Right View: The Path To Lasting Happiness

The first step in the Buddhist Eightfold Path to lasting happiness is Right View. It's strikingly simple: you can know experientially what leads to happiness by observing its effect on you. Does it--including just the thought of it--produce a feeling of consolation or peace, or ultimately does it leave you unsettled, unsatisfied, or desolate? This guided meditation and talk explore how to direct our lives using this simple guidepost.

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background noises.

Transcript

Focus in the room and as we're just coming into this space, You can sense yourself fully arriving here, Being able to let go of the day, Of everything that has happened throughout the day and just enter fully into this moment. You can check the alignment of your body just to see that again through the spine, Up through your shoulders and head, You're sitting in a way that's attentive but relaxed. You can let your hands just rest gently in your lap or at your side and your feet on the floor. And we can begin with just a few full deep breaths, Filling the lungs on the inhalation and then slowly relaxing and releasing on the exhalation. And again, Another full deep in-breath, The chest rising and then releasing and relaxing on the out-breath. And one full deep in-breath, Feeling the chest rise, The lungs expand and holding the breath at the top of the inhalation and just feeling that contraction within the body, That energy within the body and then relaxing and releasing on the out-breath, Allowing the breath just to be natural and easy. The gentle inflow and outflow of the breath that has that natural calming effect on both the body and the mind. Scanning for any obvious areas of tension within the body and allowing them to relax and release. Checking first the brow, Smoothing out across the brow, All of the muscles around the eyes, Releasing the tension there, Releasing down through your jaw, Allowing the shoulders to drop, Moving down through your torso, Checking the abdomen for any tension there, Breathing into any tension, Allowing it to relax and sweeping down through the hips to the legs, Feeling the sensations of the body, Contact with the chair, The weight of the body against the chair. Relaxing down the arms and feeling the points of contact between the hands and the chair or your legs and the aliveness there in the hands. It could be a feeling of energy or tingling and then relaxing down the legs to the feet and feeling contact with the feet and the floor. Sweeping the attention through the body for any remaining areas of tension. Breathing gently into those parts of the body and allowing them to relax and release. And as strange as this may sound, We can begin this meditation by trying to let go of the meditator. The meditator that's trying to get this right or checking in for how it's going or trying to make something happen. So for this meditation, We'll try to let go of the meditator and let go of effort and let go of trying to alter anything or make anything better. You may find this challenging or uncertain as to what will happen or disorienting. But in letting go of the meditator, You can simply be with everything in a completely free and open way. You can be with everything that is without thought of how it's supposed to be. Not looking for anything. Worried about what kind of experience this will be. So for a moment, Just experiencing things right now, Simply as they are, Without trying to change anything. Nowhere to go. There's nothing to do. There's no one to be. It's just a spaciousness. It's not demanding anything of you, This experience. Everything is fully present here, But without that me checking to see how it's going. And if that meditator is still asking you, Are we doing this right? You can just notice that effort to control things and thank the meditator for its effort and just ask it for some space. Simple awareness and the flow of experience without an opinion about it, Without any thought about it. It's like being at the side of a river and watching it flow and then hopping on a raft and let the river take you wherever it's going. No resistance to the river, Wherever it's taking you. Just taking in the sights, The sounds, The sensations, And that ease of just allowing everything just to be. What's it like when you're not making any demands on experience? Is there except the experience? Open, Abiding, Free, Non-attached, Non-grasping awareness. So could this be what we have been searching for? Maybe searching hard for and always feeling is elusive. Could it be this close? The natural sense of ease and a sense that everything that you seek, The peace or the balance, The reconciliation with experience is just right here. And maybe silently to yourself, You could think of a word or a phrase that for you captures this experience, Whether it's peace or clarity, Wakefulness, Kindness. Don't worry about which word it is. Just pick one for now. And then softly with each in breath, You could repeat that word to yourself. Feel how this affects the whole body. This is the desire of your heart. This is what is calling to you right now. It's already awake