While all 8 aspects in the Eightfold Path work together and support each other’s advancement, it’s necessary to begin with a sense of direction. Right view handles the role of compass as we make every effort to remove suffering and achieve knowledge through our research study of– and experience with– the Four Noble Realities.
Undertaking and taking in the Right View is similar to planning a journey:
First, you conceptualize the journey: researching the travel options, the areas and sights.
Then you understand the trip, experiencing very first hand (and ideally, in the moment) all those aspects of the trip you got ready for.
Phase One– Right Understanding
Right view is first recognized conceptually and includes accepting the idea of karma– domino effect– and how actions effect results:
- Believing, speaking and physically acting in an ethical and moral way is useful not only to oneself, however also to those around us;
- Believing, speaking and physically acting unethically and immorally is a detriment to all.
All 3 actions are grounded in volition– a mental event that is actualized through idea, words and physical conduct.
Defining Behavior
Understanding volition requires a deep dive into comprehending unwholesome and wholesome, and the Buddha (among his many lists of realities, courses, limitations, precepts, vows) parsed unwholesomeness into 10 classifications (spread across the 3 actions):
