I want to talk this morning about the basic Buddhist teaching of right view. And to give some context, this is part of the early Buddhist teaching of the Eightfold Path, which is part of the Four Noble Truths, one of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings. So the Four Noble Truths are first of all just the truth of, sometimes it's called the truth of suffering. Dukkha is the Sanskrit word, things are out of line. There is dissatisfactoriness, there's difficulty in our lives and in the world, this is pretty obvious. I talk about it as a noble truth because we can actually face this.

[01:04]

So our practice is to sit and face the wall, to sit up brightly, to sit calmly, and in doing so we face the difficulties and the sadness of our life and of the world. and to do so is a noble practice, to find our own dignity in the middle of that, to face it and perhaps to respond to it. There's a possibility of responding when we're willing to face it. So that's the first noble truth. The second noble truth is that there's a cause for this suffering and difficulty in the world. Sometimes it's described as the grasping after objects of desire, that we have, not so much that we have desires, because we do have attractions and aversions, but that we try and grab a hold of something we think will satisfy this dissatisfactoriness.

[02:04]

The third noble truth is that there's an end to this suffering and sadness. This doesn't necessarily mean that we fix all the problems of the world, but there's a way to respond. And then the fourth Noble Truth is how to do this, called the Eightfold Path. So the first in the Eightfold Path is the one I want to talk about today, right view, the others, I'll come back to right view, but the others, there's different definitions of these eight different descriptions, but one way that they're described is after right view, right thought or right consideration, right speech, very important, right action, right livelihood. Maybe the most important in our time and the most difficult

[03:06]

how to find a way to support ourselves, how to even find a living wage in our society is challenging and difficult with all the economic inequality that there is. So right livelihood is a whole huge topic in and of itself. And I'm going to refer to, well, I'll just mention the other three, right effort, right mindfulness or remembrance, and right meditation or samadhi. But just to say, We have various systems with numbers of practices. So we're going to be talking in the practice period coming up about the six or the 10 Bodhisattva practices, transcendent practices.

[04:08]

We talk about the 16 Bodhisattva precepts in our tradition, in our lineage. But this Eightfold Path, I want to mention in terms of Right Livelihood, I talk sometimes about the Tibetan, the Vietnamese teacher, excuse me, Thich Nhat Hanh and his Fourteen Precepts of Inner Being as a commentary on some of our Bodhisattva precepts. And so just to say about Right Livelihood, his eleventh precept of inner being or mindfulness training. Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. And our first Bodhisattva precept is that a disciple of Buddha does not kill, which means also they support life. So do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realize your ideal of compassion.

[05:10]

So right livelihood is a huge, complicated topic. But what I want to talk about today is right view. And I'll come back to some comments on that from Thich Nhat Hanh. But right view is interesting and complicated. What is the right understanding of Buddhist teaching? What is the right view or understanding of reality in the world. So we talk about Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Buddha is the awakened one or the principle of awakening that is in the world. Dharma is truth or reality, or the teaching about it. How do we find the right understanding or view of Dharma, of the teaching?

[06:13]

The third jewel is sangha or community. How do we support each other? How do we find, in our various communities, support for developing right view? This is particularly interesting and maybe problematic in Buddhism. What is right view? Buddha's teaching is that it deconstructs itself. So the Buddha taught after he became the Buddha for 45 years. This last Wednesday evening I was at an interfaith panel in Oak Park. a Muslim teacher, a Baptist minister, and a rabbi, and me representing Buddhism. And I started by saying that there are many Buddhisms, and that I couldn't represent Buddhism.

[07:22]

they were all talking about right view involving, of course, believing in God, which I had to say, there's no God in the Abrahamic sense in Buddhism. Anyway, how do we understand the right view of Buddhism? And Buddhism has so many different schools and sutras and that it deconstructs itself. Each different iteration of Buddhist teaching emptiness, teaching talks about the emptiness of the earlier teachings, that all ideas we have about the teaching are empty, as well as our idea of ourself is empty, and all the things of the world are empty, and then there's the teaching of suchness, which kind of undercuts that, which is that there is this reality, which we can call suchness.

