Exploring the Path - Pāli Course

“Therefore right view is a forerunner. And how is, Bhikkhus, right view a forerunner? He perceives properly wrong thoughts as wrong thoughts and right thoughts as right thoughts, in this way he is one with right view.

And what, Bhikkhus, is wrong thought? Thought of sensual longing, thought of ill will and thought of violence. This, Bhikkhus, is called wrong thought.

And what, Bhikkhus, is right thought?

Right thought, Bhikkhus, I say is twofold: there is, Bhikkhus, the right thought that is influenced by dormant impurities and partaking of merit with attachment ripening and there is right thought that is noble, free from impurities, supramundane and a factor of the path. What, Bhikkhus, is the right thought that is influenced by dormant impurities and partaking of merit with attachment ripening? Thought of renunciation, a thought that is free from aversion and a thought that is free from violence.

This, Bhikkhus, is called right thought that is influenced by dormant impurities and partaking of merit with attachment ripening.

And what, Bhikkhus, is right thought that is noble, free from impurities, supramundane and a factor of the path. There is someone, Bhikkhus, of noble mind without any dormant mental impurities, endowed in the Noble Path and developing it, thinking, investigating, directing of thought, considering it, mental fixation on one’s thoughts, mental focused application of one’s mind and the formation of speech.

This is, Bhikkhus, right thought that is noble, free from impurities, supramundane and a factor of the path. In this way he strives hard to avoid wrong thought, to get established in right thought, in this way he is one with right effort. Thus fully aware he abandons wrong thought and acquires right thought and dwells therein: that is right awareness. These three states follow and circle around right thought, these are: right view, right effort and right awareness.”

* Mahācattārīsakasuttaṃ: Mahā + cattārīsa + ka + suttaṃ – great + forty + sutta, cont.