Establishing right view (SA301)

Thus have I heard.

At one time, the Buddha was staying at the reception hall in the forest of Ñātika. Then, the venerable Katyāyana came to where the Buddha was, saluted him by prostrating with his head to the ground and touching the feet of the Buddha, and sat down at one side.

He then asked the Buddha: “World Honoured One, you speak of right view. What is right view? How, World Honoured One, does one establish right view?”

The Buddha said to Katyāyana: “There are two bases to which people in the world are attached, to which they adhere: existence and non-existence. Because of their attachment and adherence, they are based on either existence or non-existence.

“In one who has no such attachment, bondage to the mental realm, there is no attachment to self, no dwelling in or setting store by self. Then, when suffering arises, it arises; and when it ceases, it ceases.

“If one does not doubt this, is not perplexed by it, if one knows it in oneself and not from others, this is called right view right view as established by the Tathāgata (the Buddha).

“Why is this? One who rightly sees and knows, as it really is, the arising of the world, does not hold to the non-existence of the world. One who rightly sees and knows, as it really is, the cessation (passing away) of the world, does not hold to the existence of the world.

“That is called avoiding the two extremes, and teaching the middle way, namely: Because this exists, that exists; because this arises, that arises. That is, conditioned by ignorance, activities arise, and so on …, and thus this whole mass of suffering arises. When ignorance ceases, activities cease, and so on …, and thus this whole mass of suffering ceases.”

When the Buddha had taught this discourse, the venerable Katyāyana, having heard what the Buddha had said, became freed of all influences, attained liberation of mind, and became an arahant.

Translation by Choong Mun-keat (Wei-keat), 2004.

Originally published in Choong Mun-keat (Wei-keat), The Notion of Emptiness in Early Buddhism, 1995, 1999. Used by permission of the translator.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.