They take untruth for truth; they take truth for untruth; such persons can never arrive at the truth, for they hold wrong views.<\/p>Translated by Daw Mya Tin, M.A<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Wrong views are ways of looking at the world that don’t accord with how things really are. They are stories, mental frameworks, obsessions and self justifications that are unhelpful and delusional. In a way, right views are also stories and mental frameworks but they do accord with how things really are. We can have a variety of different views and they might conflict with each other. Some might be wrong, some might be right, some might even be perfect but they are all ways of looking at things; ways of looking at our experience, at other people, at our mental states and ways of looking at the world such as it is or isn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what exactly are wrong views and how do we know when we have one? Well, the easy answer is “Relax, you do have wrong views”. The slightly more helpful answer is that they can be thought of as wrong views in ethics, the middle way or wrong views in the nature of reality. You could slice them up any way you like though, but I find these categories helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Buddhists we work towards following ethical precepts. For lay followers there are 5 precepts<\/p>\n\n\n\n I undertake to abstain from taking life. Anytime we think its OK to take life, to steal, to tell lies then we are suffering from a wrong view. If we think that ethics don’t matter or we are somehow above all that kind of stuff then again we are in a wrong view. If we suppose that everything is relative and terribly postmodern and there are no ethical standards so we can do what we like, then once again it is a wrong view. Ethics do matter. They are the first and last training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conversely when we invariably fall short of the precepts, if we imagine that we are awful people and have done something wicked and can never ever ever be redeemed then that’s not right either – it is a wrong view. We all have gossiped or taken a few pens from the office when maybe we shouldn’t have done or just have been a little bit inconsiderate to another living being. When we do, we can always recover. Breaking Buddhist precepts isn’t a sin or a stain on our characters. It is a training principal so we can always move on and do better next time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Buddha taught the Middle Way – the middle way between extremes. Whenever we find ourselves moving towards those extremes then we are descending into wrong views. So to use the classic example<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is eternalism at one extreme where we believe we will persist for ever beyond our death Anytime we are sliding towards nihilism or eternalism then we are in wrong view. Moreover, we may have a proclivity to occupy one of the extremes. I certainly find myself sliding towards nihilism. Others may do the opposite. The way things are is in the middle – or perhaps not quite. The middle way doesn’t occupy some grey central ground between two compelling but stark opposites. It transcends both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conditioned existence has 3 characteristics<\/p>\n\n\n\n All conditioned things are impermenant Anytime we view anything as being permenant we are in wrong view. Any time we grasp after something because we believe it will give us lasting satisfaction – we are wrong. Anytime we see ourselves as being fixed, as having a little vital piece of us lodged behind our eyes – unfortunately we are wrong. We are suffering from wrong view. The nature of conditioned existence is impermenant, unsatisfactory and nothing has any inherent selfhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my experience a lot of the problems we face from come from a wrong view around the impermanent, insubstantial nature of existence. Even if we intellectually know it that things are impermanent, in our heart of hearts we believe that we do have a self and that we will never be separated from the things we love if we grasp them hard enough. So we suffer, and continue to suffer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While it’s instructive to consider the generalities of wrong views, it’s probably even more helpful to reflect on the particulars. I worked in a digital agency a while ago and was chatting to a friend who was a project manager. He was telling me about the very expensive car that he hoped to be able to buy one day. It would have lots of horsepower and be very fast and would probably be a lovely shiny blue colour. I asked him if he thought that the car would make him happy. He just shrugged and said probably not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No-one becomes a project manager at a digital agency because they are a particularly spirtual kind of person and my friend was no exception. But he did know in his heart, that buying an expensive car to be happy was a wrong view. Like my project manager friend, we all have wrong views and like my project manager friend, we all kind of know it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They take untruth for truth; they take truth for untruth; such persons can never arrive at the truth, for they hold wrong views.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-01-twin-verses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions\/274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dhammapada.baysidebuddhist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/blue-car-1.jpg\")
\n\n\n\nEthics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
I undertake to abstain from taking the not-given.
I undertake to abstain from sexual misconduct.
I undertake to abstain from false speech.
I undertake to abstain from taking intoxicants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThe Middle Way<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
There is nihilism at the other extreme where we will cease to exist on our death<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThe Nature of Reality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
All conditioned things are unsatisfactory
All conditioned things have no inherent self<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nWe All Have Wrong Views<\/h2>\n\n\n\n