[08:30]

So, the emptiness of emptiness, that emptiness itself is not a thing. So, anyway, and then tomorrow night, Brook Siporin will be here talking about Buddha nature and the Nirvana Sutra, which says that actually the original teachings were that there's no self, and impermanence, and suffering, and impurity in the world. And yet, the teaching of, in the Bodhisattva tradition, at the end of his life says, as we sometimes chant, Jo Raku Gajo, that there is self, and that there is permanence, and there is bliss, and there is purity. But that's seen from the ultimate perspective. So, Buddhism is constantly deconstructing is a good way of putting it itself. And so part of right view in Buddhism is that there's no right view.

[09:39]

or that right view is to be open to all views. This is very relevant today in terms of not just looking at interfaith discussion, and we live in a world where there's a multiplicity of religious traditions and philosophy and so forth, and how do we interact with different perspectives? Also in terms of politics and the social world now, there's so much chaos and confusion and different views. So how do we engage with people with different views? How do we stay open to hearing other views? So I want to go back to Thich Nhat Hanh. His first three of his 14 precepts of interbeing are very much about right view.

[10:42]

The first one, he says, do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist systems of thought are guiding means. They are not absolute truth. So this is interesting and helpful, that to study the Dharma, to study Buddhist teachings, to study views of reality, is not to be caught in some dogma. This doesn't apply just to Buddhism. How do we not be dogmatic about our views? How do we not be caught in some ideology? How do we be open to learning something new? How do we be open to listening? How do we be open to the reality in front of us, not caught by some ideology or idea about what's in front of us?

[11:53]

So we may have some very clear ideology about whatever, some particular idea about how the world is or how we think things should be or whatever. But if we get caught by that ideology, we're not actually open to seeing what's in front of us. We're not open to seeing things freshly. We're not open to the situation. that we are in. mindfulness or teaching or preceptive inner being, do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice non-attachment from views in order to be open to receive others' viewpoints.

[13:01]

Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout your entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times. So I think in our Western system of thought and education, maybe this happens in all systems of thought and education, but we learn something and then we think that is it. And then we get caught by that. How can we be open to learning from others? How can we be open to listening to others? How can we be open to a wide view? So Suzuki Roshi, my teacher's teacher, talked about beginner's mind. To always be fresh and open to learn something new. This doesn't mean that we don't have our own particular views.

[14:07]

We may have some understanding and some idea about some perspective about the world and how things are and how things can be. And it's not that we shouldn't have any ideas about reality or about what's happening in the world or about how things can or should be. But if we hold on to those too tightly, we may miss something. So in terms of interfaith work, in terms of listening to other views of the situation of the world, it's important to be able to listen to other views. It doesn't mean we have to agree. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't actually speak our truth. So in one of his other precepts, he says, do not criticize or condemn things of which you are not sure.

[15:12]

Always speak truth. truthfully and constructively, have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety. So, you know, speak your truth to power, but also to be open to listen to others. people who have different views from us, from you, may have something, may have their own perspectives, their own fears, their own awarenesses, that may inform your own views. So, this right view is not about having one right view. It's about having, being open to a range of views, being open to a wide view, being open to all views in a sense. It doesn't mean that all things are relative and that you believe everything, but it also means

[16:13]

Kind of openness, so his third, Thich Nhat Hanh's third precept. Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education. However, through compassionate dialogue, help others renounce fanaticism and narrowness. So how can we speak our truth, but listen to others? And when there's disagreement, dialogue means hearing others. It doesn't mean trying to persuade or convert others to your point of view, or that you should be converted to other points of view, but just to listen, to tolerate. tolerate not in the sense of, oh, well, okay, I'll tolerate your stupid view. It means actually to be willing to learn, to be willing to be informed by the range of possible views.

[17:23]

without inflicting your truth on somebody else or trying to persuade them, but open, compassionate dialogue. Sometimes people do change their mind. Sometimes we change our mind. How do we listen to other views? How do we have open, wide view? This is challenging. So we can have views of reality, views of the world, views of spiritual truth, views of what is happening in the world. But to be stuck in this is the correct view, and only this is the correct view, It blocks understanding. It actually blocks right view. It blocks our ability to learn, to be informed by nuances.

