Kaccānagotta

SN 12.15

At Savatthi, Venerable Kaccanagotta went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat to one side, and asked,

“Sir, what is ‘right view’?

“Kaccana, this world mainly relies on two ideas: existence and non-existence.

But when you see the origin of the world with true insight, you won’t have the idea of non-existence in the world.

And when you see the ending of the world with true insight, you won’t have the idea of existence in the world.

Kaccana, this world is enslaved by attraction, grasping, and biases.

But, when you don’t go along with attraction, grasping, obsession, biases, underlying tendencies and have no notions of ‘my self’; you will have no doubt that whatever arises is just suffering, and whatever ends is also just suffering.

This knowledge is certain and independent of others.

This Kaccana, is ‘right view’.

‘Everything exists’: this is one extreme.

‘Nothing exists’: this is the second extreme.

Avoiding both, the Buddha teaches Dharma by the middle way like this:

Ignorance conditions activities. Activities condition consciousness. Consciousness conditions name and form. Name and form conditions the six sense bases.

The six sense bases condition contact. Contact conditions feeling tone. Feeling tone conditions craving. Craving conditions grasping.

Grasping conditions becoming. Becoming conditions birth. Birth conditions ageing, death, sorrow, crying, pain, sadness and stress. That is how this mass of suffering comes to be.

When ignorance completely disappears, activities end. When activities end, awareness ends. When consciousness ends, all of the rest of the chain of conditions ends too. This is how this mass of suffering comes to an end.”