Ariya: Definitions and Understanding

Abstract

The concept of sustainability was used as a development strategy in most countries since 1980, and this concept became a common language. However, the existing definitions of the concept of sustainability are diverse. There are many criticisms for existing definitions. Therefore, we are introducing a new definition of sustainability: "Letting Ariya Quality Naturally Open". However, it is difficult to properly understand this definition without explaining it's underlying concept on ther term 'Ariya'. The purpose of this paper was to understand the concept of Ariya by understanding the nature of the Ariya and the path to Ariya. To understand the nature of Ariya, we considered five dimensions. Depending on the study's nature, we followed a qualitative methodology and obtained information from electronic literary sources because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic being a limitation to collect data, every effort was made to obtain credible and original data. By achieving the first objective, we understood that Ariya is referred to a Noble nation. Thus, we could conclude that the concept of Ariya is a combination of the noble qualities of a particular culture, knowledge and clan. We also found that the 'Noble Eightfold Path' is the way to understand the path to Ariya. Accordingly, this study was able to confirm that the the 'right-view' should be the first step of achieving the concept of a Noble nation. Further, we propose further research to investigate the results of this study in other ways and to identify the meaning of the term 'right-view'.