inside of you. When you just pause this beautiful part of yourself that's calling you forward. And we'll conclude in a moment. But before we do you, We just see if you can relax into this space a little bit more. This truth of who you really are. And silently bowing to this presence with gratitude. And as you're ready, In your own time, You can come gently back. And as you're ready, You can open your eyes. How are we supposed to live in this world? How are we supposed to orient ourselves? This question might seem even more pressing these days, With the headlines, What's happening in our lives in this world? Or in the words of the poet, Mary Oliver, Tell me, What is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Tell me, What do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? So open question for all of us. There's no single answer. There's no right answer. I know when I was younger, I felt like my happiness was very much attached to trying to figure out what I was supposed to do in life. And I felt like this also this question had only one answer. And I had to get it right. But I didn't know what the answer was. And so, And I was really kind of worried about getting it wrong, Too. What happens if I get it wrong? And so it's like, Kind of all over that I felt. But I didn't really feel like I had any guide, Or anyone to explain to me how you're supposed to find this out. But, You know, People when you're young, Keep asking you, Well, What do you want to do in life? What do you want to be? Right? And I just was very nervous around that question. I never could figure it out what the right answer was. And, And I felt almost like it was like there was probably like a message in a bottle somewhere about what that answer was. But I didn't know where the bottle was. I didn't know how to open it. So, So you know, The Buddhist path is in some ways, An attempt to try to answer that question. Or as the Buddha said, To try to untangle the tangle of our lives. Or maybe just in plainer terms to confront the sense of, You know, Things are not quite right, Or maybe very not right. And how is it that we can never arrive to a sense of, Of ease, Or rightness in life, Or a sense of balance. And a sense that this somehow this struggle is over, You know, The struggle. And the Buddha laid out this Eightfold Path, Which you've, You've probably heard about. And, And each part of the Eightfold Path starts with a word, Various translations, It's, It's right, Or wise, Or skillful, And they're, And it's really trying to kind of go through all of dimensions of human life. It starts out with wisdom factors, It's right view, And right thought and right speech, That's kind of on the wisdom spectrum, And then conduct, Right action, Right livelihood, Right effort. And then finally, In the mental faculties, Right mindfulness, Right concentration. So, So we could spend quite a while going through all of these if we wanted to. But for tonight, I'm going to take the very beginning, The entry point in this whole thing, Called Right View, And say just a few words about that, Which is also just kind of like the entire frame for this whole thing for this whole endeavor, Not to say it's the whole, The whole endeavor itself, Because it's there's a lot, Right. But really sort of sets the direct direction for the rest of this. The 20th century Zen master and New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra said, If you don't know where you're going, You'll end up someplace else, Right? So very important at the very beginning to figure out like, Well, Which way are we going? And one of the, You know, One of the interesting things for me is this whole thing about Right View is extremely straightforward and simple. It starts with a simple observation, Which is when we are motivated by greed, Hatred, And delusions, Then our actions plant a seed of unhappiness for ourselves and everybody else that we're around. On the contrary, If we act motivated by generosity and kindness, And understanding and wisdom, We plant seeds of happiness for ourselves and others. And this broader view of every volitional activity bears fruit of some kind in our lives in one direction or another. This is the law of karma, A word that's very misunderstood in the West, Because I think we usually think of karma as some kind of, You know, Cosmic punishment for something in our past and so forth, Or it maybe makes it kind of difficult or dangerous to go out in the world because you're afraid of this thing called karma. That's not the Buddha's understanding. Karma actually just means action, Literally translated means action. And although you may think popularly understood, Karma has this kind of deterministic view that, You know, Everything, You know, Whether it's something good or something bad, It's because of something else, And there's really kind of no way out of this whole thing. I think it's actually the opposite. It's a sense of agency in the world, Or even empowerment in the sense that we're actually completely free at any moment to choose which way we want to go. And it's actually pretty important which way you want to go, And that you can make this volitional choice, Which will