In the last Minute, I gave a brief overview of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path and how it works to uproot problematic patterns within the mind and leads to an experiential peace beyond the scope of conditioned existence.
At first glance, the process seems to unfold in a stepwise progression. The path begins with forms of skillful action, moves into the cultivation of certain mental capacities, and, ultimately, ripens into an experiential wisdom grounded in the truth of things as they are.
Tempting as that schemata is, it can be a bit misleading. With a stepwise progression, it’s all too easy to begin with a sense of movement towards a destination. We do something now, we follow these steps, and after a period of development, we’ll get somewhere better, beyond this hot and holy mess we’re in right now.
Rather than imagining a stage-based progression, I have found it more helpful to see seven of these limbs as integral aspects of one strategy: seeing reality as it is and acting in accordance with that vision. From this perspective, Wise View sits in the very center of the path, and the other limbs branch out of and feed back into Wise View, with ever deepening understanding.
A few lines from Bhikku Bodhi’s book The Noble Eightfold Path give a sense of the strategic importance of Wise View:
“The importance of right view can be gauged from the fact that our perspectives on the crucial issues of reality and value have a bearing that goes beyond mere theoretical convictions. They govern our attitudes, our actions, our whole orientation to existence… They structure our perceptions, order our values, crystallize into the ideational framework through which we interpret to ourselves the meaning of our being in the world… Though our conceptual orientation towards the world might seem innocuous and inconsequential, when looked at closely it reveals itself to be the decisive determinant of our whole course of future development.”
In other words, a view is a conscious or unconscious assumption of what we take the world to be. A casual glance at Facebook updates will provide a surfeit of such views. Some people feel ‘blessed’ by a Universe that responds to their intentional desires. Others feel blighted by the callous indifference of same Universe. Still others affirm their contempt for 47% of the population (sorry, couldn’t resist).
Bottom line: it is from our view of things that perceptions are shaped, and from perceptions, subsequent actions emerge.
Practically speaking, from the very beginning, it behooves us to humbly incline the mind towards an understanding of things ‘just as they are’, free of the expectation that we’ll practice to conquer something or acquire certain attributes.
Here’s a question that I’ve started to use at the beginning of practice sessions: What is this moment free of my desire that it be other than it is? Or as Larry Rosenberg asks, with slightly different emphasis: “Life sets the curriculum. Are you willing to take the course?”
Originally published on September 25, 2012