3.2.7

Lesson 3.2.7 Mahācattārīsakasuttaṃ, Part One – Discerning Wrong View and Developing Right View

The Mahācattārīsakasutta describes the ‘Great Forty’ — results that right view can produce when preceding the other factors of the Path. That is why it is said that ‘right view comes first’ (sammādiṭṭhi pubbaṅgamā hoti). The wholesome foundation of sammādiṭṭhi strengthens all other factors including right knowledge and right liberation and produces not only beneficial results but at the same time abolishes the micchā-factors and removes their potential unwholesome results. For this, the following two factors play the essential role: sammāvāyāmo and sammāsati. That is why it is said these two ‘follow and circle around sammādiṭṭhi’. Buddha also highlights that someone who follows and strides the Path but is still with hindrances and impurities (sāsavā), though slowly eliminating them, nurtures mundane right view and will gain beneficial results. Someone who has entered the Path as a Noble Disciple by having reduced impurities to a certain extent (anāsavā) has developed taintless, ‘supramundane right view’.