Wrong View

Wrong View

THE BUDDHA once told a story about a young man who was a trader and had a beautiful wife and baby son. Sadly, his wife fell ill and died, and the man poured all his love into his little child, who became the sole source of his happiness and joy.

Once while he went away on business, bandits raided his village, burned it to the ground and captured his five-year-old son. When he returned and saw the devastation, he was beside himself with grief. He found the charred corpse of a small child, and in his desperation, he took it for the body of his son. He tore at his hair and beat his chest, and wept uncontrollably.

At last, he arranged a cremation ceremony, collected up the ashes, and put them in a very precious silk pouch. Whether he was working, sleeping or eating, he always carried that bag of ashes with him, and often he would sit alone and weep, for hours on end.

One day his son escaped from the bandits, and found his way home. It was midnight when he arrived at his father’s new house and knocked on the door. The man lay in bed, sobbing, the bag of ashes by his side. “Who is it?” he asked. The child answered, “It’s me, daddy, it’s your son. Open the door.” In his anguish and confusion, all that the father could  think of was that some malicious  boy was playing a cruel trick on him. “Go away,” he shouted, “leave me alone.” Then he started to cry once more. Again and again, the boy knocked, but the father refused to let him in. Finally, he slowly turned and walked away. The father and son never saw one another ever again.

When he came to the end of his story, the Buddha said, “Sometime, somewhere you take something to be the truth. But if you cling to it too strongly, then even when the truth comes in person and knocks on your door, you will not open it.”

Having the right view is extremely important. How can one even plan to live correctly when one has the wrong view. Its is like walking for many many years in a wrong direction, how can one get to the right place.

There are ten kinds of False Views:
1.      No virtue in generosity.
2.      No such virtue in liberal alms-giving.
3.      No virtue in offering to guests.
4.      There are no such things as Kamma and Vipaka (The Law of Cause and effect).
5.      There is such thing as this world on present existence.
6.      There are no past lives (existence) or future lives.
7.      There is no mother.
8.      There is no father.
9.      There is nothing dies or reborn.
10.  There are no righteous holy people in this world such as Buddha and Arahants.