Revoked: Jul 21, 2025

RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering

What is the cessation of suffering? It is the remainderless fading away and ceasing, the giving up, relinquishing, letting go, and rejecting of craving. (MN 9)

When one knows and sees perception as it actually is, then one is not attached to perception. When one abides unattached, one is not infatuated, and one’s craving is abandoned. One’s bodily and mental troubles are abandoned, and one experiences bodily and mental well-being. (MN 149)

Reflection

Last week the emphasis was on how not knowing and seeing perception accurately can lead to attachment and the difficulties that it brings. Here the focus instead is on the benefits of understanding perception appropriately. Perception, the mental function of interpreting sensory data, is a natural and useful thing for the mind to do. In fact, it is a great ally helping us bring insight and understanding to the world of our experience.

Daily Practice

Practice making the step from mindfulness to insight. That is, when you are mindful of the sensations of the breath, for example, go on to notice that they are constantly changing and that it is the characteristic of all sensations to be impermanent and in flux. When observing the thoughts flowing through the mind, recognize they do not belong to anybody, but are interdependently arisen. This is perception facilitating right view.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Appreciative Joy
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering

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