Concept
View (Buddhism)
Overview
View or position (Pali diṭṭhi, Sanskrit dṛṣṭi) is a central idea in Buddhism. In Buddhist thought, a "view" is not a simple, abstract collection of propositions, but a charged interpretation of experience which intensely shapes and affects thought, sensation, and action.
Having the proper mental attitude toward views is therefore considered an integral part of the Buddhist path, as sometimes correct views need to be put into practice and incorrect views abandoned, and sometimes all views are seen as obstacles to enlightenment, which ultimately must be understood in a non-conceptual manner.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where View (Buddhism) is discussed.
One kind of view, which I think is very commonly held, is that it is something "spiritual" in its nature, or something whose nature is utterly unknown to us. And those who hold this view are apt to add, that it is not really "circular," in any sense at all; nor is the "source" of my half-crown experience, in any sense at all, "bigger" than that of my florin experience.
G. E. Moore, Philosophical Studies
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
In reality the points of view do not exist, for there are only views, each given in an indivisible block and representing in its own way the whole of reality, which is God. But we need to express the plurality of the views, that are _unlike_ each other, by the multiplicity of the points of view that are _exterior_ to each other; and we also need to symbolize the more or less close relationship between the views by…
Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution
names the idea; opens on it
Desire is a subject upon which, if I am not mistaken, true views can only be arrived at by an almost complete reversal of the ordinary unreflecting opinion. It is natural to regard desire as in its essence an attitude towards something which is imagined, not actual; this something is called the END or OBJECT of the desire, and is said to be the PURPOSE of any action resulting from the desire. We think of the content…
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
There is, however, another form of the view that virtue consists in obedience to authority. This may be called “the administrator’s ethic”. A Roman or Anglo-Indian pro-consul would define virtue as obedience to the moral code of the community to which a man happens to belong.
Bertrand Russell, Philosophy
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
"When two or more letters are always in view, not only do the processes of seeing and naming overlap, but while the subject is seeing one letter he begins to see the ones next following, and so can read them more quickly. Of the nine persons experimented on, four could read the letters faster when five were in view at once, but were not helped by a sixth letter; three were not helped by a fifth, and two not by a…
William James, The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1
names the idea; opens on it
Philosophers who discussed View (Buddhism)
Related ideas
- Ātman (Hinduism)
- Doxography
- Nyingma
- Soteriology
- Saṃsāra
- Anattā
- Nirvana
- Noble Eightfold Path
- Sanskrit
- Pratītyasamutpāda
- Buddhism
- Pali
- Pedagogy
- Rebirth (Buddhism)
- Buddhist ethics
- Avidyā (Buddhism)
- Karma in Buddhism
- Buddhist cosmology
- Early Buddhist schools
- Vajrayana
- Upaya
- Sādhanā
- Routledge
- Asceticism
Place in the tradition
Part of Buddhist philosophy.