Wrong view, wrong result

If your view is wrong, your meditation will be wrong and the subsequent result will be wrong.

First of all then, we need the right view, otherwise the rest of what we do will only take us in the wrong direction. So how do we get the right view? As it is said, ‘First, establish the view through study and contemplation.’

Many of you probably think that you can do without this step; that you don’t need to study and you will make decent enough progress on the path through your puja practices, mantra recitations and mind calming techniques. This is exactly the type of mistaken view we come to hold when we haven’t studied and learnt the way of the path, when we haven’t followed the correct order: study, contemplation and then meditation, or of combined study and practice, as we are trying to do here.