What Is the View?

The "ground" (bhūmi) in "view-ground" refers to the levels of cultivation and realization, the status and position one occupies. In the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, Bodhisattva Maitreya divides the grounds into seventeen grounds, from the ground of ordinary beings to the ground of Buddhahood. At each ground, the identity is different and the position is elevated, differentiated according to the degrees of merit, wisdom, and meditative concentration. Among them, the desire realm has nine grounds, which are divided according to merit, while the form realm and the formless realm are divided according to meditative concentration, with wisdom also playing an auxiliary role. The grounds of ordinary beings, arhats, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas are divided according to realization, and realization includes merit, meditative concentration, and wisdom.

Therefore, the term "view-ground" cannot be applied to ordinary beings, because only when one's views have been personally realized and one's understanding has been verified—when one has attained the patience with non-arising and the patience with the non-arising of dharmas—does one possess a certain liberating wisdom, and one's identity rises to the level of the noble and sagely. Only then do one's former views and understanding become a "view-ground."

Views, ideas, and opinions that have not been verified can only be called views, intellectual understanding, or personal opinions. If you wish to verify that your views and understanding are correct, you must cultivate precepts, meditative concentration, and wisdom, investigate within samādhi, and personally realize and personally see it for yourself, rather than merely pondering and speculating from afar or making subjective assumptions. Subjective assumptions cannot sever doubt; only what has been personally seen and verified can sever doubt. Only after doubt is severed can liberating wisdom arise, and only then can the body, mind, and world undergo a fundamental transformation, from which point one's level of thought, identity, and position all rise.