The Eightfold Path is divided into Paths of Vision and of Transformation. In our FBA Dharmabyte today and#8220;The Context of Perfect Visionand#8221; Sangharakshita illustrates how perfect vision can arise, and concludes by showing how Buddhists have communicated their vision of reality in conceptual and imaginative terms.
Talk given in 1968.
This talk is part of the series and#8220;The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path.and#8221;
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. And this brings us now to our second major topic, which is the relationship between right understanding, the first of these so-called steps or ungrids, and the seven other ungrids. First of all, let me say a few words about right understanding itself. Right understanding is the usual translation, but here one must observe that the usual translation is very inadequate. In Sanskrit, it is Samyak Trishti, or in Pali, Samar Ditti. I don't like always having to bring up Sanskrit and Pali words, but sometimes it's necessary, because we can get at the real meaning of these terms, these expressions, only by going back to the original languages. So Samyak Trishti, usually translated as right understanding. But what does Samyak Trishti really mean? Samyak, which is pre-fixed to all the eight ungrids of the path, means proper, thorough. It also means whole, integral, complete, perfect. It's certainly not right as opposed to wrong. If you speak of right understanding, well, you get the impression of a right understanding as opposed to a wrong understanding, or right speech as opposed to wrong speech, right action as opposed to wrong action. So if you translate Samyak all the time by right, right, right, you get the impression of the whole path being interpreted in a rather narrowly ethical, not to say narrowly moralistic sense. But Samyak is much more than just right. As I've said, it's whole, complete, perfect. Probably perfect is the best translation. And Trishti is from the root meaning to see. Trishti means sight. It means view. It means vision. It's not just understanding. Certainly not understanding in the theoretical or the intellect or the abstract sense. It's something direct, something immediate, something if you're almost intuitive. So Samyak Trishti, the first step of the Noble Eightfold Path, is not just right understanding. If we translate it thoughtlessly as right understanding, a whole subtle misunderstanding is introduced. Samyak Trishti is much more like integral view or perfect vision. If we translate it in this way, we get much closer, much nearer to the real meaning and to the inner feel as it were of the expression. Integral view or perfect vision. If you just stop and think for a moment, if you try to as it were feel these different translations feel their spiritual value, you'll find that perfect vision suggests conveys something rather different from right understanding. Right understanding is a bit trite, a bit ordinary, a bit intellectual. If you say perfect vision, this is though a whole new world had opened up in front of you as though an extra dimension as it were had been introduced. So let it be therefore perfect vision, but a vision of what? A vision we may say, and here we're speaking just provisionally for the time being, a vision of the nature of existence, the truth or the reality of things. What this is or what this involves or implies, we shall see a little later on. We haven't yet finished dealing with the relationship between right understanding or rather perfect vision on the one hand and the seven other angers on the other hand. Now according to Indian Buddhist tradition, ancient Indian Buddhist tradition, and this is very important, the noble eightfold path is divided into or falls quite naturally into two sections. The first of these is known as the path of vision, the path of vision, the sounds which is the Darshan Amarka, and the second is the path of transformation, the Bhavanamarka. So a path of vision, path of transformation, the path of vision corresponds to the first anger, the first so-called step, that is to say perfect vision, this represents the path of vision. And the path of transformation corresponds to all the other angers, all the other steps so-called, of the eightfold path. So under the heading of the path of vision, you've got the first anger, under the heading of the path of transformation, you've got all the others, all the other seven, that is right resolved, right speech and so on, rights down to, right meditation. Now what does this mean? What is the significance of this distribution of right or perfect vision under the heading of the path of vision, and all the other angers, all seven of them, under the heading of the path of transformation? What is the significance of this? What does it mean? The right understanding or the perfect vision, we may say, represents what we may describe as the phase of initial, spiritual insight and experience. And the rest of the eightfold path represents the transformation of one's whole being in all its heights and depths, all its aspects, and top to bottom, in accordance with this insight and this experience. It represents a complete, a total, thorough going transformation of one's emotional life, of one's speech, one's communication with other people, one's relationships with other people in general, one's livelihood, and so on. A total transformation of one's being in all these different aspects, though not necessarily in this strict sequence. One may, for instance, transform one's livelihood, which is the fifth step before one's speech, which is only the third. But eventually, in one way or another, sooner or later, the whole being is to be transformed in its heights, in its depths, conscious and unconscious. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Byte. Please help us keep this screen. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. And thank you. 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