The relationship between the two levels of right view — mundane and transcendent — parallels the relationship between the first and second knowledges on the night of his awakening on the one hand, and the third knowledge on the other. Both serve a strategic purpose. Mundane right view, framed in terms of "beings" and "worlds," asserts the efficacy of action: the principle that actions really do have results. This principle opens the possibility that transcendent right view, as a guide to action, can put an end to suffering. Transcendent right view then drops terms of "beings" and "worlds" to focus directly on the actions within the mind that cause suffering so that those actions can be abandoned. This brings suffering to an end — at which point all views are put aside as well. To assert the efficacy of action, mundane right view makes the point (against Pakudha Kaccayana) that there is such a thing as action, and (against Ajita Kesakambalin and Makkhali Gosala) that it actually engenders results. Because the four noble truths teach that suffering and stress are the results of actions and can be brought to an end through actions, this understanding of action is necessary to explain why the four noble truths offer a realistic picture of what a human being can do to bring suffering to an end. In a direct negation of the annihilationist view that Ajita Kesakambalin expounded, the standard definition of mundane right view states: "There is what is given, what is offered, what is sacrificed. There are fruits & results of good & bad actions. There is this world & the next world. There is mother & father. There are spontaneously reborn beings; there are contemplatives & brahmans who, faring rightly & practicing rightly, proclaim this world & the next after having directly known & realized it for themselves."
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 21:08:41 +0000
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