have these direct effects on your happiness or your unhappiness, Just right here and now. And this is, You know, This is like, With all of Buddhism, This is not a philosophy or a cosmology. It's really very experiential. And, You know, The Buddha always said, Don't take what I say on faith, Or just because I said it, Try it out for yourself and see if it's true. You know, Try it out. And this is very much confirmed by modern neuroscience that tells us that the brain is not a fixed thing, That the brain is actually plastic in the sense that every single day the brain is shaped by our experience, You know. And so we actually have a, We have a direct input into the shape and contact of our brain based on what is happening. Neuroplasticity, The, You know, Neuroscience is called neuroplasticity. They have this saying that neurons that fire together, Wire together. So you do something, Let's say you're heading in the wholesome direction, And you do something, And you just attach those neurons, You know, And you're going to kind of create that path, And you're going to move deeper and deeper down that path, Or on the side of unwholesomeness. And, You know, This is very much, I think, Resonates in the experience of meditation, Because we all know we have these ruminating thoughts that are often going through our minds, And we sort of have this choice in meditation. We can consciously experiment with trying to pull the brain down from those ruminating thoughts and focus somewhere else, Let's say on the breath or body sensations, And even for a moment clear this space in our mind, This open space, That's very different character than those thoughts, Heading the brain down that alternative path. You know, But it all just starts with a little thought, And it's amazing the power of those little thoughts. I think of so many stories of people who have started meditating, And it's often based on just seeing or hearing one thing, And that sort of ringing a bell in their head about maybe there's something there. There's a very well-known teacher, Ajah Shanti, Who was a bicycle racer, And I think he helped out his dad in a metalworking shop, And was reading a book one day, And came across the Enlightenment. He didn't have any sort of spiritual or religious upbringing, So he said, Enlightenment, And it's just sort of like, Enlightenment, Wow, Like what's that, You know? It was like, It just kind of started something inside of him. Or the story of the Buddha himself. I mean, The Buddha grew up as a prince, So he led, I think until the age of 23, A life that was basically filled with one sense pleasure, After another, After another, And very protected from the outside world. And according to the story, One day he was sitting around with his charioteer, And he said to his charioteer, You know, I'd like to go out and see some more of the world, Like, Could you help me? And he said, Sure, Let's go. So they went out, And he saw a person bent over in old age. He saw someone who was very sick, And he saw a corpse, And he was surprised, Because these were not things that he saw around the palace. And so he started to quiz his charioteer, Like, So explain what this all is, Explain this to me. He said, Well, It's old age, It's sickness, It's death, It's, That's sort of a part of life. And this was kind of mind-blowing to the Buddha. And then he saw this guy wandering around with robes on, And he asked his charioteer, Well, Who's that guy? And the charioteer said, Oh, Well, He's an aesthetic. He's like a, You know, Wandering monk who is dedicated to spiritual practice. And the Buddha thought, Really? You can do that, Huh? Like, That's a thing, Huh? Like, That's a thing you can do, You know? You can be a prince, Or you can be a person who's wandering around, Engaging in spiritual practice. Well, It wasn't long before the Buddha left the palace, Left everything behind, And sat out on that path. I'm going to try this. So I'm saying all this because it's, You know, These thoughts, You know, If you pay attention to them, They're often, You know, They're often calling to you in some way. Or I think every one of us could tell the story of why they're here, Or what was that thing, That word, That image, You know, That actually made you think to yourself, Like, This is possible. Like, This sort of path is possible for me. Here's the beginning of the Dhammapada, Which is a Buddhist text. All experience is preceded by mind, Is led by mind, Is made by mind. Speaker act with a corrupted mind, And suffering follows as the wagon wheel follows the hoof of the ox, The wagon being yoked to the ox. So when the ox moves, So does the wagon wheel. Speaker act with a peaceful mind and happiness follows like a never departing shadow. Or this from Gandhi, Who said, Your beliefs become your thoughts and your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny. We have wholesome, And we have the unwholesome. And if you, If you are like me, A reader of the Washington Post, The front page is usually filled with the unwholesome. In fact, It's a greed, Hatred, Delusion. Sometimes when I look at the front page in the morning, I drop them into categories. It's usually one of the