used to constantly remain in right view.
I could not hope to explain it better than Bhikkhu Bodhi so I shall leave this quote as it is.
Right Resolve
Right resolve, to quote the Buddha, is as simple as this:
And what is right resolve? Being resolved on renunciation, on freedom from ill will, on harmlessness: This is called right resolve
Basically, be nice!
May all beings be free from fear.