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REALIZING THE WISDOM CETASIKA
Right Understanding, sammaditthi, often termed Right View, is the last in the list of the 52 cetasikas, the categories
of mental functions. The word samma translates as “correct”, “most fitting”, etc. The word ditthi translates as
“understanding”, “view”, “concept”, etc. I personally use the term “Clear Awareness” instead of Right Understanding.
That awareness process is free from misperception about the three characteristics of reality: impermanence, non-self,
and the distress/confusion that is the consequence of craving and clinging.
In the Noble Eightfold Path, the Wisdom aggregate includes sammaditthi and sammasankhappa, which is typically
translated as Right Intention, Right Resolve, or Right Aspiration, and consists of the intention to do no harm. I prefer to
render this as Benevolent Intention, as that seems a more clear expression of the concept as I understand its function.
The ultimate goal of Buddhist practice is the liberation of the mind from attachment to a particular view, freedom
from the “drivenness” of life and ignorance regarding the true nature of reality. This is wisdom, and in Pali this is termed
panna (pahn-yah); another similar term is gnana (nyah-nah). It is a core concept of Buddhist liberation, and is also
termed amoha, that is, the absence of ignorance. In this regard, amoha cooperates with two other wholesome
cetasikas, alobha (generosity, the absence of greed,lobha), and adosa (non-aversion/lovingkindness, the absence of
dosa, aversion and ill-will).
Some commentators describe the completion of the Noble Eightfold Path as having ten aspects: Right
Understanding, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right
Concentration, along with Right Insight and Right Liberation. Right Insight (sammagnana) and Right Liberation
(sammavimutti) represent the full realization of the liberating potential of the Path, that is, the direct experience of
nirvana and complete freedom from distress/confusion (dukkha). In this regard, vimutti is realization beyond the
conceptual into the actual lived experience of liberation.
The natural progression of this liberating process begins with conceptual understanding of the Wisdom aggregate,
the Virtue aggregate (Right Speech, Action and Livelihood) and the Mental Training aggregate (Right Effort, Mindfulness
and Concentration). The cultivation of Virtue fosters a clear conscience, which provides a lifestyle with enough clarity
and balance to function as a foundation for Mental Training).
In the talk entitled “The Virtuous Cetasikas”, posted on November 30, the fulfillment of the virtuous cetasikas was
reviewed, emphasizing that the concept of Virtue provides a guide, that is, a standard of kindness, compassion,
generosity and patient tolerance to be achieved. When Mental Training (The application of the Wholesome Cetasikas) is
diligently practiced, with sufficient training time, Virtue matures so that being virtuous becomes “second nature”,
emerging from a clear awareness of the opportunity and benefit of virtue that emerges effortlessly as contextual
circumstances warrant.
The fulfillment of this virtuous “second nature”, combined with sufficient Mental Training, provides direct insight,
with unassailable clear awareness of the impermanent nature of reality and a realization that there is no definable and
enduring autonomous self-state organization. Sammagnana (Right Insight) and sammavimutti (Right Insight) is then
apparent, directly experienced and deeply affirmed by the practitioner. This is the fulfillment of the Four Noble Truths.