Sutra number nine is the Sammaditthi, the sutra on right view. It's not given by the Buddha himself, it's a teaching by the Buddha's disciple, Shariputra. Shariputra gives a series of 16 different ways of understanding what constitutes right view.
This is of course a key discourse since Sammaditthi, right view, is the first element in the Eightfold Path. If one is on the Eightfold Path, one is enlightened and has reached the highest level of spirituality and understanding. The text is not without its difficulties.
It can be interpreted in different ways according to how literally one wishes to read it. It can be taken in a thoroughly extinctionist way. It contains such statements as that right view is to understand the cessation of birth and the way leading to the cessation of birth, or the cessation of consciousness and the way leading to the cessation of consciousness, or the cessation of bodily formation, verbal formation, and mental formation, and the way leading to the cessation of formations.
So it could be about how to fully understand how to bring life to an end in such a way that it won't happen again, to achieve complete extinction. There are certainly some people who will understand it that way. Is there another way? I believe there is another way.
The 16 topics are all concerned with the psychophysical process of life. We have desires and hates, acquisitive instincts and repellent instincts. These involve us in the world.
On the back of this involvement, one builds a sense of self. You might say, I desire, therefore I am. I hate, therefore I am. This is me.
The text is asking us to deeply recognize, inquire into, and understand this process. It is advocating the investigation of dhamma. To do so is to achieve insight into one's own depth psychology. It needs an analytical self-reflective process. The 16 topics are different ways into this process, and there could be more, but one needs a starting point.
There are then four aspects or stages to each topic. Recognize it, have insight into the cause and consequence of it, have insight into the way to avoid the cause and consequence, and experience the outcome of doing so. In this way, one will eliminate the underlying tendency, and with it, one will eliminate the conceit of self, which is the key.
Thus, one might recognize one's anger. One might gain insight into how anger arises, and what the consequence may be. One may gain insight into how to avoid having it arise, and see the consequence of it not arising, and one may experience life without anger. The sense of self that one defended by anger will then evaporate.
There's an implication in the sutra too that it doesn't make much difference what the starting point is. Whether one starts by investigating one's anger, one's compulsiveness, one's attachment, one's pride, or whatever, one can investigate in just the same way and that will constitute right view, viewing things the right way. Arriving at full clarity in this way about any aspect of one's life will cause the conceit of self to evaporate, and thus also give clarity upon all the other aspects of one's life.
The sutra ends, in this way: a noble disciple is one of right view, whose view is straightforward, who has unwavering faith in the Dhamma, who has arrived at the true Dhamma.
Namo Amida Bu. Thank you very much.
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