three, Like, See, Though, That's greed. Oh, Here's down here. This is delusion right here, You know, And yeah, Well, This is hatred. There's plenty of hatred, You know, It's here and here and here and here. So, So, So I, You know, I, I somehow I'm struck by this that, You know, The, The, The one person who does something unspeakably horrible, That's never balanced by the one person the same day who did something speakably good on the front page, You know, Have you noticed that? So, So, So some, Some, Like I say, Like front pages of Washington Post, At least for me, Pretty clear, Right? But of course, There, There, There are gradations and, And there are, There's subtlety to this as well. You know, I mean, Certainly there are times where you're trying to decide between competing alternatives and it's not completely clear, You know, Which, Which way to go. But I think, You know, Part of, Part of this path is to realize, Too, That because the wholesome has this natural tendency to plant seeds of wholesomeness or happiness, And the opposite with unwholesomeness, That there's actually an experiential feel to both that's very different. And the Buddha said, You know, Goodness, Good actions are good at the beginning and good in the middle and good at the end. So when you're thinking about something, Doing something wholesome, There is a feeling of goodness. When you're doing it, There's a feeling of goodness. And then when you're thinking back on what you did, There's also a feeling of goodness. There's sort of like this alignment, This resonance. And then the opposite for unwholesome, That there's sort of left with an unsettled feeling, You know, Like a little bit of a taste of that. The, Say, Ignatius had this, Had this same expression where he said, You know, You act upon the wholesome intention, It's like, You're coming home to your own house. And you're opening the door and you're going in, And you're feeling at ease and peace, Being in your own house. And there's actually a story about him, He, He's from the 16th century in Spain, And his he grew up desire similar maybe to the Buddha, You know, He wanted to be a knight and distinguish himself in battle. And so he went off to fight the French. He got hit by a cannonball. He was laid up in bed for several months. And he had nothing to do. And he asked for some books. So they brought him a few books. There were some books about knights and their chivalrous tales of courage. And he would read those, And he would get very excited. But then afterwards, He put the book down. And we feel like, Sort of like an aftertaste, Like, I don't know, It was exciting. But now, Doesn't feel great. It doesn't, You know, And then someone brought him a book of the saints and all of their deeds of goodness, And charity, And their spiritual practices. And he read those books and got very excited, Initially, Too. But then afterwards, It left this residue of peace, And calm, And a feeling of rightness. So he spent a few months thinking about this. Well, Which way am I going to go, Right? And he chose the wholesome path, A sense of consolation. He described it, Not as wholesome or unwholesome, But consolation and desolation. Like the wholesome action left a sense of consolation versus desolation. I remember reading a poem once by a man who had experienced homelessness, And after years of painful addiction, And the poem was called Thinking It Through, Where he was clean and sober, But he was frequently thinking about going back and getting high. And so in his mind, He would then perform this exercise where he thought, He would first examine all the thoughts about, Why do I want to do this? And it was always his mind trying to convince him that, No, No, This will be, This will actually feel really good. You won't get stuck in addiction, You can just go get high once, And it'll be over. Mind just trying to convince him over and over again to do this. But then Thinking It Through, He thought, No, No, Let's see what's going to happen. Because he'd been through this many times, And thinking, I will get high, I'll fall into addiction, I'll be back on the street. And he saw the entire path, And then thought to himself, Maybe in the Buddhist terms, Well, What's the wholesome and the unwholesome? You know, Can I discern this for myself? So and he was almost, He didn't use these words, But he was really engaging in an exercise in mindfulness, Right? Mindfulness being the ability of the mind, If you quiet yourself, To slow things down, To create some space, To provide that gap between the stimulus and the response, And in that gap, To feel that there's freedom to choose. So every moment of mindfulness matters, I think, You know, And it's not a it's not a kind of a contest to see how mindful you can be every single day. But it's an appreciation that every moment of mindfulness has this beneficial effect. I'd also say, Every moment of community has a similar beneficial effect. You know, The ability to be with like-minded people who are practicing together has that same has that same effect. The Buddha also said, Hey, If you are interested on the wholesome side, There's, There's something that's always available to you at any time, Which