Right View is a living insight that fills us with Happiness

The Noble Eightfold Path consists of 8 right ways that serve as a path to enlightenment. In order to achieve enlightenment, all of the 8 ways must be aligned. The first practice of the Noble Eightfold Path is Right View (samyag drishti). In achieving Right View, mindfulness is an essential tool. The idea of Right View is the understanding that within every one of us are wholesome seeds and unwholesome seeds. If you have ever felt loyalty, then there is a loyalty seed within you. Concurrently, if you have ever felt betrayal, there is also a betrayal seed within you. There is nothing wrong with this because we all have unwholesome seeds that some may be ashamed of. The important tool is mindfulness and being aware that both types of seeds are within your consciousness.

In order to achieve happiness, one must recognize when the unwholesome seeds are being watered. This is like the First Noble Truth of recognizing the suffering. Once this is achieved, the next step is to seek out the source of the water. Who or what is causing these seeds to flourish? Next, once this is discovered, the source of the water must be relieved so it is no longer present. From then on, once the unwholesome seeds no longer receive water, then insight of happiness is achieved because only the wholesome seeds will be nourished.

Right View is commonly associated with edible food. There are certainly foods and toxins out there that can cause us to suffer. No one ever leaves Taco Bell saying, "Wow! I feel

enlightened!" There are plenty of foods out there that are causing so many people to suffer. Open mindfulness of what we are putting into our bodies can help us achieve harmony and happiness with ourselves. Wholesome foods can give us energy, help us maintain healthy weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, and make us feel good about ourselves! However, junk food, refined sugars, and processed food will cause us to gain weight, lose energy, and even worse can destroy self esteem. The Buddha said "...The Right View is knowing which

of the four kinds of nutriments that we have ingested have brought about what has come to be." You are what you eat and maintaining Right View in your eating habits can lead you to extraordinary happiness and health!

If you won a once in a lifetime dream car like a Ferrari and you knew this would be the only one you would ever have in your entire life, how would you treat it? Would you put cheap gas in it or would you fill it up with premium? Premium gas will make it last longer, drive faster, and you'll get more power out of it. The same goes for you body. You only get one life so treat it with respect and it will lead you to a path of happiness.

-Chad