[18:30]

Part of right view is accepting complexity. That the way the world is, is not one narrow perspective, but many perspectives. How can we be open to and actually hear other people's truths? And each of these eightfold paths are informed by the others. So right view has to do also with right speech. How do we talk about our view in a way that is not imposing something or blaming somebody else or shaming somebody else for having some different view.

[19:35]

Even if we disagree with that view, how do we stay open to hearing? So compassion in Buddhism means the name of the bodhisattva of compassion. We're going to be studying in the practice period coming up these different major bodhisattva figures. The bodhisattva of compassion, her name is the one who hears the sounds of the world, who hears the voices of the world. So to hear the different voices is compassion, to listen. to listen carefully and mindfully to others. It doesn't mean we necessarily agree with their views, but we're open to hearing different perspectives. This is all part of right view. And then to speak as if respectfully that other people have the right to their views.

[20:37]

We may not agree. How do we disagree agreeably? How do we disagree respectfully? This is quite an art. This is quite difficult. It's really difficult now in our time when people are entrenched in various strong views, and we may have strong views ourselves, but how do we express them in a way that's not dogmatic and you know, that's open to seeing the range of possibilities. So another aspect of this, it's not part of the Eightfold Path, but right study is a kind of topic in our tradition. Going back to Dogen, the 13th century Japanese founder of our branch of Zen, and also Suzuki Roshi and his branch of modern Soto Zen, we study

[21:43]

Buddhist teachings in the range of different Buddhist teachings. And, you know, there's different kinds of studies. So I also teach Buddhism academically, and a number of you here have studied academically. And, you know, in that kind of context, you're learning something so that you can understand it conceptually and discuss it in that way and respond intellectually, but in the context of our spiritual tradition in Soto Zen and in Suzuki Roshi lineage too, we talk about study not to reach some particular view or understanding. It's okay if you have some understanding, and you may have a very good understanding, But the point isn't to reach some understanding.

[22:45]

The point is, how does your study, how does your understanding support your practice? How does it support your ability to, as I said about the First Noble Truth, to just sit uprightly and face the difficulties, face the sadness of the world and of your life, and to respond from your understanding but without being dogmatic, without shutting out, without disrespecting the other possibilities of understanding, the truths of others. So right study is to study not for the sake of figuring out something or reaching some true understanding, but to support and nourish your own engagement with the world, your own practice. your practice of sitting uprightly in zazen, but also your practice of being open and clear and responsive in your own life, with the people around you, and in terms of responding to the difficulties of the world.

[24:02]

So this right view is is subtle and complicated, and maybe the right view is that there's no one right view, or maybe the right view is that there's a right view, but it's the right view that is open to listening to all views. I could keep babbling about this and talking about other parts of the Eightfold Path, but part of Right View is listening, so I want to hear any comments or other views about Right View or anything else, or any questions that any of you have, and we're very fortunate to have had several people for meditation instruction this morning, so if you have any questions about meditation, which is also part of the Eightfold Path, or anything else, we have time for comments, questions, and all kinds of views, so please feel free.

[25:06]

Yes, Phyllis. Because there are so few that I have, really it's just learned. I've never been, I was told, that's the truth. So, I've got my own world, I guess. Yes.

[26:44]

Thank you. So our view is a process. It's something that through our experience, it evolves. So, you know, the idea of beginner's mind that Sukhiroshi talks about is that we're always open to learning more. He talks about in the expert's mind, there's very little possibility. In the beginner's mind, there's possibility for learning and for learning more and that we're always evolving. One of the people in the interfaith panel, and I wasn't totally sure that that's what he was saying, but seemed to be saying that There's a given truth from, I won't say which faith he was representing, but there's an absolute given truth from his scriptures and that's it. And you can't vary from that. So there is that kind of idea out there in the world, that there's some given truth and you have to hold onto that. But actually, what you're talking about is the process of being alive and being,

[28:29]

affected and influenced by being alive and this process of learning and developing our view. So yeah, thank you. Thank you. Other comments? Yes, Miriam. What I've only seen here. Hakuin's picture of two blind men feeling their way along a bridge.