is generosity. It's like a train you can hop on at any moment. And I mentioned, I think maybe one or two classes ago, Where I was here, If you go to Asia, And you ask to practice Buddhism, They don't teach you meditation. The first thing they teach you is generosity. So you're interested in Buddhism? Okay. Well here, The 101, The entry level course is generosity. Let's do that first. And once you got a handle on that, We'll start to teach you ethics, And then meditation. I'll note one story. I think I mentioned in one class too, I used to work at a homeless shelter in New York City. And there was a man who arrived one day. Lots of people come to volunteer. This was unusual. I never heard this before. A guy knocked on the door. And he said, I was wondering if I could come and I could make soup once a week for you. I said, Well, We have a soup line. We feed hundreds of people. He said, Yeah, Nobody just want to make the soup. And we're more than welcome. And then he explained that his psychiatrist had told him that he had to go and be generous. This was like a prescription. His psychiatrist had written him to go be generous once a week. And so he had thought himself, He knew this place because it was in the neighborhood. He knew the soup line. So he said, Yeah, Yeah. So I went downstairs and I showed him. Well, He had the 20 pound sacks of split peas and lentils and navy beans. And we threw a few vegetables and just boiled it forever. And that was the soup for the soup line. And he said, No, No, No. I'm going to actually bring all the ingredients myself. OK, So you never know with people. But sure enough, Once a week he showed up with all these bags of groceries and he made soup like you would eat at a restaurant, You know, For a few hundred guys. And I thought, OK, Well, This psychiatrist, Like he knew what he was up to. I mean, This psychiatrist, I don't know. I got to get the name of this guy because, You know, He's he's pretty wise. Right. So maybe the last the last thing I'll say about all this is, You know, This this can be hard. You know, This can be hard. I think it can be hard because it can be hard to connect inside of ourselves with that basic wholesomeness or goodness. Right. And and there are lots of different reasons for this. But if you don't really have some insight or some experience of what that wholesomeness or goodness feels like for yourself, It can be very hard to navigate this. And I think, You know, There are all sorts of reasons, Of course, For that. Some of them can go back deep into our past experiences that we had of including of abandonment or even trauma and experiences that follow us through our lives in one way or another, Or just any other sort of deep conditioning that really has in one way or another told us that, You know, That wholesomeness or that goodness is not accessible to you. Right. But I would say a couple of things. One is that that there is always, I think, For all of us, You know, That that sense of resonance, You know, When you when you hear when you hear these terms or think about the options, You know, This this complete freedom to choose which way it is that you want to go. I think for all of us, There's something that responds and says that, Yes, That wholesomeness, You maybe feel it dimly, But it is there. Or you can simply for yourself, If you feel that it's difficult to touch, You can turn around and provide that kindness to yourself. That if you provide that same kindness to yourself, Then you can feel its effect. Or there's a, You know, St. John of the Cross said, If where you find that there's no love, If you place love, Then there will be love. If there is no love and you place love there, You will find that there is love. And the very last thing I'll say is, You know, There's one meditation teacher that says, Tries to sum all this up and say, Well, They're really just two instructions. One instruction is point in the right direction. And then the second instruction is keep going. Point in the right direction. Keep going. So before we do some sharing, Maybe we can just go back inside for just a minute more. So again, Just finding a comfortable way to sit. And just for a moment, Just returning to the meditation and the sense that we can, With just a little bit of effort, Return to this intention, Which is already inside of us. It's the same intention that brought you here today. And you may express it in lots of different ways. Maybe it's desire for some calm or some peace, Or a desire to awaken your heart, Or a desire to live more fully. Whatever that desire is, That is already there. Just for a moment, Return and just recognize it's there. And if it has a word you want to associate with it, Whether it's calm, Or peace, Or ease, Just call to mind that word. And you could just gently repeat it to yourself. And realize that this is who you are. You don't have to go seek this thing. This thing is already here, Present, Calling to you. And concluding with these words, I am the owner of my actions, My own happiness or unhappiness. This is my life. May I meet it with ease and balance. And may I remain unshaken by life's rise and fall. And in your own time, Coming gently back.