The Welcome to the Joseph Goldstein Insight Hour. This podcast is an expression of our shared interest in self-discovery.

Join Joseph as he shares his deep practical wisdom.

Tonight I'd like to explore some elements of the first step on the

no bladeful path which is right view.

And Polly, this is Samaditi.

And it would be hard to overestimate

the importance of understanding this because right views sets the direction

for our entire path. Now if we're on a journey, no matter how long or how difficult the

journey is, if we're heading in the right direction and we keep going, we'll inevitably reach

the destination. If our direction is correct and we keep on going, we will inevitably reach the goal.

But if we don't have the right direction, even with the strongest aspirations and the

strongest efforts, we could be wandering a long time and not fulfill those aspirations.

So the Buddha was very clear about this in many ways.

He said that just as the dawn is the forerunner and the precursor to the rising sun.

So is right view the dawn.

So is right view the forerunner and precursor of the breakthrough to the four noble truths,

those truths that liberate the mind. So just as the dawn is the forerunner and precursor of the

rising sun, right view is the precursor and the forerunner to our understanding of those truths which actually

liberate us. The right view can be understood from two different aspects.

First, it is described as a particular function of the mind.

And that is very particularly the mental factor of wisdom.

So in one way we could say right view is the wisdom factor of mind and the function of wisdom the way wisdom manifests in our minds is to illuminate what's arising so we can understand and

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