Dharmapala College

Moving from Wrong View … to Right View … to No View

Open to all with good basic knowledge of the Dharma and a regular practice of meditation.

How do our conceptual constructions shape our very experience of the world we live in? And how does such conceptual proliferation (prapanca) sustain our delusion, spawning ever more views of reality and thus leading us ever further astray? Buddhists today often associate the idea of “no views” with the Zen tradition, but in fact this is a key Dharma theme originating in the earliest strata of Canonical Buddhism. The Pali Canon repeatedly stresses the importance of weeding out wrong views, embracing right views, and eventually giving up all views. And the Buddha, we are told, often gave pithy advice on how to go about this.

The early Mahayana - both Madhyamika and Yogacara - carries this theme forward, exploring in various ways the limitations of all conceptual formulations of the Dharma. But what does it mean to have no views? Or rather what does it not mean? And, why does the tradition so consistently stress that the only way to no views is by way of right views? Indeed our own teacher regards this relationship as a crucial area of practice, noting for example in his “15 Points for Old (and New) Order Members” that “Right View is of very great importance… no Right View, no Perfect Vision. If there is no Perfect Vision, there is no liberation, no Enlightenment, no Nirvana, no real spiritual progress.”

Teachers—and especially those presenting the new Mitra course—will find this seminar a good preparation for leading study on “The Way to Wisdom” (the second year module in the new mitra course). The seminar will make clear why working with views is a crucial area of practice and will aim to provide an introduction to key Buddhist teachings on views. Study material will be drawn from Sangharakshita’s writings and transcribed output, the Pali Canon and the Yogacara.

27 May, 6pm to 01 June, 2pm, at Madhyamaloka, Birmingham
With Jnanaketu and Saramati

Suggested donation: £ 150

To ask for further information or to book for this event, please contact us here.

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