Part of key topic The Noble Eightfold Path
4. “Today I saw a milk carton being thrown away. I’m not sure if everyone knows they are recyclable. This sight initiated a fire for me. I told myself, ‘It’s just thrown away.’ Then I told myself, ‘It’s just my mind on fire.’ Can you speak about Right View? Does it come back to what I can truly know? How do I consider long-term patterns that may not be apparent right away? One milk carton is not a big deal. One milk carton a day starts to add up.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Contact] [Feeling] [Environment] [Right View] // [Kamma] [Cause of Suffering] [Cessation of Suffering]
Quote: “We can be right and still create tremendous suffering.” [Views] [Suffering]
18. “What are skillful views and opinions? And what are the indicators of a Dhammic conversation/dialogue?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Views] [Right View] [Right Speech] // [Conflict] [Suffering]
8. “I have greatly appreciated the teachings on non-proliferation, especially Ajahn Karunadhammo’s answer to last night’s question regarding the underlying feeling that is often present and driving a particular proliferation. I live with an autoimmune disease which currently requires frequent adjustments to my medications.... It is quite a conundrum to care for this body and track the various symptoms, all of which I find unpleasant, and yet not to proliferate on what needs to happen next. Going to the body in my practice, while useful, is not reliably calming, and sometimes seems to add fuel to the fire. This retreat I have been practicing with Right View and Right Understanding by repeating key phrases from the daily talks and have experienced what feels like a very deep insight at times. Do you have any words of guidance for when I go off retreat on working with this human body and this all-too-human mind?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Proliferation] [Feeling] [Sickness] [Pain] [Mindfulness of body] [Right View] [Right Intention] // [Suffering] [Ajahn Chah] [Restlessness and worry] [Gladdening the mind]
Sutta: SN 36.6: Shot by two arrows.
Simile from Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, p. 159: Being injected with poison. [Similes]
Quote: “It can still be uncomfortable, but it doesn’t have to be complicated.”
4. “Can you say more about the practice of awareness of arising and ceasing in relation to discernment and right view?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Becoming] [Cessation] [Mindfulness] [Discernment] [Right View] // [Impermanence] [Ajahn Chah] [Conditionality] [Self-identity view] [Happiness] [Mindfulness of mind] [Patience]
Reading from an unnamed recent Ajahn Chah book. [Relinquishment] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma]
Quote: “I don’t teach you guys much. Just be patient.” — Ajahn Chah.
5. “A Buddhist teacher explains as I understand it, that the first three factors of enlightenment are causes and the last four are the effects. And that a meditation practitioner therefore works on the first three (with right view) and the last four will follow in time. Please comment. Thank you.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Factors of Awakening] [Right View]
3. “How can I change my motivation around trying to get my Buddhist parents to adopt the correct Right View?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Right View] [Right Intention] [Parents] // [Compassion] [Patience]
Recollection: Ajahn Chah taught in a way that made you think that you figured it out yourself. [Ajahn Chah] [Teaching Dhamma] [Self-reliance]
Ajahn Ñāṇiko quotes the Dtao Te Ching regarding leadership. [Taoism] [Leadership]
2. “What are spontaneously reborn beings? [in the context of Right View, e.g. MN 117]” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Rebirth] [Realms of existence] [Right View] // [Deva] [Birth] [Ghost]
4. “Is there a way to skillfully form and investigate opinions about the world in terms of Right View?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Kaccāna. [Views] [Right View] // [Four Noble Truths] [Suffering] [Conditionality] [Proliferation]
Follow-up: “What happens when we see that another person’s view causes suffering and pain?” [Communal harmony]
4. “When the Buddha mentions stream entry, he often mentions both sīla (virtue) and view.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Stream entry] [Virtue] [Right View]
16. “These readings give the sense that the Northeastern Thai Isan culture is the soil that supports the living tradition. Are there cultural attitudes or ingredients that would be helpful for laypeople in addition to the key things of sīla and Right View?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Culture/Thailand] [Thai Forest Tradition] [Culture/West] [Virtue] [Right View] // [Generosity] [Meditation] [Precepts] [Guilt/shame/inadequacy] [Happiness]
7. “In what way are qualities and effects viral? Are right perception, right speech, right thought, and right action also viral?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Media] [Online community] [Perception] [Right View] [Right Speech] [Right Action] // [Abhayagiri] [History/Western Buddhism] [Mindfulness] [Skillful qualities] [Happiness] [Tranquility] [Trust] [Human]
1. “Ajahn Geoff often says that non-duality is not part of the Buddha’s teachings because it refers to unity rather than complete transcendence. In your experience, do most teachings on non-duality refer to an allness or something more compatible with the Buddha’s teachings?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Ajahn Ṭhānissaro] [Right View] [Unconditioned] [Advaita Vedanta] // [Equanimity] [Non-identification] [Knowing itself] [Language] [Culture/West] [Culture/India]
Sutta: MN 137.17: Equanimity based on diversity, etc.
Sutta: MN 1.25: They are attached to the All.
Quote: “One of my pet peeves is when people say, ‘I really love non-duality.’” — Eric McCord.
3. “I don’t have any clear memory of past lives, and I’m happy not to overly speculate about that. But some monks suggested that you need to take on the doctrine of rebirth as part of Right View. Do you have any thoughts about this?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Rebirth ] [Right View] // [Self-reliance] [Ajahn Amaro] [Four Noble Truths] [Ajahn Chah] [Becoming]
Sutta: MN 117.6: Definition of Right View.
Quote: “You don’t have to believe in past lives or future lives in order to be a practicing Buddhist, do you?” — The Dalai Lama. Quoted by Ajahn Amaro. [Dalai Lama] [Buddhist identity]
Story: Ajahn Chah describes the supernatural beings who live at Wat Pah Pong to two sincere Dhamma practitioners, then refuses to answer inquiries about this topic by a group from Bangkok. Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Non-human beings] [Wat Pah Pong]
1. Teaching by Ajahn Pasanno: Confidence or belief in the law of kamma is the foundation of mundane Right View. [Faith] [Kamma] [Right View] // [Rebirth ]
Sutta: MN 117.7.
Follow-up: “Would you say [mundane Right View] includes rebirth?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Kaccāna. [Right View] [Views] [Conditionality] [Spiritual traditions] [Ordination]
Sutta: MN 60: Apaṇṇaka Sutta.
6. “If you have a right view of causality, does that mean you automatically have Right Intention?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Right View] [Conditionality] [Right Intention]
Sutta: MN 117: The Great Forty.