[29:40]

Thank you, yeah. So it's tricky though, because we sometimes have some perspective on something, where we feel some truth about something in the world, and we want to put that out there. But if we get caught by that, then we lose our open mind. It can be subtle. Yes, Brian? I've appreciated how you have been speaking about how we hold what we believe to be true in relation to others. But there's also something that I've appreciated that I've seen here, with you and others, in talking about Buddhist teachings.

[30:50]

It's not just whatever. I mean, Right View, I wonder if it also includes, over time, an understanding of what Buddhism teaches. Because there have been times where I have Since I've come from a different tradition, I've sort of compared something that I'm hearing about here with what I've studied in the past. And I will say, well, it's kind of like this. And you or someone else will say, well, no, not really. Buddhism really teaches about this in this way. And it's not dogmatic, but it's something. It's something particular. And so I wonder if Right View also includes to use an old-fashioned term doctrine, particular teachings? Yeah, that's right. So, the side of speaking your truth, and I mentioned that, you know, Thich Nhat Hanh's talking about speaking your truth, and so there are teachings and doctrines about the way things are,

[32:01]

So then to understand those and to try and apply those, but in terms of right view, yeah, there is this right study. They're studying how things work and how things they're studying it from the perspective of the teaching and the complexity of the teachings and the vast amount of teachings in Zen and in Buddhism and so we do that kind of study here, but also we study it not just intellectually, we study it in terms of how does it feel, you know, so Dogen, for example, who I talk about a lot, whose writings are very intricate and complex and baffling in some ways, and I also teach, I'm teaching him academically now, but he's, difficult to understand unless you're doing sitting practice.

[33:11]

That somehow being present and upright and doing this meditation practice is where, the meditation is where Buddhist teachings come from. And so our groundedness in our practice and in our awareness and in our willingness to settle, it's not that that's the same as the teachings, but it's the place where we kind of test the teachings or where we feel how the teachings work. So that's the part about the teachings are there to support our practice and vice versa. So yeah, there are particular teachings. It's not that everything is equally true. It's not that there's no values. It's not that truth is completely relative. Truth is situational in a sense.

[34:14]

But again, to try and impose even the truth that we believe firmly, or that we hold firmly from our practice experience, to impose that on others, as Thich Nhat Hanh says, through some force or something, that's That doesn't help. How do we have compassionate dialogue where we respect others' truths and have a way of practicing and talking about it? So yeah, it's not that there is not some view that is coherent, but it's flexible. It's not rigid. And as I said, it deconstructs itself, and it has many sides. Yes, Asha. I agree with what you're saying, that it is flexible.

[35:22]

It's not rigid. And yet, one thing that I encounter a lot these days is people's views that are written down in newspapers or on the internet And at least when I read things in the New York Times online, I know I'm reading somebody's opinion because it said opinion at the top. So I can take that as like, OK, I can take this on. This is your opinion. But a lot of times, you read things where people present things as like, this is reality. It's very, I find it very challenging, because I don't always know what they're talking about, I don't always agree with what I think they're talking about, and it doesn't feel like there's any room to, for dialogue, or for, you know, sort of to elucidate that process at all.

[36:22]

And then, you know, before you know it, there's a flame war going on, and that doesn't help either. You know, it seems like it, tend to actually just lead to polarized views. And it doesn't help communication. So I don't really know what to say about that. I just wanted to comment that I think sometimes when we write things down in black and white, it can seem very much like a fixed view. And I think about the Metta Sutta and how we talk about the importance of not holding to fixed views. Yes. I just want to make a pitch for not willing to fix views and not taking things that we read as a fixed view either, even if they seem to be. Yeah, and there are lots of things that are put out there as facts that I wonder about the sources.

[37:27]

There's all kinds of facts and statistics. Statistics can be manipulated in all kinds of ways. Anything can be. Yeah. Yeah, I remember this story about a man who drowned in a river of an average depth of one inch. Yes.

[38:27]

Oh, there's no purple people? Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah, and I think to own that this is my opinion. So any other comments or responses or questions? Yes, Dylan. that people said, you know, may have been influential in some way, and say, how do you change public politics?

[40:36]

I take a lot of cues with this one. Yeah, good. Yeah, we that's the yeah, that we have that we can change that our views can change that reality shifts itself. So so thank you all very much.

[41:01]

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