Wrong view is when we personalize every experience – and when we personalize the experience, it allows unwholesome qualities to grow in the mind.
So, if you think “I am angry”, it keeps you feeling angry; if you think “I’m hurt”, it keeps you feeling hurt. It is not a skillful quality to help the mind to find peace.
That’s what wrong view does; that’s why right view is important.
Generally, this wrong view is so subtle that that we don’t detect it – it is everywhere because everything is “my” experience. “I” know; “I” am being aware; “I” feel; “I” think; everything is connected to “me”.
If wrong view is unrecognized, it allows the unwholesome qualities to grow – for example, when we’re anxious, we feel more and more anxious when we think that way, “I’m anxious, what shall I do? What do they think of me?” These thoughts feed the personalizing of what is happening, it feeds the unwholesome; likewise, when we’re angry and greedy.
The less we can personalize, the less the reaction – for example, if somebody else is angry and it doesn’t have to do with us, we don’t feel too much. If it has to do with you, you’ll react more. The less we identify with the unwholesome, the less the effect it can have on you.
We don’t have to get rid of wrong view; we just need to recognize it and intellectually try to understand right view – that it is just a process; something is happening in the mind and it is a natural process. We are going to use words like “this is the nature of the mind, or this is anger” in place of “I’m angry”. Or, “what does anxiety feel like?” so that we are less identified with them; we’ll try to use them so that we can observe them more neutrally.
For example, when we have pain in the body and we think “I feel so much pain”, it feels more painful; and if we try to use different words like “This is the nature of pain”, it will actually feel less tight and painful.
So, we try to shift our view intellectually, a little bit, and see how it helps us in being aware of what is happening more objectively.