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THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION IN INDIAN RELIGIONS
to spiritual perfection.
Right view means right philosophy of life. Buddhism considers false views and perverted opinions as positive hindrance to liberation. Knowledge of the Four Holy Truths constitutes right view. Right aspiration or resolution consists in the strong desire to attain liberation. It also includes sustained zeal for removing all fetters on the path of liberation. Right speech means truthful and meaningful speech. It also implies avoidance of falsehood, backbiting, malicious, useless and impolite speech. Right action means morally good actions of body, speech and mind. Right livelihood means earning one's living by just means. It prohibits unlawful and immoral means of livelihood such as killing animals, cheating and theft. Right effort is to work continuously for the purification of one's own heart, to stop evil tendencies and cultivate meritorious deeds. A verse in the Dhammapada states that to do no evil, to accomplish good, and to purify one's own heart; this is the teaching of the Buddhas. 58
A very important word in the entire range of Buddhist literature is “mindfulness' (Pali sati, Sanskrit smrti). In a famous discourse known as the Satipatthānasuita, recorded both in the Digha and the Majjhima-nikayas, the Buddha says:
"This, O monks, is the only way for the purification of beings, for overcoming suffering and lamentation, for the destruction of suffering and grief, for reaching the right path, for the attainment of nirvana, namely the four stations of mindfulness
(smrtyupasthāna)."59 The four stations of mindfulness are :
1. mindfulness concerning the activities of the body (kāya), 2. mindfulness with regard to feelings (vedanā), 3. mindfulness with regard to the activities of consciousness
(citta), and 4. mindfulness concerning objects, ideas, conceptions, percep
tions etc. (dharma). Without mindfulness concentration is impossible and without concentration the real nature of
things cannot be known. Dr L.M. Joshi remarks:
"Mindfulness is a power, a process which transforms human
58. Dhammapada, verse 183, 59. Dīghanikaya, vol. II, pp. 217f.
Majihimanikāyo, vol. I, pp. 76.
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